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The GOP Sports Pipeline · State of Play

0:01
SPEAKER_00: It's shut up and dribble the new.
0:03
SPEAKER_00: You'd be prettier if you smiled more.
0:05
SPEAKER_00: It's stay to play.
0:11
SPEAKER_00: Alright, alright, alright.
0:13
SPEAKER_00: Welcome to Stay to Play, the podcast at the intersection of sports, politics, and pop culture.
0:19
SPEAKER_00: I'm your host, Vince, uh rolling solo dolo today.
0:24
SPEAKER_00: It's been a hell of a week in sports.
0:26
SPEAKER_00: Hell of a week.
0:27
SPEAKER_00: But it's always a hell of a week, isn't it?
0:29
SPEAKER_00: So let's give a rundown of what's been happening.
0:31
SPEAKER_00: It's the WNBA finals.
0:33
SPEAKER_00: Uh and as usual, the WNBA is mired and controversy.
0:38
SPEAKER_00: But this time I think it's missing a little bit of backstory.
0:41
SPEAKER_00: The Atlanta Dream and the Golden State Valkyries.
0:44
SPEAKER_00: You know, they head to the locker room before the anthem.
0:47
SPEAKER_00: Uh, and people are acting like they just started this yesterday.
0:50
SPEAKER_00: But this has been a routine for the entire league since about 2017.
0:55
SPEAKER_00: But why let context get in the way of being mad, right?
0:58
SPEAKER_00: Am I right?
0:59
SPEAKER_00: Alright, next, sports owners are dropping series bands.
1:03
SPEAKER_00: I'm talking bands on the midterms.
1:06
SPEAKER_00: We're talking at least$100 million.
1:08
SPEAKER_00: Almost all backing Republicans, with Mavericks owner Miriam Adelson.
1:13
SPEAKER_00: Adelson putting up at least$67 million on herself.
1:18
SPEAKER_00: And this is why the players need to speak to this is why I think the players need to stick to sports argument is some bullshit.
1:27
SPEAKER_00: Next, the fight over college sports just got a little bit more dicey in Washington.
1:33
SPEAKER_00: Here's what's happening there.
1:34
SPEAKER_00: Republican um Senate staffer basically told the SEC to get behind the protect college sports bill before the midterms because you might not like the next version even less.
1:48
SPEAKER_00: So what's got them worried?
1:50
SPEAKER_00: The Democrats potentially giving athletes employee status and the right to bargain together over pay and working conditions.
1:58
SPEAKER_00: Terrifying.
1:59
SPEAKER_00: I know.
2:00
SPEAKER_00: Next, Todd Gurley, as some of you saw, pulled up with Trump and T.O.
2:06
SPEAKER_00: had some questions.
2:07
SPEAKER_00: So Todd Gurley wrote on Air Force One and joined Trump at a Georgia campaign rally, and then went on the Terrell Oman's and Chris Spencer's podcast, respectfully, and got fried, respectfully.
2:22
SPEAKER_00: So T.O.
2:23
SPEAKER_00: pressed him on what that appearance meant, um, and especially to the black community, and telling them that you might be there for the plane ride, but the campaign is there for you to co-sign.
2:38
SPEAKER_00: So Todd Gurley says he went on there just to for the experience of riding on Air Force One.
2:44
SPEAKER_00: I can kind of understand that to be honest.
2:47
SPEAKER_00: But not in this case.
2:48
SPEAKER_00: He's got plenty of chances.
2:50
SPEAKER_00: Plenty of chances.
2:52
SPEAKER_00: Uh, and he sounded like he did not know at all what what he was doing.
2:59
SPEAKER_00: It looked like he had lost some brain cells.
3:00
SPEAKER_00: I I love, you know, Todd, Todd, Todd.
3:03
SPEAKER_00: I mean, he was supposed to be a guy.
3:06
SPEAKER_00: He's a guy for a couple of years, um, playing for the Rams.
