On Monday, Republican Governor Brad Little of Idaho signed the Fairness for Women in Sports Act, which protects girls sports as single-sex, barring biologically male transgender girls from competing against biological girls.
&#8220;The sports ban applies to all sports teams sponsored by public schools, colleges and universities,&#8221; <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/feature/nbc-out/idaho-governor-signs-law-anti-transgender-legislation-n1172886">NBC News</a> reported. &#8220;A girls’ or women’s team will not be open to transgender students who identify as female.&#8221;
“Girls deserve to compete on a level playing field. Allowing males to compete in girls’ sports destroys fair competition and women’s athletic opportunities,&#8221; Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) Senior Vice President of U.S. Legal Division Kristen Waggoner said in a statement sent to The Daily Wire.
ADF is representing high school female athletes in a federal lawsuit seeking to preserve single-sex girls sports.
&#8220;We commend Gov. Little for signing the Fairness for Women in Sports Act into law so that those opportunities will be protected in Idaho,&#8221; Waggoner continued. &#8220;When the law ignores biological differences, women and girls bear the brunt of the harm.&#8221;
&#8220;In Connecticut, for example, two males dominated girls’ track after they began competing as females, capturing dozens of championships and shattering long-standing female track records,&#8221; the attorney outlined. &#8220;Comparably fit and trained males will always have physical advantages over females—that’s the reason we have girls’ sports.&#8221;
&#8220;When we ignore biological reality, female athletes lose medals, podium spots, public recognition, and opportunities to compete,&#8221; Waggoner added, thanking the bill&#8217;s Republican co-sponsors Rep. Barbara Ehardt and Sen. Mary Souza.
ADF-represented high schooler Chelsea Mitchell, one of the athletes challenging Connecticut’s transgender policy, applauded the move by Gov. Little.
“I am so happy that female athletes in Idaho will not have to face an unfair playing field as I have in Connecticut,&#8221; Mitchell said in a statement sent to The Daily Wire.
&#8220;I have lost four state championships because my state’s policy ignores the physical advantages males have over females in sports and allows males to compete in the girls’ category,&#8221; the athlete outlined. &#8220;Four times I was the fastest female in my race, but I didn’t get the gold medal or the state title; the males in my race took that honor. I have watched this happen over and over again in my sport in Connecticut, as so many girls have been impacted.&#8221;
Mitchell added, &#8220;It isn’t fair, and it isn’t right. We need separate sports categories based on biological sex in order to fairly compete. Idaho has now set the example for other states to follow.”
The ACLU has already jumped in to condemn Gov. Little and promise a lawsuit.
Leaders from the business, faith, medical, education and athletics communities will not forget this decision or what it says about the governor&#8217;s priorities during a global pandemic,&#8221; the organization said in a <a href="https://www.ktvb.com/article/news/local/capitol-watch/idaho-governor-little-signs-into-law-anti-transgender-legislation/277-8541e9d3-2cbb-4780-8f4b-5a9b59232594">statement</a>. &#8220;The ACLU will see the governor in court. We encourage all Idahoans to email, call, and tweet Gov. Little to express outrage and disappointment at wasting precious taxpayer resources on blatantly anti-transgender bill.
Related: <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/attorney-general-barr-weighs-into-trans-suit-no-biological-boys-shouldnt-be-allowed-to-compete-against-girls">Attorney General Barr Weighs Into Trans Suit: No, Biological Boys Shouldn’t Be Allowed To Compete Against Girls</a>

Gov. Brad Little

GOP Governor Bans Biological Males From Competing Against Girls

Sports

Transgender

The NBA season has been suspended. Same with the NHL and MLS (that’s soccer). The MLB pre-season has been cancelled. The XFL season is done. The NCAA championships have been cancelled. Fantasy sports betting websites like Draftkings and FanDuel list only MMA and esports. SuperDraft is running simulated basketball games such as ’12 Heat vs. the ’01 Lakers. There’s still horse racing, but fans have been banned from stadiums.
So, what’s a sports journalist to do when there are no sports? The Ringer’s Bryan Curtis dove into the question.
In <a href="https://www.theringer.com/2020/3/16/21181180/coronavirus-media-espn-nba-utah-jazz-scott-van-pelt-jim-rome">an article</a> published Monday, Curtis took a look at the worries those in the industry – who have never dealt with entire sports seasons being cancelled like this:
<blockquote>Two things make their coronavirus stories unique. One, this is the first crisis I can remember in which sports media members themselves are an affected class. At least four writers who covered Wednesday’s fateful Jazz-Thunder game went into self-quarantine, as did Charles Barkley, who called into Thursday’s edition of Inside the NBA.
The coronavirus also got sports across America cancelled. The sportswriter playbook of covering external events used to be this: Write a few stories. Maybe work in a thumb-sucker. (Will we ever watch games the same way again?) Then return to normal programming.</blockquote>
Unfortunately, Curtis wrote, they can’t simply return to normal programming because in those other cases, sports seasons weren’t cancelled indefinitely. Curtis noted that Keith Olbermann suggested games might not resume for six months.
“But wait. There’s a reason for sports media members to feel even worse. We’ve spent the last several years hearing that our work may no longer be financially sustainable. Imagine what that fragile professional state is going to feel like without power rankings,” Curtis reported.
Curtis didn’t really have an answer for those wondering what to do while seasons are suspended or cancelled:
<blockquote>Last week, as leagues cancelled or suspended games, it was fashionable to search for “something positive” about the experience. My training as a sportswriter prevents me from searching for something positive. But if I had to come up with something less dire, I’d say this: When a pandemic is crossing the globe, it’s normal for a sports media person to feel discombobulated, sidelined, almost useless, even as she or he snaps into action. Such self-awareness is useful. I worry about anybody who doesn’t feel at least slightly self-conscious about covering sports for a living.</blockquote>
In <a href="https://www.theringer.com/2020/3/10/21173499/coronavirus-locker-room-mlb-nba-nfl-sportswriting">an article</a> last week, Curtis suggested the coronavirus “could change American sportswriting forever.” His main concern was the first measure sports leagues took to address the coronavirus: Ending locker room access for reporters.
“Though the leagues say the changes are temporary, reporters are freaked. The ability to report inside a locker room is nothing short of a miracle of American sportswriting. At a time where there’s no regular White House briefing, standing in front of LeBron James and asking a question is an anachronism. Sportswriters realize the precariousness of the arrangement. That’s why they’re scared shitless that the coronavirus will be the means by which it’s taken away forever,” Curtis wrote.
It&#8217;s hard to imagine reporters won’t be allowed back into the locker room once the coronavirus is contained, but the entire situation is still filled with “what ifs.”

