Sports Media

The 2017 competition for Ingrate of the Year is now closed; the disgraceful distinction belongs to LaVar Ball. Rather than thank President Donald Trump for his part in keeping his son and two other UCLA basketball players from rotting in a Chinese prison for several years, Ball, when asked by ESPN about Trump's role, shot back "Who?" — and complained that "Everybody wants to make it seem like he…

In a Sports Illustrated "Off the Board" podcast released on Thursday, ESPN's Scott Van Pelt took several cheap shots at the network's critics, in the process demonstrating how horribly out of touch he is with financial realities at his network. Van Pelt aimed particular venom at those who have decided that they didn't need to have cable TV any more when ESPN selected Caitlyn-formerly-Bruce Jenner…

Though the NFL and team owners did zilch to stop pregame protests during the national anthem this season, The Undefeated blog's senior writer Lonnae O'Neal insists politicians, business leaders and NFL leadership have reached "peak freak-out about players tackling racism and police brutality during the national anthem."

President Donald Trump, who as you've heard, is a "white supremacist," went to bat for three Black UCLA basketball players detained in China for shoplifting. They got themselves arrested last week for stealing sunglasses in Hangzou, where their team played a game against Georgia Tech. Thanks to the efforts of this "racist, bigot, xenophobe" president, who spoke up for the Bruins' shoplifters with…

In his blog "The Mike McCarthy and Bill O'Brien Colin Kaepernick Depositions Should Be Amazing," The Big Lead's Stephen Douglas proves he is clueless about what constitutes collusion and he is an out and out cheerleader for Kaepernick.

Jay Busbee has been a "writer for Yahoo Sports since 2008" who "has covered the Super Bowl, the Daytona 500, the Masters, the Indianapolis 500, the Kentucky Derby, the Final Four, NBA, NCAA football, and the MLB playoffs." It's hard to believe that someone with this level of experience can actually believe that reported "attendance" at National Football League games represents the number of…

In a Sports Illustrated review of President Trump's interactions with sports figures and organizations in the year since he was elected, 79 percent of the opinionated mentions were negative. Compiled by SI staff members, the report includes 34 examples critical of the president and nine which are favorable. Seven were neutral.

The unease among advertisers over falling National Football League TV ratings is starting to boil over. One of the league's major sponsors is considering pulling the plug on its NFL advertising next year, and, according to Business Insider's Mike Shields, other "brands are threatening to pull ads from NFL coverage if NBC keeps covering players' national-anthem protests." If those ad dollars go…

Last week, Anthony Crupi at AdAge.com was either willfully ignorant or deliberately deceptive when he claimed that the size of the National Football League's TV ratings decline is inconsequential. Crupi also appears to be quite wrong in contending that actual game attendance — not reported attendance, but "turnstile" attendance — during the 2017 season is only barely down compared to last year.

Beware, male athletes. The "toxic masculinity police" and their Orwellian media friends are watching you. And reading your lips. If you're unfamiliar with the term "toxic masculinity," it's what leftists describe as a cultural construct requiring men to be strong, devoid of feelings, mysogynistic and "homophobic." It's the "homophobic" part they seem to focus on most with professional athletes.

Michael Bennett has one fervent imagination and a knack for making news. Last month the Seattle Seahawks' activist/defensive end accused Las Vegas police of racial profiling, and this week he complained that Dallas Cowboys' owner Jerry Jones is treating his players like Dred Scott, the famous 19th-century slave denied his freedom by the U.S. Supreme Court. Compliant media progressives are lapping…

Proving that the l-words liberalism and logic don't go together with left-stream "journalism," The Sporting News' David Steele raves about San Francisco 49ers' owner Jed York as the one voice of reason among NFL leaders on Colin Kaepernick and the protesters. Just one little problem here: York's team is the club that kind of cut Kaepernick and ended his pro career.

In a season best described as one of perpetual "fourth-and-long" for the NFL, the league and its broadcast partners today received more bad news about TV ratings and their ever-thinning pocket books. How the NFL is responding to its second successive season of protest-induced slump is an astounding decision to pursue even more fan-alienating social justice activism!

Firings, layoffs and suspensions are almost the order of the day now at ESPN, which today suspended controversial anchor Jemele Hill for two weeks. Already on thin ice for recently tweeting that President Trump and his supporters are "white supremacists," Hill violated ESPN's social media policy for the second time. Yesterday, after Dallas Cowboys' owner Jerry Jones said he's now requiring his…