3:10
SPEAKER_00: But uh, you know, looks like that lack of brain cells resulted in him flying on Air Force One with President Trump and becoming a photo op for the president.
3:21
SPEAKER_00: And Terrell Owens, by the way, very astute arguments he was making.
3:28
SPEAKER_00: And he's uh he he seems to be very in tune and and and very well spoken.
3:34
SPEAKER_00: Good job with that pod.
3:37
SPEAKER_00: And lastly, there are some familiar faces in the sports industry that want your vote now.
3:42
SPEAKER_00: It's voting season, right?
3:44
SPEAKER_00: Elections coming up.
3:45
SPEAKER_00: So Jay Philly, Mark DeShera, and Michelle Tefoya are all running for Congress as Republicans.
3:51
SPEAKER_00: All three are Trumpers, and it looks like they are basically, if they are elected, going to rubber stamp everything the president wants.
4:01
SPEAKER_00: Okay, those are a few things.
4:02
SPEAKER_00: But let's go back to the WNBA for a second.
4:05
SPEAKER_00: So, did you guys know that there's a WNBA finals?
4:08
SPEAKER_00: If you're a casual, if you're a casual fan, I I would think that you might know, but it's somehow just sort of mentioned in the background.
4:18
SPEAKER_00: If you're a a fan, then you seek out these games and you have to watch them, and you and you do watch them because you want to, is what I mean.
4:25
SPEAKER_00: But it seems like I do a lot more effort.
4:28
SPEAKER_00: Takes a lot more effort to find these games, watch these games, get news on these games.
4:32
SPEAKER_00: The dream and the Valkyries are tied three to three, and literally nobody's talking about it.
4:39
SPEAKER_00: Nobody.
4:40
SPEAKER_00: Not even the worldwide leader, quote, I'm making air quotes.
4:44
SPEAKER_00: Why?
4:45
SPEAKER_00: Is it the the the controversy over the uh national anthems?
4:50
SPEAKER_00: National anthem, is it the other sort of like controversies that seem to be all mired in culture war issues?
5:00
SPEAKER_00: Like what what is it?
5:02
SPEAKER_00: No, I I can't is it Angel Reese?
5:06
SPEAKER_00: Is it Angel Reese?
5:07
SPEAKER_00: Is it Angel Reese without Caitlin Clark?
5:10
SPEAKER_00: Because I can't help but think if this was Caitlin Clark in the finals, who I do support, I support all the women in the WNBA, including Caitlin Clark and Sophie Cunningham, despite their stuff they be they be saying.
5:28
SPEAKER_00: Um I can't help but think if it was Caitlin Clark in the WNBA finals, that this thing would be all the rage.
5:36
SPEAKER_00: It would be the only thing people are talking about, despite having all of the bait all of the big sports uh going right now simultaneously.
5:46
SPEAKER_00: Maybe that's part of the deal.
5:47
SPEAKER_00: You have the the World Series happening right now.
5:50
SPEAKER_00: You got football, the NFL is just uh a behemoth.
5:55
SPEAKER_00: It it really takes up all the oxygen in the room, right?
5:59
SPEAKER_00: And then you have the start of the NBA, which was basically in its first week.
6:04
SPEAKER_00: First 10 days or so.
6:06
SPEAKER_00: So maybe that's a factor, but it it feels like no one's talking about it.
6:11
SPEAKER_00: The WNBA and the WA NBA finals.
6:14
SPEAKER_00: And I'm just I haven't done a deep dive into this.
6:16
SPEAKER_00: I'm just wondering what the deal is.
6:18
SPEAKER_00: I think ESPN, uh especially like first take, which I allegedly I don't watch first take, I haven't watched it in years, um, have have they didn't talk about it at all over like the first three or four games.
6:33
SPEAKER_00: And then they got called out, and and then all of a sudden it became an issue that they were talking about all of a sudden.
6:39
SPEAKER_00: And then on top of that, the game six was moved to an afternoon, a 1230 start, which a lot of people could not, you know, commit to watching because people have jobs and they gotta, you know, go to work.