Empty football field and stadium seats.

Sports Journalists Wonder What To Do Now That Sports Are Cancelled Due To Coronavirus

Media

Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce told a reporter Wednesday night that he was excited to be headed to the White House following the team&#8217;s Super Bowl win, calling the upcoming meeting a &#8220;crazy opportunity.&#8221;
Since President Donald Trump has been in office, numerous professional athletes have made it a point to reject the president&#8217;s invitation to the White House post-championship win, claiming Trump is &#8220;problematic&#8221; for various reasons.
&#8220;You looking forward to going to the White House?&#8221; a <a href="https://www.tmz.com/2020/02/27/travis-kelce-white-house-donald-trump-super-bowl-kc-chiefs/">TMZ reporter</a> asked the NFL star.
&#8220;Oh, yeah! Always, man!&#8221; Kelce responded, while heading into the backseat of a vehicle. &#8220;Crazy opportunity!&#8221;
After the report was made, Kelce doubled down on his enthusiasm, emphasizing that an invite to the White House is a &#8220;unique opportunity to experience&#8221; no matter who&#8217;s in office.
&#8220;Grew up my whole life watching teams win championships and then go to the White House and get recognized for their greatness,&#8221; he wrote via Twitter, captioning the TMZ report, &#8220;regardless of who is in office I think it’s a unique opportunity to experience our nations Capital.&#8221;
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
Grew up my whole life watching teams win championships and then go to the White House and get recognized for their greatness&#8230; regardless of who is in office I think it’s a unique opportunity to experience our nations Capital. <a href="https://t.co/1Oy1q1ORJu">https://t.co/1Oy1q1ORJu</a>
&mdash; Travis Kelce (@tkelce) <a href="https://twitter.com/tkelce/status/1233058384850624513?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 27, 2020</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Kansas City head coach Andy Reid is in alignment with Kelce. As noted by <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/super-bowl-losing-49ers-player-dissed-white-house-visit-before-game-super-bowl-winning-head-coach-declares-it-quite-an-honor">The Daily Wire</a>, the NFL coach said the prospect of a White House invitation would be “quite an honor.”
“I mean, I’ll be there,” <a href="https://www.tmz.com/2020/02/03/andy-reid-white-house-kansas-city-chiefs-super-bowl-nfl/">said</a> Reid. “If they’re inviting us, I’ll be there,” he added. “It’s quite an honor.”
However, as noted by TMZ, at least one player is not as excited as Kelce. Chief defensive end Frank Clark, who famously <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/watch-kansas-city-chiefs-defensive-end-frank-clark-wears-pro-trump-swag-to-super-bowl-press-conference">rocked a Kanye West/Trump meeting t-shirt</a>, said he has &#8220;mixed emotions&#8221; about the White House visit.
&#8220;I know historically &#8230; that’s something you do as a Super Bowl champion. But we’ll see, man,&#8221; the athlete said. &#8220;It’s a lot of mixed emotions about stuff going on there. We’ll see.&#8221;
“Congratulations to the Kansas City Chiefs on a great game and a fantastic comeback under immense pressure,” President Trump following the Chiefs&#8217; win. “We are proud of you and the Great State of Missouri. You are true Champions!”
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
Congratulations to the Kansas City Chiefs on a great game and a fantastic comeback under immense pressure. We are proud of you and the Great State of Missouri. You are true Champions!
&mdash; Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) <a href="https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1224172413388128256?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 3, 2020</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
In the past, athletes who&#8217;ve dissed the president and rejected a potential White House invitation have been boosted by the Left. For example, national anthem-protesting women&#8217;s soccer star Megan Rapinoe, who repeatedly hit Trump, was named Sports Illustrated &#8220;<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/anthem-protester-megan-rapinoe-named-sports-illustrated-sportsperson-of-the-year">Sportsperson Of The Year&#8221;</a> in 2019.
Before the U.S. team won the World Cup, Rapinoe <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/ouch-trump-blasts-megan-rapinoe-after-she-says-amanda-prestigiacomo">told</a> Eight by Eight that she would not be accepting an invitation from the president to visit the White House if the national team were to win, The Daily Wire reported at the time.
“I’m not going to the f***ing White House. No. I’m not going to the White House,” the soccer star said. “We’re not gonna be invited. I doubt it.”
NBA stars Stephen Curry and LeBron James have come out to rip President Trump, too, both <a href="https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/lebron-james-stephen-curry-say-theyre-not-going-to-white-house">preemptively announcing</a> that they will not be visiting Trump&#8217;s White House if either of them win NBA championships.
WATCH:
<iframe src="https://share.tmz.com/videos/022620-travis-kelce-4738590-0-atq7l0jr/" width="560" height="395" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"></iframe>
Related: <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/super-bowl-losing-49ers-player-dissed-white-house-visit-before-game-super-bowl-winning-head-coach-declares-it-quite-an-honor">Super Bowl-Losing 49ers Player Dissed White House Visit Before Game; Super Bowl-Winning Head Coach Declares It ‘Quite An Honor’</a>

