ESPN’s Decade-Long Politicization Is Ruining Sports TV

The Super Bowl is over, and March Madness (while still a month away) will be over before we know it, which will thrust sports-loving Americans into what is unaffectionately known in our house as a “sports drought.” While having no college or professional games of significance to watch on TV is annoying, it pales in comparison to the frustration that comes with the politicization of coverage that occurs during the peak of popular sports seasons like football and basketball.

One of the biggest offenders is ESPN. It’s no secret that the Disney-owned network has taken a sharp left turn. ESPN’s quest to turn an American pastime into a partisan talking-to hasn’t simply bled into the sports commentary shows that once captured viewers’ attention. The network’s obsession with race and vilifying anyone who dares deviate from the hivemind has hijacked much of its coverage completely.

ESPN’s own political activism paired with its repeated encouragement of players’ activism has turned audiences off of the network before, yet the network continues to embrace it. Here’s a look back at some of ESPN’s most egregious moments over the last decade.

Made a Big Deal About Jalen Hurts’ Skin Color

ESPN celebrated the Philadelphia Eagles’ Super Bowl LIX win this week by honoring Jalen Hurts for being the fourth black quarterback to secure ultimate victory. The X post welcoming Hurts to the ranks with Patrick Mahomes II, Russell Wilson, and Doug Williams was captioned “Black excellence.”

Refused to Call Men Men

When President Donald Trump signed an executive order to prohibit men from infiltrating women’s sports, ESPN claimed the popular policy “marks another aggressive shift by the Republican president’s second administration in the way the federal government deals with transgender people and their rights.”

The network also refused to call adult human males men.

“President Donald Trump will sign an executive order Wednesday designed to prevent people who were biologically assigned male at birth from participating in women’s or girls’ sporting events,” the X post accompanying ESPN’s temper tantrum article reads.

Made Notre Dame’s Playoff Win About Race

Despite Marcus Freeman’s attempts to frame the University of Notre Dame’s path to the college football national championship as a team effort, ESPN reporters and College GameDay hosts alike hailed the Fighting Irish’s presence in the 2024 season faceoff as monumental simply because Freeman was the “first black and Asian American head coach” to make it that far.

ESPN’s Jenna Laine posed a similar race-based question to Tampa Bay Buccaneers Head Coach Todd Bowles in 2022 when she asked him his thoughts on Steve Wilks joining the ranks of “the few black head coaches in the league.”

Celebrated Women’s History Month by Promoting a Man Who Likes to Play Dress-Up

In honor of Women’s History Month 2023, ESPN glossed over the accomplishments of hundreds of thousands of talented female college and professional athletes in the U.S. to recognize male swimmer Lia Thomas for stealing the NCAA Division I women’s championship title away from a deserving woman.

Tried to Revive Debunked NASCAR Noose Hoax

ESPN not only amplified false reports of a noose hanging in NASCAR driver Bubba Wallace’s garage in June 2020, but it also tried to revive the story in a December 2021 social media post claiming “a noose was found in Bubba Wallace’s stall at Talladega Superspeedway.”

Forced Out Reporters for Speaking Up About Leftist Lunacy …

ESPN gave the boot to “Sunday NFL Countdown” host Samantha Ponder in 2024 mere days after she agreed on X that men don’t belong in women’s sports.

Years before that in 2021, the network suspended its “SportsCenter” host Sage Steele for calling ESPN’s Covid-19 jab mandates “scary” and “sick.” Steele sued and eventually settled with ESPN over the suspension. ESPN reporter Allison Williams also left her job with the network after it tried to medically coerce her into getting the Covid shot.

… But Kept Crazies on Air Even When They Slurred ESPN Viewers

ESPN analyst Stephen A. Smith claimed in 2021 that Tim Tebow’s return to the NFL was an example of “white privilege.” The allegation came one year after Smith blamed white privilege as the culprit for the NBA Brooklyn Nets’ decision to hire Steve Nash as head coach and told anyone who disagreed with his take to “kick rocks.”

Jalen Rose said on his ESPN podcast that NBA champion and five-time All-Star Kevin Love was only selected to play on the U.S. Olympic team because of white “tokenism.”

ESPN “First Take” host Max Kellerman accused SEC football fans in 2020 of being “susceptible to very low-quality information and easy to propagandize.” “If they stay in their kind of propaganda silos, like the Fox News propaganda silo, it would matter what happened,” he continued.

Network star Jemele Hill repeatedly ran “afoul of ESPN’s social media policy” by using Nazi comparisons and calling Trump voters racist. Despite facing several suspensions for her inappropriate commentary, Hill only continued.

The list goes on and on.

Banned Staff From Talking About Hong Kong’s Plight

ESPN’s senior news director Chuck Salituro sent an internal memo in 2019 barring on-air personalities from covering Houston Rockets General Manager Daryl Morey’s public support of Hong Kong protestors opposed to Communist China.

Pulled Announcer From Game Because His Name Was Robert Lee

ESPN pulled an Asian American announcer from covering a University of Virginia football game in 2017 because his name was Robert Lee. The network claimed its decision was motivated by “the tragic events in Charlottesville were unfolding” and worries about how the “coincidence of his name” would sit with viewers.

“In that moment it felt right to all parties. It’s a shame that this is even a topic of conversation and we regret that who calls play-by-play for a football game has become such an issue,” ESPN said in a statement.

Published a Poem Praising a Cop Killer

ESPN pulled a poem about convicted cop killer Assata Shakur from its 2017 “New Feminism” poetry series on its website after The Federalist published an article exposing Shakur’s violent, extremist, and FBI-wanted past.

Awarded Another Confused Man a ‘Courage’ Award

ESPN gave Olympian Bruce Jenner the Arthur Ashe Courage Award in 2015 for his decision to ditch his title as a husband and father by undergoing an expensive mutilative surgery, changing his name to Caitlyn, and playing dress-up. The award is only available to a selection of candidates who “show strength in the face of adversity, courage in the face of peril, and willingness to stand up for their beliefs, no matter the costs.”

Jordan Boyd is a staff writer at The Federalist and producer of The Federalist Radio Hour. Her work has also been featured in The Daily Wire, Fox News, and RealClearPolitics. Jordan graduated from Baylor University where she majored in political science and minored in journalism. Follow her on X @jordanboydtx.