6:56
SPEAKER_00: So not a lot of people, uh, in comparison to the evening games could go and watch the 1230 game, which was moved, I guess, because of uh uh um Atlanta Hawks game.
7:10
SPEAKER_00: So the Atlanta Hawks got to play their game, but they moved the other game.
7:16
SPEAKER_00: I I understand kind of.
7:17
SPEAKER_00: I mean, which one brings in the most money, which one sells the most tickets?
7:23
SPEAKER_00: But it's a little disrespectful, in my opinion, to move a game, uh an NBA, a WNBA finals game for a basic regular season game.
7:35
SPEAKER_00: It's a little weird to me.
7:37
SPEAKER_00: But be that as it may, I'm still wondering, I'm perplexed at what is going on with the lack of WNBA finals coverage.
7:45
SPEAKER_00: Is it because I mean, arguably, you don't also don't have Asia Wilson.
7:51
SPEAKER_00: You don't have, you know, any other megastars or any other stars besides Angel Reese, and maybe that's a thing.
7:59
SPEAKER_00: So I I I I don't know what it is.
8:01
SPEAKER_00: It's it's a little bit perplexing to me, and I'm just maybe we'll talk about it, we'll figure it out over the next couple of weeks, but I I guarantee it's gonna be looked at by somebody.
8:09
SPEAKER_00: Somebody's gonna look at it, right?
8:12
SPEAKER_00: I mean, imagine.
8:13
SPEAKER_00: Imagine with me that it's the NBA finals and the league goes, hey, y'all gotta play this game, but y'all gotta wrap it up by lunch.
8:21
SPEAKER_00: We got things to do in this arena.
8:24
SPEAKER_00: That would never, never happen.
8:26
SPEAKER_00: It would never happen in a million years.
8:29
SPEAKER_00: So the WNBA is being treated like a side hustle, once again, even though they got record-breaking like ratings.
8:36
SPEAKER_00: I think the first game got 2.1 million viewers, right?
8:43
SPEAKER_00: I think game four almost had just as many viewers, if not the exact same amount.
8:49
SPEAKER_00: So they're getting recon record-breaking viewership, but it's still being treated like a side hustle.
8:55
SPEAKER_00: Nevertheless, game seven happens Saturday night, Halloween night, and I am betting, if I'm a betting man, which I am not, I bet that the ratings will be through the roof.
9:11
SPEAKER_00: So, please go and support WNBA.
9:14
SPEAKER_00: Let's uh let's see how many layups Angel Reese misses and and rebounds she gets based on those.
9:23
SPEAKER_00: I kid.
9:24
SPEAKER_00: Go watch it.
9:25
SPEAKER_00: But let's move on to our next discussion.
9:27
SPEAKER_00: Hey, you guys gonna vote?
9:30
SPEAKER_00: It's voting season.
9:31
SPEAKER_00: On game days, you show up loud, you show up early, you show up in snowstorms and heat waves just for us.
9:38
SPEAKER_00: But only 66% of voters showed up to the 2020 election.
9:42
SPEAKER_00: Which is why this election, we need everyone to make their voice heard.
9:46
SPEAKER_00: Whether you're in New York, Arizona, Miami, yeah, even Dallas.
9:51
SPEAKER_00: Now, it's time to show up for our country.
9:54
SPEAKER_00: And all we have to do is vote.
9:56
SPEAKER_00: That was former NFL players doing their usual annual bit where they get together and do a montage of showing their faces on video and telling you to go vote.
10:09
SPEAKER_00: And I'm into it.
10:11
SPEAKER_00: I love it.
10:12
SPEAKER_00: Any anything and everything, man.
10:14
SPEAKER_00: I'm I am a throw spaghetti at the wall and see what sticks kind of guy when it comes to these things because we do need to exercise our vote.
10:22
SPEAKER_00: Only 66% of people showed up to vote.