Travis Kelce

WATCH: Kansas City’s Travis Kelce Says He’s Excited To Go To Trump’s White House, Follows Up Comments With Tweet

Donald Trump

One Missouri legislator has introduced a bill that would ban transgender high schoolers from competing on teams that don’t match their biological sex. Speaking at a state education hearing on Tuesday, GOP State Sen. Cindy O’Laughlin stated, “It is a known biological fact that males are born with categorically superior strength, speed and endurance. It has nothing to do with any other issue than trying to create a fair playing field,” as <a href="https://www.ky3.com/content/news/Missouri-bill-would-restrict-transgender-athletes-to-play-on-sports-teams-matching-gender-assigned-at-birth-568187561.html">KY3 reported</a>.
<a href="https://www.foxnews.com/us/missouri-law-transgender-high-school-athletes">Fox News</a> noted, “Under current Missouri law, transgender athletes who want to play on teams that don’t match their assigned birth must apply to the Missouri State High School Activities Association (MSHSAA), submitting medical records and other relevant documentation. Transgender women must prove they’ve been on testosterone blockers for a year and stick with them.”
A similar bill has been presented in Missouri’s House of Representatives. If the state’s general Assembly approves either of the bills, they will be listed on the state ballot and put to a vote.
One girl who identifies as a boy protested, &#8220;Putting me on the girls activities won&#8217;t make me a girl. This bill will force me on the girls teams where I end up beating every single girl on my high school cross country team in every race, and I&#8217;d have placed 28th in the state as a freshman.&#8221;
The increasing number of cases in which transgender high school athletes have competed on teams opposite from their biological sex has triggered at least one recent lawsuit in which three female high school athletes in Connecticut sued the state’s Interscholastic Athletic Conference (CIAC), which has permitted boys to compete in events and win awards that would otherwise have gone to girls.
Chelsea Mitchell, a senior at Canton High School, Selina Soule, a senior at Glastonbury High School, and Alanna Smith, a sophomore at Danbury High School, filed a federal lawsuit with their families after CIAC’s policy allowed <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/watch-two-transgenders-blow-out-girls-state-meet-hank-berrien">two males to compete in girls’ athletic competitions </a>beginning in the 2017 track season. Those biological males, Miller and Andraya Yearwood, had taken 15 women’s state championship titles (titles held in 2016 by nine different Connecticut girls) and had taken more than 85 opportunities to participate in higher level competitions from female track athletes in the 2017, 2018, and 2019 seasons alone.
On February 14, Mitchell defeated one of the biological males who has won numerous titles in girls’ events, winning the Class S 55-meter dash title with her time of 7.18 seconds. She beat Bloomfield High School student Terry Miller, who is a biological boy and ran the event in 7.20 seconds.
Mitchell, who is currently ranked the fastest biological girl in Connecticut in the 55m, lost four girls’ state championships and two all-New England awards. She recalled, “I knew that I was the fastest girl here, one of the fastest in the state. I remembered all my training and everything I had been taught on how to maximize my performance &#8230; I thought of all the times that other girls have lost. I could feel the adrenaline in my blood and hope that wafted from me. That just possibly, I could win this. Then, the gun went off. And I lost.”
The <a href="http://www.adfmedia.org/files/SouleComplaint.pdf">complaint</a> filed in Soule v. Connecticut Association of Schools states that policies that permit boys to compete in girls sports threaten Title IX gains because “inescapable biological facts of the human species [are] not stereotypes, ‘social constructs,’ or relics of past discrimination. As a result of these many inherent physiological differences between men and women after puberty, male athletes consistently achieve records 10-20% higher than comparably fit and trained women across almost all athletic events, with even wider consistent disparities in long-term endurance events and contests of sheer strength such as weight-lifting.”

Gender Symbols

Missouri Legislator Introduces Bill Banning Trans Athletes From Competing Against Athletes Of Opposite Biological Sex

