USA Today sports writers/social justice warriors live for days like Wednesday. With multiple stories dedicated to social justice, Colin Kaepernick, racist team nicknames, anti-police hit pieces and the like, this left-stream publication's sports page is nothing more than a politicized, left-wing gripe publication.
Christine Brennan (in photo) and Paul Myerberg each filed a love connection story glorifying Colin Kaepernick. The mesmerized Brennan imagined ...
"Oh, what might have been. If only the NFL had Kaepernick now, to harness his peaceful message, his grace, his power; to proudly share him with the sports world and American communities at this terrible time. What a message it would have sent the day he signed, and what a message it would be sending today.
"Instead, owners and GMs and coaches retreated into their own timid, mostly-white and very privileged world, refusing to bring Kaepernick back into the league and utterly failing in their role as examples for the nation."
Recent events now prove NFL owners "made a monumental error." The NFL should have known what it had in Kaepernick at many stages of "this unfortunate saga" and could have partnered long ago "with this prescient man of peace. Instead, its teams now tweet out blackness, proud of themselves for the message they are sending, clearly knowing that if there’s football in the fall, the protests that Kaepernick started will come again, and they will be massive."
Myerberg featured NFL linebacker Brandon Marshall, friend and former college teammate of Kaepernick's who kneeled during the Star Spangled Banner in 2016. Marshall speaks of Kaepernick-the-sage being ahead of his time:
"I think people are looking at [Kaepernick] now like, 'OK, maybe he knew.' People didn't want to hear the message after, 'Oh, they were kneeling.' They didn't want that message, weren't ready for it, didn't listen.
"I hope, and I look at it, I hope people are ready for the message. I really hope they're ready for change."
Scott Gleeson contributed two stories for this politi-sports section. He featured U.S. Olympic hammer thrower Gwen Berry, who has demanded a public apology from the United States Olympic and Paralympic Committee for punishment she received after taking a knee in international competition. In a separate story, Gleeson veered off-topic to feature Cong. Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez and others condemning the Washington Redskins for their so-called racist nickname.
Berry disgraced America last year at the Pan Am Games. After winning gold in the hammer throw, she kneeled during the national anthem. She and U.S. fencer Race Imboden, who also protested on the victory stand, got hit with one-year probations. She now says the Olympic Committee's Twitter reaction to the George Floyd killing retroactively justifies her bad behavior from 2019:
"Now I feel like everyone feels how I felt," Berry says.
On another front, Gleeson sideswipes the Redskins, one of several pro sports teams participating in Tuesday's "Blackout Tuesday" social media campaign to protest racial injustice. He writes the NFL franchise's team name has been criticized as racist to Native Americans. "That meant Tuesday's tweet on the team page prompted a backlash, with many responses calling for the team to change its name and criticizing the franchise for being hypocritical."
One of the team's critics was Rep. Ocasio-Cortez:
Not finished yet, USA Today also printed a letter co-signed by NBA coaches Steve Kerr and Gregg Popovich, former NFL player Anquan Boldin, the New Orleans Saints' Demario Davis and baseball player Andrew McCutchen. They make demands in their letter to hold police accountable for black deaths starting right now.
Social Justice Matters on the USA Today sports staff -- in a huge way.
