Tag: sports

ESPN Doubles Down on Making CFP About Race

On Thursday night, Notre Dame eked out a 27-24 win over Penn State in the Orange Bowl, setting the Fighting Irish up to attempt to claim their first national title since 1988. The team was led by its head coach, Marcus Freeman, who has become quite a superstar in the college football world lately. He’s a class act and comes across as a pretty decent human in general, something even his opponents recognize (heck, he’s the reason my Georgia Bulldogs aren’t in the playoffs), and he’s obviously a great coach. The entire nation has celebrated Freeman for both of these accomplishments. 

Well, the entire nation except ESPN. All the sports network seems to see is his race. 

Ever since it was determined that Freeman or Penn State head coach James Franklin would be one of the two coaches in the championship game, ESPN has been beside itself, breathlessly reporting about this idea of “making history.” For the first time, a black man would coach a team in the College Football Playoff National Championship. 

Fair enough. As I reported last month, it is historically significant, but it shouldn’t overshadow the accomplishments this man has achieved as an individual. But ESPN just won’t give it up. As soon as Notre Dame got the win last night, the network’s sideline reporter Molly McGrath interviewed Freeman and led with this question: “…you are the first black head coach to go to a national championship game in college football… how much does this mean to you?”  

Freeman, who has already addressed this topic and seemed to think it was important but not as important as the sports media wants to make it, took some time to respond before saying, “I’ve said this before — I don’t ever want to take attention away from the team. It is an honor, and I hope all coaches, minorities, black, Asian, white — it doesn’t matter — great people continue to get opportunities to lead young men like this. But this ain’t about me. This is about us. And we’re gonna celebrate what we’ve done because it’s something special.”

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Novak Djokovic claims he was ‘poisoned’ during COVID detention before Australian Open

Novak Djokovic has said he was “poisoned” by the food he ingested while detained during his 2022 Australian Open visa saga, the former world number one told GQ in an interview released on Thursday.

The Serbian 24-times major winner had his visa cancelled ahead of the tournament following days of drama over Australia’s COVID-19 entry rules and his unvaccinated status, and was detained in a Melbourne hotel shared with asylum-seekers.

He was initially granted a visa exemption but it was revoked by the Australian Border Force, which led to the Serbian star being held in hotel detention.

“I realised that in that hotel in Melbourne, I was fed with some food that poisoned me,” Djokovic told GQ.

“I had some discoveries when I came back to Serbia. I never told this to anybody publicly, but discoveries that I was, I had a really high level of heavy metal. Heavy metal.

“I had the lead, very high level of lead and mercury.”

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Biden Withdraws Title IX Plan, Marking Ignominious End To Catherine Lhamon’s Stint At DOE

This past Friday the U.S. Department of Education withdrew the plan to enact its controversial Title IX sports rule. The DOE announced in dry regulatory language, “The U.S. Department of Education (Department) is withdrawing the notice of proposed rulemaking entitled ‘Nondiscrimination on the Basis of Sex in Education Programs or Activities Receiving Federal Financial Assistance: Sex-Related Eligibility Criteria for Male and Female Athletic Teams,’ published in the Federal Register on April 13, 2023.”

The Title IX sports rule would have implemented a Marxist vision to remove all social distinctions in society, including differences based on sex. In the words of feminist Shulamith Firestone, the goal was the elimination of the “sex distinction itself: genital differences between human beings would no longer matter culturally…The tyranny of the biological family would be broken.”

On his first day in office on January 20, 2021, president Joe Biden issued an Executive Order ordering all Executive Branch agencies to “prevent and combat discrimination on the basis of gender identity or sexual orientation.”

The Biden plan to issue new Title IX regulations, including the Title IX sports rule, sparked an unprecedented wave of national opposition:

  • A coalition of 240 national, state, and local organizations opposed to the rule came together to establish the Title IX Network.
  • Public opinion polls revealed a strong majority of Americans opposed the plan. 
  • Twenty-five states passed laws banning the participation of men from women’s sports.
  • In August, all nine Supreme Court justices issued a ruling expressing their opposition to the Biden plan to redefine sex to include “gender identity”.