High School

Missouri

On Monday, <a href="https://theathletic.com/1615529/2020/02/17/exclusive-giants-will-not-include-aubrey-huff-in-their-2010-world-series-reunion-celebration/">The Athletic</a> reported that MLB star Aubrey Huff was barred from the upcoming 2010 World Series Championship reunion over his past tweets, which includes a photo of Huff at a gun range with his sons and a tweet joking about Iranian women.
&#8220;Earlier this month, we reached out to Aubrey Huff to let him know that he will not be included in the upcoming 2010 World Series Championship reunion,&#8221; the San Francisco Giants announced in a statement.
&#8220;Aubrey has made multiple comments on social media that are unacceptable and run counter to the values of our organization. While we appreciate the many contributions that Aubrey made to the 2010 championship season, we stand by our decision,&#8221; San Fransisco added.
The Athletic noted that Huff was the team&#8217;s starting first baseman and &#8220;led the Giants in home runs and WAR and finished seventh in the National League MVP voting that season.&#8221;
When asked about the decision from the Giants, Huff told The Athletic: &#8220;If it wasn&#8217;t for me, they wouldn&#8217;t be having a reunion. But if they want to stick with their politically correct, progressive bullsh**, that&#8217;s fine.&#8221;
<div id="the_post" class="bodytext1 article-start">
One of the tweets that landed Huff on the outs included a photo of himself at a gun range with his sons.
</div>
&#8220;Getting my boys trained up on how to use a gun in the unlikely event [Bernie Sanders] beats [Donald Trump] in 2020. In which case knowing how to effectively use a gun under socialism will be a must. By the way most the head shots were theirs,&#8221; the MLB star posted.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
Getting my boys trained up on how to use a gun in the unlikely event <a href="https://twitter.com/BernieSanders?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@BernieSanders</a> beats <a href="https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@realDonaldTrump</a> in 2020. In which case knowing how to effectively use a gun under socialism will be a must. By the way most the head shots were theirs. <a href="https://twitter.com/NRA?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@NRA</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/WatchChad?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@WatchChad</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/2ndAmendment?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#2ndAmendment</a> <a href="https://t.co/6xUsS7ciX3">pic.twitter.com/6xUsS7ciX3</a>
&mdash; Aubrey Huff (@aubrey_huff) <a href="https://twitter.com/aubrey_huff/status/1199200986658553857?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 26, 2019</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Huff also made a joke about bringing Iranian women to America.
&#8220;Let&#8217;s get a flight over and kidnap about 10 each,&#8221; he wrote. &#8220;We can bring them back here as they fan us and feed us grapes, amongst other things&#8230;.&#8221;
In a follow-up post, Huff emphasized that he was joking and never said anything about &#8220;rape.&#8221;
&#8220;Does nobody have a sense of humor anymore!?&#8221; the baseball player asked. &#8220;The way Iranian women are treated over there I simply wanted 2 say I’d go there 2 rescue them &amp; bring them back 2 the states. And they would be so thankful 2 escape that hell that they’d fan me &amp; feed me grapes. Never said rape!&#8221;
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
Does nobody have a sense of humor anymore!? 🤦🏻‍♂️ The way Iranian women are treated over there I simply wanted 2 say I’d go there 2 rescue them &amp; bring them back 2 the states. And they would be so thankful 2 escape that hell that they’d fan me &amp; feed me grapes. Never said rape! 🙄 <a href="https://t.co/F3IpCcivkN">https://t.co/F3IpCcivkN</a> <a href="https://t.co/WbGpgnAEmL">pic.twitter.com/WbGpgnAEmL</a>
&mdash; Aubrey Huff (@aubrey_huff) <a href="https://twitter.com/aubrey_huff/status/1214634047172820992?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 7, 2020</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
On Tuesday morning, Huff expanded on his response, this time posting a lengthy statement and tagging President Donald Trump.
According to Huff, he was informed that he was not to be included at the reunion because of his Twitter posts and his &#8220;political support of Donald Trump.&#8221;
&#8220;My locker room humor on Twitter is meant to be satirical, and sarcastic. And it was that type of humor that loosened up the clubhouse in 2010 for our charge at a World Series title,&#8221; Huff wrote. &#8220;They loved it then, and it hasn&#8217;t changed. That&#8217;s not the issue. It&#8217;s politics.&#8221;
&#8220;We live in a country that is under attack. Society is desperately trying to take away our 1st Amendment, our freedom of speech, and our freedom of political association,&#8221; continued Huff.
Signing off, the MBL star wrote: &#8220;To the fans, you were amazing to me. And just because I might not share some of your political views (which are stupid) I still respect your right to express them.&#8221;
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
My response to <a href="https://twitter.com/SFGiants?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@SFGiants</a>
 <a href="https://twitter.com/MLB?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@mlb</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@realDonaldTrump</a> <a href="https://t.co/tDs8L8kGNi">pic.twitter.com/tDs8L8kGNi</a>
&mdash; Aubrey Huff (@aubrey_huff) <a href="https://twitter.com/aubrey_huff/status/1229686896378499073?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 18, 2020</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

Aubrey Huff

MLB Star Banned From World Series Reunion Over ‘Politically Incorrect’ Tweets, Photo Of Gun Range With Sons

Political Correctness

Last week, news broke that the &#8220;<a href="https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/runner-megan-youngren-first-openly-234954115.html">first openly transgender athlete</a>&#8221; is set to compete in the 2020 U.S. Olympic marathon trials; Megan Youngren, a biologically male 28-year-old runner who identifies as female, will compete at the women&#8217;s trials on February 29.
“I’m open to talking about it to people because that’s the only way you make progress on stuff like this,” Youngren said, as reported by <a href="https://www.si.com/olympics/2020/02/13/megan-youngren-first-transgender-athlete-us-olympic-marathon-trials">Sports Illustrated</a> magazine.
Youngren started taking hormones in 2011, came out as trans the next year, and finalized transition paperwork just last year, the magazine noted.
The athlete&#8217;s impressive marathon times in the women&#8217;s division are not easier for Youngren because he&#8217;s trans, the runner insisted.
&#8220;People will try to put it down by saying, &#8216;That’s too easy because you’re trans,'&#8221; said Youngren. &#8220;But what about the 500 other women who will qualify? There’s probably someone with the exact same story. I trained hard. I got lucky. I dodged injuries. I raced a lot, and it worked out for me. That’s the story for a lot of other people, too.&#8221;
In order to compete in women&#8217;s Olympic events, male-to-female transgender athletes must have their testosterone level below 10 nanomoles per liter for at least 12 months before competition, per the <a href="https://stillmed.olympic.org/Documents/Commissions_PDFfiles/Medical_commission/2015-11_ioc_consensus_meeting_on_sex_reassignment_and_hyperandrogenism-en.pdf">International Olympic Committee</a> (IOC) rules, noted Sports Illustrated.
The controversial rules do not account for other general physical advantages male bodies have over female bodies, such as greater lung volume, <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15746999">skeletal size and bone mass</a>. Moreover, the IOC is &#8220;planning to implement stricter guidelines that could lower the testosterone levels in serum to 5 nanomoles per liter,&#8221; Sports Illustrated reports.
“I have done everything by the book, and I can show that,” said Youngren.
Biological males competing in female sports at the high school level triggered a lawsuit earlier this month. As reported by <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/boys-competing-with-girls-won-track-meets-the-girls-just-filed-a-lawsuit-in-federal-court">The Daily Wire</a> on Wednesday, three high school girls and their mothers filed suit in federal court against the Connecticut Interscholastic Athletic Conference (CIAC), which began allowing biologically male athletes to compete in girls&#8217; events and win awards since 2017.
&#8220;Selina Soule, Alanna Smith, and Chelsea Mitchell, represented by Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF), were denied opportunities to compete at higher levels as boys took home the prizes,&#8221; The Daily Wire outlined. &#8220;CIAC’s policy allowed <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/watch-two-transgenders-blow-out-girls-state-meet-hank-berrien">two males to compete in girls’ athletic competitions</a> beginning in the 2017 track season. Those boys have taken 15 women’s state championship titles (titles held in 2016 by nine different Connecticut girls) and have taken more than 85 opportunities to participate in higher level competitions from female track athletes in the 2017, 2018, and 2019 seasons alone.&#8221;
“It’s very frustrating and heartbreaking when us girls are at the start of the race and we already know that these [male] athletes are going to come out and win no matter how hard you try,&#8221; said Soule. &#8220;They took away the spots of deserving girls, athletes … me being included.”
&#8220;Soule missed qualifying for the state championship 55m final and an opportunity to qualify for the New England championship by one spot in the 2018-19 season as two spots were taken by boys,&#8221; The Daily Wire noted.
Related: <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/boys-competing-with-girls-won-track-meets-the-girls-just-filed-a-lawsuit-in-federal-court">Boys Competing With Girls Won Track Meets. The Girls Just Filed A Lawsuit In Federal Court.</a>