10:26
SPEAKER_00: Did you know Brazil just had an election?
10:28
SPEAKER_00: Uh, for some of you who are not political junkies like I am, did you know Brazil just had an election?
10:33
SPEAKER_00: Here's one thing interesting about Brazil.
10:35
SPEAKER_00: 100% of the people showed up to vote.
10:41
SPEAKER_00: Oh, here's the caveat.
10:43
SPEAKER_00: It's required by law.
10:44
SPEAKER_00: You have to show up to vote in Brazil, or you go to jail.
10:48
SPEAKER_00: You go to jail.
10:51
SPEAKER_00: But in America, this is freedom.
10:53
SPEAKER_00: This is freedom, Bill, and you can do whatever you want.
10:56
SPEAKER_00: Unfortunately, and fortunately, people sometimes don't want to exercise their right.
11:00
SPEAKER_00: And I I I I get it.
11:02
SPEAKER_00: But 66%.
11:05
SPEAKER_00: Come on.
11:06
SPEAKER_00: Come on.
11:06
SPEAKER_00: You gotta, you, you, you gotta use your voice.
11:09
SPEAKER_00: So show up to vote.
11:10
SPEAKER_00: But here's here's why I show that, right?
11:12
SPEAKER_00: It's voting season, like I said.
11:15
SPEAKER_00: And it's important.
11:16
SPEAKER_00: It's important for everyone to make their voices heard.
11:19
SPEAKER_00: But why am I talking about this specifically?
11:22
SPEAKER_00: So apparently the Republican Party has discovered a new farm system.
11:27
SPEAKER_00: And it's and it and it ain't the minor leagues, it's professional sports.
11:33
SPEAKER_00: Let me explain.
11:34
SPEAKER_00: Because we've got former athletes and sports personalities coming out of retirement, dusting off their old highlight reels and deciding they want to go to Congress.
11:44
SPEAKER_00: And I'm not talking about one or two people, I'm talking about several.
11:48
SPEAKER_00: We got uh NFL kicker Jay Feely running for Congress in Arizona, we got Yankees, uh Mark Tachera running for Congress in Texas, and um who else?
12:00
SPEAKER_00: We got, oh, of course, Michelle Tefoya, the former reporter from ESPN and several other outlets uh running for Congress in Minnesota.
12:09
SPEAKER_00: And what do you know?
12:11
SPEAKER_00: What do they all have in common?
12:12
SPEAKER_00: They're all Republicans.
12:14
SPEAKER_00: Not just Republicans, but MAGA Trumpy Trumper Republicans.
12:20
SPEAKER_00: They're famous because of sports, obviously.
12:23
SPEAKER_00: And they've also received all of Donald Trump's endorsements.
12:27
SPEAKER_00: Apparently, the Road to Washington now runs through ESPN, the worldwide leader.
12:32
SPEAKER_00: Never mind, Stephen A.
12:33
SPEAKER_00: Smith is considering a run.
12:36
SPEAKER_00: Not to harp on that too long, but what do we even think about that?
12:40
SPEAKER_00: The fact that it's even a conversation.
12:42
SPEAKER_00: Oh, by the way, Tony Dungey.
12:44
SPEAKER_00: Coach Tony Dungey, remember him?
12:47
SPEAKER_00: He's looking at running for office.
12:49
SPEAKER_00: Or people uh or at the very least, people are speculating that he's gonna make a run at some point.
12:55
SPEAKER_00: And look, there's nothing wrong with athletes getting involved in politics, right?
12:59
SPEAKER_00: We've seen it, we've seen that plenty of times over the years.
13:02
SPEAKER_00: We had this guy, Bill Bradley, who played for the Knicks and served in the Senate, Jack Kemp.
13:08
SPEAKER_00: He was an NFL quarterback.
13:09
SPEAKER_00: Did you guys know that?
13:10
SPEAKER_00: Jack Kemp was an NFL quarterback before going to Congress, right?
