The brain rot that results from viewing the world entirely through the lens of race is not exclusive to politics. It has infected sports as well. ESPN has been one of the biggest culprits, and it may become one of its own victims.
The latest example is Tim Tebow. The former NFL quarterback is back in the league, signing as a tight end on a veteran minimum contract. He is being reunited with his college coach Urban Meyer.
Tebow, by all accounts, is a great locker room presence to have on a young team such as Meyer’s Jacksonville Jaguars. Tebow and Meyer won two national championships together in college. As an added bonus, Tebow is from the area, bringing some more excitement to a team that hasn’t had much of it in the last decade.
There isn’t much of a story here, but the media obsession with Tebow from his last NFL stint isn’t going away. And now, it is mixed with a stupid racial obsession. Naturally, Tebow’s signing must be proof of racism, or something.
That’s what ESPN’s Stephen A. Smith thinks, at least. One of the few stars on a network that is dying culturally and has gone through three sets of mass layoffs in the past six years, Smith said of Tebow, “Let me be the first to say, I don’t give a damn how you feel. I mean what I say. It is white privilege.” He added, “There’s no way to eradicate white privilege without white individuals giving up some of their privilege.”
It’s entirely predictable for a one-note “analyst” who is only paid for drawing ratings with “hot takes” and outlandish reactions. Smith’s show, First Take, is partly responsible for the decay of traditional sports analysis in favor of controversial quotes designed to get clicks and views. And he only has one setting: racism.
It’s the same line of thought he brought out when discussing the Brooklyn Nets hiring Steve Nash as their head coach. It was “white privilege” because Nash had no head coaching experience, even though he was a legendary point guard whose hiring was signed off on by the team’s two (black) superstars, and even though black players had also landed head coaching jobs with no experience.
Tebow’s signing has nothing to do with race. Anyone with a functioning brain could recognize this, but ESPN’s business model has evolved into the broken-brain hot-takes of Smith mixed with the racial obsession fueled by Black Lives Matter last year. (Yes, Smith even mentions George Floyd in his rant about Tebow.) Racialized worldviews ruin everything they touch. This once-beloved sports network is no different.