Three Medals

‘Transgender’ Biologically Male Runner Will Compete In U.S. Women’s Olympic Trials

Olympics

I am not from Philadelphia, where the late Kobe Bryant achieved high school basketball superstardom after growing up mostly in Italy. Nor am I from Los Angeles, where he ultimately attained global status as a sporting and cultural icon. For that matter, I am not even a Los Angeles Lakers fan.
But in many ways, I feel like I grew up with Kobe.
For those basketball fans right around my age, Kobe was the guy. When Michael Jordan completed his second three-repeat with the Chicago Bulls and retired for a second time after that vaunted <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vdPQ3QxDZ1s">championship-clinching jumper</a> over a dizzied Bryon Russell, I was only nine years old. My childhood friends and I all loved the film &#8220;<a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0117705/">Space Jam</a>,&#8221; but we were too young to experience most of Jordan&#8217;s prime years in Chicago. By contrast, by the time LeBron James truly hit his stride and took his first Cleveland Cavaliers team to the NBA Finals, I was on the precipice of graduating high school.
Instead, during my formative years as a sports fan and <a href="https://www.redstate.com/diary/josh_hammer/2015/01/17/duke-islam-progressives/">lifelong basketball lover</a>, I grew up with Kobe. He graced the cover of the second basketball video game I can recall purchasing, the eponymous <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kobe_Bryant_in_NBA_Courtside">&#8220;Kobe Bryant in NBA Courtside&#8221;</a> for Nintendo 64. Alongside longtime teammate and fellow identifiably one-word superstar Shaq, Kobe won <a href="https://www.nba.com/history/top-moments/2002-lakers-complete-three-peat">three straight championships</a> with the Lakers right around the time I became a devoted fan of Dr. James Naismith&#8217;s sport.
For people right around my age, Kobe seemed like the obvious successor to Michael Jordan. Michael was the clearly superior defensive (and certainly still superior offensive) player, but the similarities in their playing styles were downright scary.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
Unbelievable <a href="https://t.co/9kyCVdfiox">pic.twitter.com/9kyCVdfiox</a>
&mdash; David L. Bahnsen (@DavidBahnsen) <a href="https://twitter.com/DavidBahnsen/status/1221644074798632960?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 27, 2020</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Offensively, as <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xApmk3AlWLQ">LeBron himself discussed</a> the night before Kobe&#8217;s fateful helicopter accident on Sunday, the Laker great could do no wrong. Kobe, who had a famously rigorous workout regimen, could shoot the outside ball. He could drive to the hoop and draw contact like few others. He was an exceptionally gifted athlete, a ball handler par excellence, prolific dunker, and perhaps the last truly great mid-range jump shooter before the modern game began phasing out the mid-range jump shot as a statistically outdated relic of a bygone era.
But even more similar than Kobe and Michael&#8217;s on-court substantive offensive styles were their demeanors: Both exhibited a once-a-generation drive, tenacity, grit, and sheer willpower that could overpower opponents by brute force of nature. Overall, as Yahoo! Sports <a href="https://sports.yahoo.com/once-again-kobe-bryant-plays-lot-michael-jordan-175210613.html?y20=1">wrote</a> in 2013: &#8220;From the gum chomping to the arched eyebrows to the actual inflection of his voice, you can tell that Bryant clearly watched tape after tape of Jordan while growing up in Italy.&#8221;
Playing pick-up basketball in middle and high school, it was commonplace to yell &#8220;Kobe!&#8221; while shooting — a way to call your shot before it went in. Heck, we would even do this in high school while &#8220;shooting&#8221; crumpled up pieces of paper into the garbage bin. While coaching my younger brother&#8217;s local recreation league basketball team (to the championship, if I may self-congratulate) in 2004, I remember using Kobe as the model for the quintessential basketball dual threat: Guard him too closely and he&#8217;d blow right by you, but give him too much leeway and he&#8217;d quickly pop a lethal jump shot.
During my sophomore year at Duke, I remember staying up to the wee hours of the morning to watch Duke men&#8217;s basketball coach Mike Krzyzewski&#8217;s 2008 U.S. Olympic basketball team — nicknamed the &#8220;Redeem Team&#8221; after the lackluster 2004 Olympic result — win back the gold medal. Kobe was the captain of that team, and he and Krzyzewski forged a famously close relationship.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
Coach K&#39;s statement on Kobe Bryant&#39;s death, per <a href="https://twitter.com/DukeMBB?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@DukeMBB</a>:<a href="https://t.co/bnmYPtKrDn">https://t.co/bnmYPtKrDn</a> <a href="https://t.co/uPst9zOmNB">pic.twitter.com/uPst9zOmNB</a>
&mdash; Duke Basketball (@dukebasketball) <a href="https://twitter.com/dukebasketball/status/1221567220246953985?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 26, 2020</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Kobe was, like all of us, a flawed human being. He committed adultery at least <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kobe_Bryant_sexual_assault_case">one very public time</a> — perhaps <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/kobe-bryants-women-2011-12">more than that one time</a>, according to divorce filing paperwork. And it is in the eye of the beholder <a href="https://www.thedailybeast.com/kobe-bryants-disturbing-rape-case-the-dna-evidence-the-accusers-story-and-the-half-confession">whether that one very public time was, in fact, much worse</a> than &#8220;mere&#8221; adultery.
But Kobe matured as he grew older. He was, by all accounts, an exceedingly <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/kobe-bryant-talks-daughter-gianna-los-angeles-lakers-nba-01-27-2020/">devoted and loving father</a>. By the time of his premature death, he had also become a <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/kobe-a-devout-catholic-reportedly-attended-mass-morning-of-accident">devout Catholic</a>. He spoke fluent Italian and was generally hailed as being more worldly and sophisticated than most NBA players of his era. So as I have matured myself over the years, I felt even then that I was growing up, too, with Kobe.
Kobe was set to do much good in his second, post-basketball act — if only he had not been taken from us far too soon. He was a basketball (81 points in a game!) and cultural (Academy Award winner!) icon. To me, he will always be a legend.
May his memory be a blessing.

