Here’s some picked-up pieces of our broken luck after the 2016 baseball and election seasons . . .So, Hilary's not a polarizing figure? Good to know!
■ The Patriots win too much. They get caught cheating. And just when you think they can’t offend any more of Football America, Bill Belichick and Tom Brady get used as endorsement props by the most polarizing American political figure of the last 60 years. On the eve of the presidential election.
And remember - it's perfectly fine for the wife of a Boston Globe columnist to write a check to a political candidate from a joint checking account, because that's different!
Every vote is sacred and a private matter if that’s what the voter chooses. We applaud athletes who take stands on issues or candidates. LeBron James knew exactly what he was doing when he went on stage with Hillary Clinton in Cleveland Sunday.Do I detect a double standard here? Lebron supports Hillary - all well & fine. Belichick & Brady support Donald Trump - I WANT ANSWERS!
When a sports figure lends the currency of his fame to support a candidate, he’d better be prepared to hear questions about his position and brace for some blowback from an emotional voting population.
In this spirit, Belichick and Brady have invited the dreaded media to ask questions about their support for Donald Trump in the 2016 presidential election. If we can believe Trump, Brady called the candidate Monday, told him he voted for him, then told Trump it was OK to announce his support in New Hampshire.
Ditto for Belichick. According to Trump, the coach wrote the candidate a fawning letter, then amended that missive and gave Trump permission to read it to the world on election eve.
This disqualifies Brady and Belichick from expressing surprise or disdain when they get asked about it in Foxborough Wednesday. They can dismiss it with “we’re on to Seattle” if they want, but the quarterback and coach invited this.
Good for them for taking a public position. Time now to stand by their man or explain that the candidate did not have their permission to share details of their support. It’s one or the other. The “crooked” media did not start this fire. Bill and Tom did.
■ Curt Schilling’s latest controversial tweet (since deleted) advocated the lynching of journalists as “awesome.” Schill said it was sarcasm. Hard to imagine how this guy keeps losing jobs.Question for the Sanctimonious Shank - is it okay for a reporter to call for the death of a presidential candidate? Was that sarcasm? The guy rightly got shitcanned a few days later (possibly to be picked by the Globe after the heat dies down), but I don't recall Shank weighing in on that infraction. I wonder if he'd like to do so now?
The rest of the 'column' is the usual mishmash of trivia and arcana as he waits for his next victim - read at your peril.
Ah, yes, Right Wing Sanctimony.
ReplyDeleteSon, you really ought to read up on superlatives and the use of superlatives. To call someone the most polarizing does not mean someone else is not polarizing.
James has been quite public about his support for Clinton. He answered questions about it. The Coach has plenty of time to rewrite his letter, but when asked about it, is more worried about the Seattle Seahawks.
But dumbest of all is to impute, in a rather clumsy fashion, some kind of tolerance from Shaughnessy for the statements made by a LA Times reporter.
I know Mass has voted to legalize marihuana (as it is spelled in state statue). I would guess from reading this piece that you're already taking advantage of your new rights. Maybe I'm wrong.
In New England, home of your New England Patriots, Clinton won all six states, by an average margin of 54 percent. That includes Connecticut, which was almost home of your New England Patriots when the owner was freely considering deserting Massachusetts for a continued bromance with the now twice-convicted felon governor of Connecticut.
So maybe it was an appropriate question to ask Brady and The Coach, especially when they started playing games.
SLAP! SORRY! I forgot you expect sportswriters to be fanboys, first, last and always.
By the way, while James answered actual questions with actual answers, his comments did not raise much controversy as Clinton won 65% in Cuyahoga County and he had the courage to making it publicly, for attribution, with no nonsense about preparing for some future game.