13:15
SPEAKER_00: And we all remember Herschel Walker.
13:18
SPEAKER_00: God bless Herschel Walker with his CTE self.
13:22
SPEAKER_00: God bless him.
13:24
SPEAKER_00: And God bless the state of Georgia, but I digress.
13:28
SPEAKER_00: But there's something, something interesting about this particular group because they aren't just former celebrities and athletes who are running to be, uh who are happening to be running as Republicans.
13:39
SPEAKER_00: They're entering, and this is something I've been talking about for a while now, they're entering politics at a time when the relationship between sports and conservative politics have become an entire industry.
13:54
SPEAKER_00: It is never-ending.
13:56
SPEAKER_00: It is something that we see all the time at this point.
13:59
SPEAKER_00: Again, the argument that sports and politics should be separated seemed to be at the time I want my politics and sports separated because they don't appeal to my uh political sensibilities, so so to speak.
14:17
SPEAKER_00: And you gotta admit, Trump's something something that Trump understands.
14:22
SPEAKER_00: Trump understands something about sports that a lot of politicians don't.
14:26
SPEAKER_00: Sports give you a built-in audience, the same way the church does.
14:31
SPEAKER_00: Right?
14:33
SPEAKER_00: You don't have to spend six months introducing yourself.
14:36
SPEAKER_00: People already know your name if you're an athlete.
14:38
SPEAKER_00: They've watched you on television, they've cheered for you, they have bought your jersey.
14:43
SPEAKER_00: Hell, some of them have even defended you in arguments with complete strangers all over the internet.
14:50
SPEAKER_00: This is what sports does.
14:52
SPEAKER_00: So you have a built-in audience as an athlete or as a sports personality.
14:59
SPEAKER_00: Uh there's a pretty good head start when you are trying to win an election.
15:04
SPEAKER_00: That's a pretty good head start, right?
15:05
SPEAKER_00: So let's start with Jay Philly.
15:07
SPEAKER_00: Philly spent years kicking field goals in the NFL, and now he's running for Congress in Arizona.
15:14
SPEAKER_00: And he's been pretty open about supporting Trump.
15:17
SPEAKER_00: He's talked about wanting to turn Trump's executive actions into permanent law.
15:23
SPEAKER_00: Again, he'd go to Washington and become a rubber stamp.
15:27
SPEAKER_00: Which is pr which is a pretty uh damn dramatic career change.
15:34
SPEAKER_00: One minute you're trying to put three points on the board, and the next minute you're trying to change federal law.
15:41
SPEAKER_00: Went from changing scores to changing federal law.
15:43
SPEAKER_00: That was a bad joke, but I don't like that one.
15:45
SPEAKER_00: Maybe I'll delete it.
15:47
SPEAKER_00: I can't wait for the memes though when he loses, and it's just him kicking a field goal that misses.
15:53
SPEAKER_00: Him missing field goals and then missing this election.
15:56
SPEAKER_00: Something like that.
15:57
SPEAKER_00: I don't know.
15:59
SPEAKER_00: It's gonna be hilarious if he loses, though.
16:02
SPEAKER_00: Even if he wins, you gotta admit it's gonna be kind of gold.
16:06
SPEAKER_00: You you you can have uh endless memes of him missing the extra point and making that a metaphor.
16:13
SPEAKER_00: Anyway, there's also um Mark DeSera, three-time All-Star World Series champion, one of the better switch hitters of this generation, of the last generation, whatever you want to call it.
16:24
SPEAKER_00: I'm not a baseball guy, but there are certain names that you know in all of sports, right?
16:32
SPEAKER_00: He's one of them.
16:33
SPEAKER_00: I don't watch baseball, I don't watch hockey very much, but I know who Angoretsky is, right?
16:38
SPEAKER_00: So Mark Teshera, World Series champion, running for Congress in Texas.
16:43
SPEAKER_00: I'm a Rich I'm a I am a I'm a Texan.