Kobe Bryant and Michael Jordan

HAMMER: Growing Up With Kobe Bryant

Basketball

Kobe Bryant

LeBron James

Shaquille O'Neal

Paying tribute to basketball legend Kobe Bryant, SportsCenter&#8217;s Elle Duncan was moved to tears recalling her only in-person interaction with the former Laker, who joyfully bragged about being a &#8220;girl dad&#8221; and boasted of daughter Gianna&#8217;s talent.
Tragically, on Sunday, Bryant, 13-year-old Gianna, and seven others, including two of Gianna’s teammates, were tragically killed in a helicopter accident in California.
Duncan said she ran into Bryant backstage at an event for ESPN in New York City, when the SportsCenter anchor was eight months pregnant.
&#8220;I saw him and I thought, ‘Oh my gosh, that&#8217;s Kobe,&#8221; Duncan shared Monday evening, according to <a href="https://www.eonline.com/news/1116778/this-tribute-to-girl-dad-kobe-bryant-proves-he-died-doing-what-he-loved-the-most">E! News</a>. &#8220;I&#8217;ve gotta get a picture for the ‘gram&#8217; (Instagram). I didn&#8217;t get it for a few minutes because, as I approached him, he immediately commented on my rather large, eight month pregnant belly.&#8221;
Bryant peppered Duncan with excited questions about the unborn child. When she told him she was expecting a girl, Bryant high-fived her. &#8220;Girls are the best,&#8221; he told Duncan.
&#8220;I asked him for advice on raising girls, seeing as though he quite famously had three at the time and he said, ‘Just be grateful that you&#8217;ve been given that gift because girls are amazing,'&#8221; Duncan continued.
Asked if he and wife Vanessa Bryant were going to have more children, the basketball star continued to gush over his daughters and said he&#8217;d like &#8220;five more girls&#8221; if he could have them.
&#8220;He said that his wife Vanessa really wanted to try again for a boy but was sort of jokingly concerned that it would be another girl,&#8221; Duncan explained. &#8220;I was like, ‘Four girls, are you joking? Like, what would you think? How would you feel?&#8217; And without hesitation he said, ‘I would have five more girls if I could.&#8221;
&#8220;I&#8217;m a girl dad,&#8221; Bryant proudly told her.
&#8220;When it came to sports, he said that his oldest daughter was an accomplished volleyball player and that the youngest was a toddler, so [to be determined],&#8221; Duncan said.
&#8220;But that middle one, he said, ‘That middle one was a monster. She&#8217;s a beast. She&#8217;s better than I was at her age. She&#8217;s got it.&#8217; That middle one, of course, was Gigi.&#8221;
Gigi, short for Gianna, also perished in the helicopter accident on Sunday.
&#8220;When I reflect on this tragedy and that half an hour that I spent with Kobe Bryant two years ago,&#8221; Duncan concluded. &#8220;I suppose that the only small source of comfort for me is knowing that he died doing what he loved the most: Being a dad, being a girl dad.&#8221;
As noted by <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/in-past-interview-kobe-said-he-relied-on-helicopter-use-to-spend-more-time-with-his-children">The Daily Wire</a> on Monday, Bryant explained that he frequently traveled via helicopter so he could avoid notorious Los Angeles traffic, thus saving time so he could spend more moments with his children. For example, Bryant said he enjoyed taking his daughters to school, as well as picking them up.
“Traffic started getting really, really bad and I was sitting in traffic and I wound up missing like a school play, because I was sitting in traffic,&#8221; he explained.
<div class="content-list-component yr-content-list-text text" data-rapid-cpos="2" data-rapid-subsec="paragraph" data-rapid-parsed="subsec">
“I had to figure out a way where I could still train and focus on the craft but still not compromise family time,” Bryant continued. “So that’s when I looked into helicopters, to be able to get down and back in 15 minutes and that’s when it started.”
</div>
<div class="content-list-component yr-content-list-text text" data-rapid-cpos="6" data-rapid-subsec="paragraph" data-rapid-parsed="subsec">
“You have like road trips and times where you don’t see your kids. So every chance I get to see them, to spend time with them — even if it’s 20 minutes in the car — I want that,” he added.
</div>
WATCH:
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
&quot;I would have 5 more girls if I could. I&#39;m a girl dad.&quot;<a href="https://twitter.com/elleduncanESPN?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@elleduncanESPN</a>&#39;s story about how much Kobe loved his daughters is something special. <a href="https://t.co/1KJx17QRjY">pic.twitter.com/1KJx17QRjY</a>
&mdash; SportsCenter (@SportsCenter) <a href="https://twitter.com/SportsCenter/status/1222023021919121410?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 28, 2020</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Related: <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/in-past-interview-kobe-said-he-relied-on-helicopter-use-to-spend-more-time-with-his-children">In Past Interview, Kobe Said He Relied On Helicopter Use To Spend More Time With His Children</a>
Related: <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/kobe-a-devout-catholic-reportedly-attended-mass-morning-of-accident">Kobe, A Devout Catholic, Reportedly Attended Mass Morning Of Accident</a>