On April 19, 2024 the DOE issued its overall Title IX regulation that changed the definition of sex to include “gender identity.” Commentator Aaron Flanigan warned, “American parents are standing on the precipice of one of the most far-reaching, extremist, and dangerous transformations of the education system in American history.” Within weeks, numerous lawsuits were filed, resulting in federal judges blocking the new policy in 26 states.

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Parents Speak Out After Daughter Suffers Life-Altering Injury Playing Volleyball Against Transgender Opponent

Payton McNabb had dreams of playing sports at the collegiate level, but one volleyball match against a male claiming to be female ended that dream forever and left her with lifelong injuries.

Her mother, Pamela McNabb, wrote an opinion piece for Fox News on Friday about the fateful day, Sept. 1, 2022, her daughter’s high school volleyball team faced a rival team with a transgender player.

“My daughter, Payton, was struck in the head and neck by a spike from a transgender-identifying male on the opposing team, causing her to lose consciousness and lay in a fencing position on the gym floor,” she wrote.

Now, she has partial paralysis and other complications; her life will never be the same.

“We later found out she had suffered a traumatic brain injury, leaving her partially paralyzed on the right side of her body and unable to speak or see clearly,” Pamela McNabb wrote.

Payton’s mother wrote in heartbreaking detail about the injury and its effects.

The 17-year-old went from being a star athlete who wanted to play softball in college to suffering through basic mental and physical tasks.

“Seemingly overnight, Payton began to struggle with everything. She suffered from debilitating head and neck pain, couldn’t drive, and had to be assisted in school as she worked to relearn basic cognitive processes,” her mother wrote.

“When she would have moments of clarity, the fear in her eyes of what was happening to her mind and body was too much,” she continued. “She had gone from excelling at everything she ever did to struggling to brush her own hair.”

“All of her hopes and dreams, all of her hard work in the classroom and on sports teams, all of the sacrifices she made to chase her dream of playing softball past high school — all of it was gone.”

Payton sunk into a deep depression after the injury. When doctors advised her to try reentering softball and other sports, she was somewhat able to do that, but the partial paralysis on her right side makes it incredibly difficult and painful. She will never play at the same level.

“She fell a lot, played with tremendous amounts of physical pain, and she was visibly confused at times. There were a lot of tears and frustration, but she was determined to not have anything else taken from her,” her mother explained. “Her injury ended any chance of being able to play [softball] at the collegiate level, but Payton wasn’t willing to give it up entirely. … Her leg would tremble while she sat behind the plate as the team’s catcher, and I would sit behind her, watching as tears streamed down her face from the pain. She couldn’t steal bases anymore because her bad leg would fold up under her, and she could only slide with her gloves in her hands, so she had something to focus on.”

Pamela McNabb added, “She will have lifelong complications from this avoidable injury,” and pleaded with other parents to avoid subjecting their daughters to the dangers of playing sports against males.

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NCAA Pretends to Force Women to Simply Accept Men in Female Sports. This Is the Last Straw.

The recent hearing of the Senate Judiciary Committee exposed the NCAA’s stance on the participation of transgender athletes in female sports, sparking controversy and public criticism of its president, Charlie Baker.

Among the main criticisms is Baker’s suggestion that female athletes who feel uncomfortable sharing locker rooms with biological men should find other facilities, effectively shifting the responsibility for their safety onto the athletes themselves.

Senator Josh Hawley: “No federal court has ordered the NCAA to include biological men in women’s sports, right?”

NCAA President: “That’s more or less what they decided.”

Hawley: “Don’t say ‘more or less.’ We’re talking about the law.”

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War on Women: The New York Times Refers to Actual Women as “Non-Transgender Women”

The New York Times has fully embraced the left’s efforts to erase women from society.

On Thursday, The Times published an article chronicling the turmoil caused by Blair Flemming, a biological male on the San Jose State University Spartans women’s college volleyball team.

Multiple teams in the Mountain West Conference have forfeited games rather than place their players in harm’s way.

Flemming’s inclusion has also resulted in a lawsuit against the Mountain West, alleging that allowing Fleming to play at San Jose State violates Title IX and the players’ First and 14th Amendment rights.

The New York Times used a story about Fleming and the controversy to erase womanhood entirely and characterize actual biological women as “non-transgender women.”

