Archive For The “Super Bowl” Category

Trump’s Disinvitation of the Eagles Commits the Cardinal Sin against Philadelphia – Slighting Them

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Trump’s Disinvitation of the Eagles Commits the Cardinal Sin against Philadelphia – Slighting Them

Monday evening, less than 24 hours before they were scheduled to visit the White House, Trump “disinvited” the Super Bowl Champion Eagles from coming.

The “reasoning” for disinviting the Eagles – if you can call it that – was included in a statement released by the White House.

“They disagree with their President because he insists that they proudly (sic) stand for the National Anthem, hand on heart (sic), in honor of the great men and women of out military and the people of our country,” it reads, conveniently ignoring the fact that no Philadelphia Eagles kneeled during the National Anthem during the course of the entire season.

I don’t think Trump fully comprehends what he has done.

Certainly Trump probably thinks he is speaking to his “base” – the people Trump thinks voted for him in 2016, and people who think will continue to vote for him and his preferred candidates in the future.

But Trump’s bottomless bad faith in “disinviting” the Eagles wasn’t just a propaganda coup for every Philadelphia-area Democrat running for office.  It was an act of bad faith that was colossally stupid for a completely different reason – its unnecessary alienation of a huge number of Pennsylvania voters that might, under different circumstances, approve of what he’s doing.

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Why Just Sticking To Sports Will Never Work

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Why Just Sticking To Sports Will Never Work

One of the hottest topics in the sportswriting niche of the world has been the following online debate, kicked off by Bryan Curtis over at The Ringer.  The name of his piece was “The End of ‘Stick to Sports'”, and it was a thinkpiece that truly got writing minds thinking.  “Sportswriters have been awakened by Donald Trump’s presidency,” the byline read.  “Is that what their readers want?”

It’s had an interesting effect on the entire sportswriting community – a response veering from general agreement, to “we never really did stick to sports anyway” and “I will always stick to sports and let others talk about politics.”

What it isn’t is cut and dry.  I think the problem with this so-called “debate” is that it attempts to make sportswriting into a binary choice – either you stick to sports or you have your sports explore other topics.

Art is not a series of binary choices, and if you agree sportswriting is a form of art, then “sticking to sports” will never work.  It’s like saying to Lady Gaga “stick to singing show tunes”.  It doesn’t work that way.
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