16:48
SPEAKER_00: And so, you know, that name has been floated around for many generations here.
16:54
SPEAKER_00: Trump endorsed him, and Teshera has been campaigning and on issues like immigration and government spending and gun rights in Texas.
17:05
SPEAKER_00: And that's just right, but it's still weird to see like a guy you remember hitting or seeing hit home runs on top, you know, Sports Center top ten, all of a sudden talking about federal legislation.
17:16
SPEAKER_00: And then there is Michelle Tafoya, I'd argue, who gets the most sort of attention right now.
17:22
SPEAKER_00: She gets the most attention.
17:25
SPEAKER_00: Now she's a little different because she wasn't an athlete, obviously, but she was a sideline reporter and a pretty good one.
17:30
SPEAKER_00: Damn good one, right?
17:32
SPEAKER_00: She spent years covering some of the biggest games in football, and now she's running for Senate in Minnesota.
17:38
SPEAKER_00: Unlike Feely, unlike Feely, though, Tefoya has like she hasn't been completely, if I'm being honest, completely on board.
17:46
SPEAKER_00: Uh she had some pretty uh, I wouldn't say controversial things to say about uh ICE, for instance.
17:53
SPEAKER_00: Um, you know, but there's still that that thing, right?
17:59
SPEAKER_00: Where you know it's a little bit disingenuous.
18:02
SPEAKER_00: She's just saying what it takes to get elected, like every politician.
18:06
SPEAKER_00: She's saying what it takes to get elected by distancing herself from Trump in Minnesota, especially considering all the susp all the stuff that's been happening with ICE there.
18:14
SPEAKER_00: Um, so you know, she's trying to play the Maverick role a little bit more than the other two, I'd say.
18:22
SPEAKER_00: She actually urged Trump not to run back in 2024, but even then, even so, Trump has come back and since endorsed her campaign, which tells you something about how political alliances work, right?
18:35
SPEAKER_00: One day you're questioning whether somebody should run for president, and then the next, you know, a couple of years later, they're endorsing you for your Senate run.
18:43
SPEAKER_00: But that's politics.
18:45
SPEAKER_00: That's what it is.
18:47
SPEAKER_00: Trump is making obvious an obvious calculation that we need to win at all costs, and you haven't to be the candidates there, so I'm going to support you.
18:56
SPEAKER_00: But he's gonna, you know, if she wins, there'll be a there'll be a loyalty test.
19:04
SPEAKER_00: That was my best uh Italian mobster um my Italian mobster impression.
19:11
SPEAKER_00: That was not good.
19:13
SPEAKER_00: But again, this is nothing new.
19:16
SPEAKER_00: Political campaigns have always recruited celebrities and business leaders and recognizable figures.
19:20
SPEAKER_00: Remember Jesse Sentiera, it's nothing new, right?
19:25
SPEAKER_00: Well interesting, what's interesting is how much the sports world has become a part of the process, it is ingrained, it is everyday, it is blended in at this point, and that's the point, right?
19:39
SPEAKER_00: Because you know the phrase I'm real tired of hearing is keep politics out of sports.
19:46
SPEAKER_00: Hear it all the time.
19:48
SPEAKER_00: Every time an athlete says something about an election or policies or uh police brutality or some social issue, somebody pops up on the screen, just shut up and play.
20:00
SPEAKER_00: We want sports to escape politics.
20:04
SPEAKER_00: Stop making everything political.
20:07
SPEAKER_00: Alright, cool.
20:08
SPEAKER_00: Cool, right?
20:10
SPEAKER_00: I can appreciate that argument if it was an argument, if it was a uh uh like a good faith argument that you were trying to make.
20:19
SPEAKER_00: But apparently there is an exception because now we've got former athletes and personalities running for Congress.
20:27
SPEAKER_00: A whole bunch of them.
20:29
SPEAKER_00: Republicans.
20:29
SPEAKER_00: Again, all Republicans.