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Neil deGrasse Tyson Embarrasses Himself as Bill Maher Exposes Him as ‘Part of the Problem’

Famous astrophysicist and author Neil deGrasse Tyson exposed himself as a clueless buffoon Friday night when Bill Maher confronted him about a year-old Scientific American article. The piece made the baffling claim that the “inequity” between male and female athletes isn’t due to natural biological differences but rather to how they’re treated in sports.

The article, approved a year ago by former editor-in-chief Laura Helmuth, was emblematic of the “woke mind virus” taking precedent over scientific reality. Tyson, however, dismissed the controversy, relying on the fact Helmuth was recently fired for an expletive and unhinged anti-Trump post to justify the piece as no big deal.

The astrophysicist’s baffling failure to grasp the significance of the issue left Maher visibly frustrated, leading him to lose faith in Tyson as a credible scientist.

MAHER: “But engage with the idea here. What I’m asking is, Scientific American is saying basically that the reason why a WNBA team can’t beat the Lakers is because of societal bias.”

TYSON: “What you’re saying is not Scientific American says that. An editor for Scientific American says that, who no longer has the job. So don’t indict a 170-year-old magazine because somebody—”

MAHER: “Okay, this is called Scientific American, and they’re printing something. Why can’t you just talk about science? Why can’t you just say this is not scientific and Scientific American should do better?”

TYSON: “Well, does she still have her job?”

MAHER: “No, not because of this. I said the scandal is not her tweet. I think a year ago [when this was printed], women still couldn’t beat men in basketball or any other sport. And it wasn’t because of society. You don’t see a problem?… Well, I’m gonna file you under part of the problem.”

Maher’s confidence in Tyson sank even lower when he was challenged on vaccines and medical doctors, leaving him no choice but to school the astrophysicist on “trusting the Science™.” The exchange left viewers in shock, capped off by Maher delivering an unexpected zinger at the end.

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The West Buries a Genocide – by Making Victims of Israel’s Football Thugs

If the West was really worried about Europe’s Nazi past, it would be better advised to stop stoking an all-too-real new antisemitism: incitement against Arab and Muslim minorities

There has never been a harder time to do political and media analysis than right now. Each day, the western establishment unmoors itself further from reality. Its priorities are so inverted, so obscene, that the most appropriate response is ridicule.

The latest example was the reaction late last week to violent clashes in Amsterdam before and after a match between Maccabi Tel Aviv and the local team Ajax.

The ridiculous framing from western politicians, assisted by mainstream media outlets, was that the visiting Israelis were “hunted down” in what supposedly amounted to a “pogrom” by Dutch street gangs, comprising mainly youths of Arab and Muslim heritage.

According to this official narrative, the violence on Amsterdam’s streets was further proof of a rising tide of antisemitism sweeping Europe and imported from the Middle East. More, the attacks were presented as having disturbing echoes of Europe’s Nazi past.

Outgoing US President Joe Biden claimed the Israeli fans faced “despicable” attacks that “echo dark moments in history when Jews were persecuted”.

Israel, of course, helpfully stoked this idea by promising “emergency flights” to “rescue” its football fans – seeking to evoke memories of its airlifts in the 1980s of Ethiopian Jews to escape famine and reports of persecution, or possibly of the 1975 airlift of US embassy staff from Saigon.

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Viral video reveals Israeli hooligans attacked Dutch police while instigating Amsterdam unrest

Footage by a teenage YouTuber shows Tel Aviv Maccabi hooligans attacking Dutch police while pelting private homes with stones and hunting victims with metal pipes. The video offers the clearest evidence yet Israeli ultras provoked the violence which gripped the city.

A November 8 video report by a 16-year-old who publishes YouTube reports under the moniker “Bender” provided extensive on-the-ground footage of a mob of armed Tel Aviv Maccabi ultras hunting victims, throwing metal poles at police vehicles, threatening journalists, and even being detained after attacking undercover police officers. 

While Western corporate media, US President Joe Biden and the Dutch government have faithfully echoed the Israeli propaganda narrative that the Maccabi ultras were innocent victims of an antisemitic “pogrom,” no mainstream media outlet has reported to date that the Israeli football hooligans attacked police vehicles and undercover officers, in addition to their assaults on Muslim taxi drivers and other Dutch citizens.