ESPN Reporter Elle Duncan; Kobe Bryant And Daughter Gianna

ESPN Reporter Moved To Tears In Viral Moment Recalling Only Interaction With Kobe: ‘Girl Dad’

ESPN

Los Angeles

A woman who is the head of a venerable institution for management in Great Britain has a new parameter she would like to see implemented in offices: reduce the time men talk about sports.
Ann Francke, the Chief Executive of the Chartered Management Institute (CMI), which was created in 1947 as the British Institute of Management (BIM), then merged with the Institution of Industrial Managers (IIM) to form the Institute of Management (IM) in 1992 and obtained a Royal Charter to become the Chartered Management Institute in 2002, told the BBC&#8217;s “Today” program, “A lot of women, in particular, feel left out. They don&#8217;t follow those sports and they don&#8217;t like either being forced to talk about them or not being included. I have nothing against sports enthusiasts or cricket fans &#8211; that&#8217;s great. But the issue is many people aren&#8217;t cricket fans,” according to the <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/business-51261999">BBC</a>.
Francke opined that talking about sports was problematic because of where it led: &#8220;It&#8217;s a gateway to more laddish behaviour and — if it just goes unchecked — it&#8217;s a signal of a more laddish culture. It&#8217;s very easy for it to escalate from VAR talk and chat to slapping each other on the back and talking about their conquests at the weekend.”
CMI notes, “In 2019, Ann was awarded an OBE for services to workplace equality. Ann is an expert on gender balance in the workplace and speaks frequently in the media and conferences on this and other management topics. Her book on gender balance – Create a Gender-balanced Workplace, published in September 2019.”
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
The Chartered Management Institute’s Ann Francke believes talking about football is a “gateway” to more laddish culture.<a href="https://t.co/ZK1Pyfle10">https://t.co/ZK1Pyfle10</a>
&mdash; The Daily Record (@Daily_Record) <a href="https://twitter.com/Daily_Record/status/1221911005002944519?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 27, 2020</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Sports journalist Jacqui Oatley disagreed with Francke’s position, stating to “Today,” &#8220;If you ban football chat or banter of any description, then all you&#8217;re going to do is alienate the people who actually want to communicate with each other.” She added, “It would be so, so negative to tell people not to talk about sport because girls don&#8217;t like it or women don&#8217;t like it, that&#8217;s far more divisive.&#8221;
Francke <a href="https://www.telegraph.co.uk/women/work/the-hillary-clinton-backlash-tells-us-everything-about-britains/">wrote in August 2016</a> during the presidential election that the reason Hillary Clinton wasn’t as popular as she should have been was that she had the temerity to ask for a promotion:
<blockquote> … male managers are 40 per cent more likely to get promoted than women. Too many women still don&#8217;t ask &#8211; something I&#8217;ll come back to. But perhaps the more interesting thing is what happens when women DO ask. They face the Hillary Backlash.
Let me start by saying that as a dual UK/US citizen Hillary Clinton gets my vote &#8211; by far the best and only competent choice for the White House. But the reason I mention her here, is that she suffers from exactly the same problem as many ordinary women in the workplace. She&#8217;s had the audacity to ask for a promotion …
Don&#8217;t demonize women who have the nerve to do what men do naturally &#8211; showcase their achievements and ask for promotion &#8211; as “aggressive.” “bossy” or “selfish.” Ask yourself: if this was a man how would I view it? Stop the Hillary Backlash. She may just be the best choice.</blockquote>

Coworkers watching some sport at digital tablet and celebrating at work

Female Chief Of Institution For Management Wants New Rules: Men Should Shut Up About Sports