20:32
SPEAKER_00: The ones I mentioned all decided to get Trump's endorsement.
20:36
SPEAKER_00: So wait a minute.
20:38
SPEAKER_00: I thought we were keeping politics out of sports.
20:41
SPEAKER_00: Now we're taking people directly from sports and we're putting them in politics.
20:49
SPEAKER_00: Somebody explain the rules to me because I'm starting to think that this whole keep politics out of sports thing has more exceptions than the NFL roughing to pass a rule.
21:03
SPEAKER_00: Apparently, these uh these athletes and people who are supposed to shut up in dribble.
21:09
SPEAKER_00: You're supposed to shut up in dribble unless you're running for Congress.
21:12
SPEAKER_00: And then suddenly everybody wants to hear your opinions on the national debt or immigration.
21:20
SPEAKER_00: It's like the political version of the transfer portal.
21:24
SPEAKER_00: It's like one minute you're in ESPN and then the next minute you're on C SPAN, except the same arguments, but the camera angles are worse.
21:32
SPEAKER_00: And look, I'm not I'm not saying athletes shouldn't run for office.
21:37
SPEAKER_00: If you're a good one, if you're a good astute politician, or someone who can who's well spoken with good arguments and good policies, hell.
21:46
SPEAKER_00: If you can survive NFL in the NFL locker room, I've never been in the NFL locker room, I've been in plenty of locker rooms, and if you can survive that, I would I would g gather that you can probably survive a congressional committee hearing.
22:00
SPEAKER_00: It's like the same thing.
22:04
SPEAKER_00: Right?
22:06
SPEAKER_00: Although, to be fair, at least the NFL players have to pass a physical.
22:12
SPEAKER_00: In the Senate, if they all had to take a physical, there'd be no Senate.
22:18
SPEAKER_00: Sports and politics have always been connected, is what I'm also trying to get at.
22:22
SPEAKER_00: Muhammad Ali, Bill Russell, Bill Bradley, Jack Kemp.
22:25
SPEAKER_00: I can go on and on and on and on and on.
22:28
SPEAKER_00: Allies have always been involved in politics and social movements, and you know, they've been public figures in the sort of cross-section between these genres for multiple generations.
22:43
SPEAKER_00: It's not exclusive to a party.
22:45
SPEAKER_00: But some somewhere along the way, that keep politics out of sports, argument became a popular response whenever an athlete said something that people didn't want to hear.
22:58
SPEAKER_00: Calling it like it is.
23:00
SPEAKER_00: Colin Kapanick takes a knee.
23:02
SPEAKER_00: Keep politics out of sports.
23:04
SPEAKER_00: Oh no! LeBron talks about social issues.
23:09
SPEAKER_00: Shut up and dribble.
23:11
SPEAKER_00: But a former athlete decided to run for Congress as a Republican.
23:15
SPEAKER_00: Remember that part.
23:17
SPEAKER_00: Run as a Republican.
23:21
SPEAKER_00: And now we're printing campaigns.
23:24
SPEAKER_00: We're printing campaign signs with footballs all over them.
23:30
SPEAKER_00: Now it's not a problem.
23:32
SPEAKER_00: Now you want, you know, all these athletes appear with Trump at his rallies, and all of a sudden.
23:38
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I can respect this.
23:42
SPEAKER_00: Because there's a difference between someone saying, you know, I don't want to hear political commentary during a basketball game and saying athletes shouldn't participate in politics at all.
23:52
SPEAKER_00: Those two different two very different arguments, right?
23:57
SPEAKER_00: But the lines are blurred, is what I'm saying.
24:00
SPEAKER_00: One is about people wanting to experience sports, the other is about whether athletes get to have a public voice at all.
24:08
SPEAKER_00: As long as you agree with me.
24:11
SPEAKER_00: And if your position is that athletes should stay out of politics, well that's that's a principle that ought to apply where they're taking whether they're taking a knee or taking campaign donations.
24:23
SPEAKER_00: That's where I'm at.
