Mixing politics and sports

[CaptRenault]

Some dimwits here seem to be confused about why I think it would be a good idea to keep politics out of sports. The reason is simple: because only one side in the political debate, the left, is allowed to express its views within the sports world.

It's fine for athletes and coaches and sports executives, writers, announcers and commentators to express views in support of causes such as Black Lives Matter. There are literally hundreds of examples of such open expressions of support for BLM in the sports world.

But when a lone announcer dares to tweet "All lives matter," he is immediately fired from his long held job.

Sacramento Kings announcer Grant Napear fired after Black Lives Matter backlash

He is ousted by radio station KHTK and resigns from his TV job with the Kings

www.mercurynews.com

So unless and until the sports world learns to tolerate both sides of a debate, then I would prefer to keep politics out of sports.

However, I don't really have any hope of seeing that happen. Just as the left dominates most of the the mainstream media, all of academia, the entertainment industry, the tech industry, big finance and big business, it has increasingly come to dominate the sports world. I'm sick of ignorant, poorly educated jocks and one dimensional announcers constantly lecturing fans about politics.

More and more, I just don't watch American sports like football, basketball and baseball. I find those American sports boring and I get sick not only of the politics but also the showboating performed by dumb overpaid jocks after executing a routine play. I now watch more esoteric European sports like sports car racing, cycling and rugby. I have to pay to do that, but I don't mind because they are sports that I have always liked and the participants and announcers seldom mention politics. It's money well spent.

 

[CaptRenault]

Club Pro Guy has a rational approach to the question of mixing sports and politics:

 

[CaptRenault]

I'm not a tennis fan, though I have to admit that certain players do sometimes get my attention.

But in general, I don't follow the sport and I certainly couldn't care less about their opinions about political questions. Like most pro athletes, tennis players are one-dimensional, uneducated and prone to adopting their opinions about political matters from the mostly woke sports media people who dote on them most of the time.

Even though I am not interested in tennis, I know that Roger Federer is one of the all time greatest players. He has always seemed like a modest, gracious, well-behaved and typically Swiss champion and gentleman--especially for a guy who has won so many titles over such a long time (20 Grand Slam titles and still playing at a championship level at age 39).

Reading this article has reinforced my favorable opinion of him.

Roger Federer Keeps His Politics Quiet | City Journal

Roger Federer understands the value of keeping sports free of divisive politics.

www.city-journal.org

...Activists have tried to entice him into promoting left-wing causes. In 2019, climate crusader Greta Thunberg retweeted a post urging Federer to “wake up now” after environmental protesters stormed a Credit Suisse branch near Lausanne in tennis outfits and swatted some tennis balls. It was a publicity stunt intended to draw attention to his sponsorship deal with the bank, which, they allege, invests in projects that harm the environment.

Federer issued a cordial statement saying that he had a “great deal of respect and admiration” for the youth climate movement inspired by Thunberg. I was pleased to see that he didn’t cave to the mob and cut ties with Credit Suisse. But some tennis writers apparently don’t agree: the first question Federer got at the 2020 Australian Open was about the “climate crisis” and “how tennis players can help stopping it.”

“This one’s whooof, I don’t know,” Federer began. “It could be any kind of answer to be honest. What can we do about it? Not that much to be honest...”

...Timeless greats like Roger Federer understand the beauty of sports as a unifying distraction from the troubles of the world. Perhaps he can help save the planet when he retires; for now, there are still passing shots to be made.

 

[Sol Tee Nutz]

For a second there I thought she was missing half of her left arm

 

[thegreatwalooo]

For a second there I thought she was missing half of her left arm

Dude, I thought the same thing, I just didn't want to mention it. lol.

 

[Patron]

Barkley always has something useful to say.

I wish he would be consulted more often.

Charles Barkley on anti-Semitic slur from Heat’s Meyers Leonard: ‘He said something that was really stupid’

Six months after Meyers Leonard appeared on TNT’s “Inside The NBA” in an emotional Sept. 11 appearance to reflect on his brother’s military service, the Miami Heat center was chastised by the show’s cast for the anti-Semitic slur he uttered this week while livestreaming video-game play. “I like...

www.yahoo.com

“We live in a society today,” Barkley said, “they call it the cancel culture, when everybody says something stupid or dumb, we want to end their life. I’m not a big believer in that.”