In a statement to The Grayzone, Amsterdam police spokesperson Eline Roovers refused to discuss the documented attacks by Israeli thugs on Dutch police officers and vehicles. “We cannot comment on ongoing investigations, which means we are not able to answer questions related to this now,” Roovers stated, referring us instead to a press conference by Police Chief Peter Holla.

In his statement to the press, Holla acknowledged that “a [Palestinian] flag was taken down by Maccabi supporters,” who also “vandalized a cab.” On Amsterdam’s Dam Square, he said, “a Palestinian flag was set on fire.” 

The Dutch police said 5 people were hospitalized during the Nov. 7 mayhem, and 30 suffered more minor injuries. 

Effectively confirming the Israeli hooligans as the source of the violence in Amsterdam, Holla stated, “peace [returned]” only after Maccabi supporters were “accompanied by the police back to their hotels with the use of buses.”

However, the police chief’s comments evinced heavy political bias in favor of the very element that instigated the violence: “I can imagine that Israelis feel unsafe,” he said. “As mentioned before, their well-being is our top priority.”

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NATO states denounce “anti-Semitism” after Israeli football hooligans riot in Amsterdam

On the night of Wednesday to Thursday, Israeli football hooligans ran riot in Amsterdam, tearing down Palestinian flags, assaulting Arabs, and chanting anti-Gaza slogans. Some clashed with residents of Amsterdam, where a protest was planned against holding a game between the Maccabi Tel Aviv and Ajax Amsterdam football clubs during the Gaza genocide. Five people were taken to hospital, and yesterday the Israeli Foreign Ministry said all Maccabi fans were accounted for.

But Washington and European governments reacted with a deafening propaganda campaign, denouncing those who clashed with the hooligans as “anti-Semitic.” While no one was killed, far-right Dutch government strongman Geert Wilders is demanding a police crackdown, supposedly to stop a deadly “pogrom” against Jews. As of yesterday, at least 62 people had been detained in a wave of arrests across the city.

This propaganda campaign is a pack of lies, spun by governments complicit in genocide by their support for Israel’s genocide in Gaza. While they are outraged that five Israeli football hooligans were taken to hospital with light injuries, they support the mass murder of Palestinian civilians in Gaza.

US President Joe Biden tweeted: “The Antisemitic attacks on Israeli soccer fans in Amsterdam are despicable and echo dark moments in history when Jews were persecuted. We’ve been in touch with Israeli and Dutch officials and appreciate Dutch authorities’ commitment to holding the perpetrators accountable. We must relentlessly fight anti-Semitism, wherever it emerges.”

European governments made similar comments. German Chancellor Olaf Scholz denounced the clashes as “intolerable” because they “attack us all,” and Dutch Prime Minister Dick Schoof called them a “terrible anti-Semitic attack.” Equating the clashes with the Holocaust, French President Emmanuel Macron “firmly condemned” violence that he claimed recalls “the most horrific hours of history.” Within the Netherlands, the press campaign is largely directed by Wilders himself.

“A pogrom in the streets of Amsterdam,” Wilders claimed in one tweet, adding: “Muslims with Palestinian flags hunting down Jews. I will NOT accept that. NEVER. The authorities will be held accountable for their failure to protect the Israeli citizens. Never again.”

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, wanted on charges of crimes against humanity by the International Criminal Court, said he views the “incident with the utmost gravity.” He demanded “vigorous and swift action” by Dutch authorities.

These hysterical, unsubstantiated claims that the football clashes were anti-Semitic acts, or even deadly pogroms, aim to justify a mass police crackdown. No one was killed, nor have Dutch authorities provided evidence that the hooligans who were punched, or in one case thrown into a river, were targeted because they were Jewish. Rather, there is massive video evidence, backed up by statements of Amsterdam police, that Maccabi hooligans’ assaults on people and property in Amsterdam, together with their pro-genocide chants, provoked an eruption of anger.

There is reason to believe, moreover, that this was a deliberate provocation arranged between Israeli authorities and the far-right Dutch government. In the days before the Maccabi-Ajax game, Dutch newspapers De Telegraaf and Voetbalzone reported that agents of Israel’s Mossad foreign intelligence agency would be traveling among the Maccabi fans, supposedly to protect them from Dutch protesters.

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