24:28
SPEAKER_00: You can't have a political no-fly zone over the 50-yard line and then build a congressional recruiting office in the end zone.
24:36
SPEAKER_00: That's what I'm saying.
24:38
SPEAKER_00: I mean, what what are we doing?
24:41
SPEAKER_00: We've got politicians showing up at sporting events, athletes appearing at campaign rallies, team owners donating millions of dollars to campaigns, political advertisements during football games, and nobody says a word.
24:57
SPEAKER_00: But as soon as WNBA players, or you find out WNBA players, have traditionally, for a long time now, not been coming out during the national anthem, it becomes a big thing.
25:09
SPEAKER_00: All of a sudden, the shut up and dribble arguments come right back into frame.
25:16
SPEAKER_00: At this point, I'd say politics isn't just in sports.
25:19
SPEAKER_00: Politics is is sports.
25:23
SPEAKER_00: Politics has a name and it has a luxury suite, a parking pass, and naming rights to the stadium.
25:30
SPEAKER_00: It's probably charging$19 for a beer.
25:33
SPEAKER_00: But the really funny part, the really funny part is is uh is how people define what's political.
25:41
SPEAKER_00: A player kneeling at the national anthem, political.
25:44
SPEAKER_00: Player endorsing presidential candidate, also political.
25:48
SPEAKER_00: Former athlete running for Congress?
25:50
SPEAKER_00: Definitely not.
25:51
SPEAKER_00: Definitely not.
25:52
SPEAKER_00: Doning donating millions of dollars behind the scenes secretly to Republican candidates?
25:58
SPEAKER_00: Definitely not.
26:00
SPEAKER_00: Not a thing, not a problem.
26:04
SPEAKER_00: The hypocrisy is palpable.
26:06
SPEAKER_00: All I'm saying is that you guys, and by you guys I mean that in a general sense, have something negative to say the moment an athlete stands up for a social issue.
26:19
SPEAKER_00: The moment you're confronted, the moment our country has to look at itself in the mirror, the moment it makes you uncomfortable, the moment it challenges your sensibilities, someone yells, shut up and dribble.
26:35
SPEAKER_00: And you go, Yeah, yeah, that's right, shut up and dribble.
26:40
SPEAKER_00: That's not keeping politics out of sports, that's deciding which kind of politics you're comfortable seeing.
26:46
SPEAKER_00: And hey, maybe that's what people really mean.
26:49
SPEAKER_00: Maybe keep it out of politics is just shorthand for keep polit keep the politics I disagree with out of sports.
26:57
SPEAKER_00: Which at least would be more be a more interesting conversation to have.
27:03
SPEAKER_00: But until that happens, I'm gonna need somebody to publish an official rule book.
27:07
SPEAKER_00: A rule book on how this all works because there aren't any rules.
27:12
SPEAKER_00: Because right now there's a field goal kicker out there with delusions of self-importance.
27:17
SPEAKER_00: He's staring himself in the mirror every morning and saying, I got this.
27:22
SPEAKER_00: He's saying to himself, I was one of the most important people on the team.
27:26
SPEAKER_00: Now I can be one of the most important people in America.
27:31
SPEAKER_00: I'm here for all of it.
27:32
SPEAKER_00: I'm here for all of it.
27:34
SPEAKER_00: It's fun.
27:36
SPEAKER_00: It's funny, it's interesting, right?
27:38
SPEAKER_00: Just like this podcast.
27:40
SPEAKER_00: It's fun, it's funny, it's interesting.
27:42
SPEAKER_00: And that's why I hope you tune in.
27:45
SPEAKER_00: And I want to thank you for joining us because without you, we are nothing.
27:50
SPEAKER_00: We're nothing.
27:52
SPEAKER_00: So thank you for joining us on stay to play.
27:56
SPEAKER_00: If you enjoyed this conversation, conversation with myself today, please share it with others.
28:02
SPEAKER_00: And we'll see you next time on stay to play.