 

[EagerBeaver]

An incensed reaction at the mixing of politics and sports at a girl's high school basketball game produced a racist slur heard on a hot microphone, which was excused based on diabetes/blood sugar issues:

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www.washingtonpost.com

I was just curious if any of the members who have diabetes and whose blood sugar levels can get out of whack find themselves uttering racial slurs when it does?

 

[Patron]

Pretty interesting essay. Not sure how many ORU haters there really are, though.

No, Oral Roberts University basketball doesn't deserve to be canceled from NCAA Sweet 16

Oral Roberts University’s Cinderella story need not be another battle in the culture wars.

www.yahoo.com

 

[EagerBeaver]

I saw ORU's first round upset of Ohio State. Strictly from a basketball standpoint, ORU is very good. ORU has a point guard named Absam who led the nation in scoring, and a really good big man, and they were the 2 best players on the Court against Ohio State. Absam and the big man can play with ANYONE and on any team. Absam is a bit small (6'1'"), but has unlimited range on his 3 point shot and a very impressive mid range shot which he can step back on and hit when fading away from his defender. This is a necessary skill for a smaller guard.

As a sports fan, I never factor politics into who I root for or against. What I am a fan of is good basketball, and I do not care who happens to be playing it if good basketball is being played. For example, I am not a fan of Syracuse and rooted against them many times when they played my UConn Huskies as Big East adversaries for many years. But when I watched Syracuse last week, I realized that there is a reason they are in the Sweet 16 and UConn isn't. Syracuse has a bunch of perimeter players who can really shoot, and they are playing great, unselfish team offense. The Cuse also play a zone defense that tends to confuse teams, causes them to get frustrated when they can't execute against it and the result is they jack up bad shots from way outside as the shot clock winds down. I was so impressed with how well Syracuse played in the 1st 2 rounds that I will be rooting for them against Kelvin Sampson and Houston, another former UConn foe in the AAC when UConn played in that league. Houston to me is a hard team to root for because of their style of play, which tends to be grinding and physical, yet it is and has been highly effective and Sampson has been a great coach everywhere he has coached. Houston is a 3 seed and Syracuse an 11, although I think the Cuse is playing quite a bit better than their seeding. That is the game I am most looking forward to this weekend because of the contrasting styles and how well Syracuse is playing.

 

[CaptRenault]

Megan Rapinhoe is an incredible athlete of the non-male gender variety. In 2017 she led the U.S. women's World Cup team in their epic match against a Dallas TX all-star team of 15-and-under boys. Incredibly Megan and her team almost won the game! That was a huge disappointment but the girls did go on to win the women's World Cup so that provided some consolation.

Anyway, President Trump invited the team to visit the White House, but Megan was still sulking over the team's loss to the team of local Dallas teenage boys so she chose not to take up the president's offer. Hmm, seems like a sore loser to me but whatever.

Anyway, it seems like Megan finally got over the loss to a team of 15 year old boys and she finally got to visit the White House last week. Here's a report about Megan's White House visit. (I think she visited a new hair stylist and something went terribly wrong, which is why she looks so weird in this video.)

 

[Fradi]

Megan is a fabulous soccer player, but a conceited full of herself bitch at the same time.
She should stick to playing soccer.

Unfortunately the best female soccer teams in the world are still no match for an average under 18 boys team, we are not equal in all things and never will be, and the saying anything you can do I can do better does not apply when it comes to most sports, there are some like synchronized swimming where they definitely have the edge lol.

 

[thegreatwalooo]

Major League Baseball is moving the all star game in response to Georgia's voting law:

MLB moves All-Star Game over Ga. voting law

Major League Baseball is moving the 2021 All-Star Game and 2021 draft out of Atlanta in response to a new Georgia voting law that critics say unfairly limits access to the ballot box, especially for people of color.

www.espn.com

 

[Like_It_Hot]

Ya sure! It is well known that they are all leftist according to some posters on the board.

 

[Valcazar]

Ya sure! It is well known that they are all leftist according to some posters on the board.

Fidel Castro liked baseball. So baseball must be Communist.

 

[Sol Tee Nutz]

^^^^^^^ Just a question, do you moonlight as a Facebook fact checker, your rebuttals are amazing, keep up the great work.