Feminism

<div class="content-list-component yr-content-list-text text" data-rapid-cpos="1" data-rapid-subsec="paragraph" data-rapid-parsed="subsec">
During a 2018 interview, late basketball legend Kobe Bryant explained that he frequently opted to take helicopter rides to and from basketball-related events to avoid notorious Los Angeles traffic, thus saving time so he could spend more moments with his children. For example, Bryant said he enjoyed taking his daughters to school, as well as picking them up.
Bryant, his 13-year-old daughter Gianna, and seven others, including a teammate of Gianna’s and her parents, were tragically killed in a helicopter accident on Sunday in California.
</div>
<div class="content-list-component yr-content-list-text text" data-rapid-cpos="2" data-rapid-subsec="paragraph" data-rapid-parsed="subsec">
“Traffic started getting really, really bad and I was sitting in traffic and I wound up missing like a school play, because I was sitting in traffic,&#8221; the former Laker said during an episode of the Barstool Sports&#8217; &#8220;The Corp,&#8221; <a href="https://www.huffpost.com/entry/kobe-bryant-helicopters-los-angeles-basketball_n_5e2f0b0dc5b6779e9c382798">HuffPost</a> reported.
&#8220;I had to figure out a way where I could still train and focus on the craft but still not compromise family time,” he continued. “So that’s when I looked into helicopters, to be able to get down and back in 15 minutes and that’s when it started.&#8221;
</div>
<div class="content-list-component yr-content-list-text text" data-rapid-cpos="6" data-rapid-subsec="paragraph" data-rapid-parsed="subsec">
“You have like road trips and times where you don’t see your kids. So every chance I get to see them, to spend time with them — even if it’s 20 minutes in the car — I want that,” added Bryant.
According to <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/01/26/sports/basketball/kobe-bryant-dead.html">The New York Times</a>, the helicopter was headed to the Mamba Sports Academy in Thousand Oaks, California, where Bryant coached daughter Gianna&#8217;s basketball team.
&#8220;The gym had handwritten signs on the door: Closed,&#8221; the Times reported, adding: &#8220;A few dozen people, adults of all ages, stood huddled in silence around the memorial of several jerseys, candles, dozens of bouquets, Sports Illustrated magazines with Bryant on the cover, and a Lakers flag. Written on one bouquet was &#8216;We love you Kobe and Gigi.&#8217; Another card, the shape of a Lakers basketball, read, &#8216;The day we lost a legend: 1-26-20 Thank you for being a role model for me and for others.'&#8221;
As noted by <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/kobe-a-devout-catholic-reportedly-attended-mass-morning-of-accident">The Daily Wire</a> on Monday, Bryant, a devout Catholic, reportedly attended mass the morning of the accident.
“A friend texted me today to tell me that a friend of her’s saw #KobeBryant at #Catholic Mass this morning,” Boston priest David Barnes said via Twitter on Sunday. “Mass is the worship of God. Heaven is the worship of God. Go to Mass here so that you can worship God forever in heaven.”
</div>
In 2015, the basketball star credited his faith and the help of a Catholic priest for allowing him to overcome major personal stumbles, reported <a href="https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/the-catholic-faith-of-kobe-bryant-77371">Catholic News Agency</a>.
Bryant was accused of raping a 19-year-old woman in a Colorado hotel room in 2003. He admitted to cheating on his wife and engaging in the sexual encounter, but has always maintained that it was consensual.
“What I came to understand, coming out of Colorado, is that I had to be me, in the place where I was at that moment,” Bryant told GQ in 2015.
“The one thing that really helped me during that process — I’m Catholic, I grew up Catholic, my kids are Catholic — was talking to a priest,” he added.
“It was actually kind of funny: He looks at me and says, ’Did you do it?’ And I say, ’Of course not.’ Then he asks, ’Do you have a good lawyer?’ And I’m like, ’Uh, yeah, he’s phenomenal.’ So then he just said, ’Let it go. Move on. God’s not going to give you anything you can’t handle, and it’s in his hands now. This is something you can’t control. So let it go.’ And that was the turning point,” recalled Bryant.
<div class="content-list-component yr-content-list-text text" data-rapid-cpos="6" data-rapid-subsec="paragraph" data-rapid-parsed="subsec">
WATCH:
</div>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
The story behind why Kobe flew in a private helicopters in LA 💔 <a href="https://t.co/0jeB9qCpHd">pic.twitter.com/0jeB9qCpHd</a>
&mdash; Tequila Taze (@TazerBlack) <a href="https://twitter.com/TazerBlack/status/1221789426851962880?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 27, 2020</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

Kobe Bryant And Daughter Gianna

In Past Interview, Kobe Said He Relied On Helicopter Use To Spend More Time With His Children

Children

When Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier in 1947, he was subjected to racist jeers from fans, discrimination from some of his teammates, death threats, and sometimes physical abuse. During his first year on the Brooklyn Dodgers, a player from an opposing team intentionally slid into him cleats-first, leaving a gash in his leg. This treatment was all due to the simple fact that he was a black man playing baseball. His willingness to endure heckles, taunts, and worse, while blazing a trail for other black athletes to follow, has led many people to label him the bravest athlete in sports history.
But now, according to the gay sports outlet Outsports, Robinson&#8217;s reign has come to an end. Cyd Zeigler, writing for the publication, has <a href="https://www.outsports.com/2020/1/14/21062012/fallon-fox-trans-athlete-mma-courage-brave">declared</a> that the bravest athlete of all time, the sports figure who best embodies the virtues of courage and heroism, is a biological male who beat the hell out of a bunch of women in MMA. Zeigler gave the &#8220;trans&#8221; athlete Fallon Fox that moniker in a recent article, explaining that the professional woman-beater &#8220;is an indelible part of LGBTQ sports history&#8221; and has &#8220;opened possibilities for trans athletes in women’s sports that will be felt for generations.&#8221; Why any of this requires courage — much less the most courage of any athlete ever — is never explained.
It also isn&#8217;t explained how courage is involved when a biological male, with his testosterone and greater muscle mass and denser bone structure, <a href="https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/transgender-female-boxer-gives-female-opponent-concussion-breaks-her-eye-so">fractures the skull of a female opponent</a> and leaves her lying on the mat, concussed, and bleeding. One would think that the female opponent at least has more courage than the man who is beating her half to death.
<iframe title="AOC&#039;s Cartoon Version Of Reality | The Matt Walsh Show Ep. 410" width="500" height="281" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/tnIug6FuTAw?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe>
We&#8217;re assured that it&#8217;s okay for a male to physically brutalize a female because females sometimes brutalize each other. This is how Fox himself justified it. &#8220;I’m not the first female MMA fighter who’s broken another fighter’s bones,&#8221; he said. &#8220;And people will of course, because I’m trans, hold it up as this devastating thing that couldn’t possibly happen if I weren’t trans. But there are many different examples of similar things happening.&#8221;
He&#8217;s right, of course. He&#8217;s not the first female fighter to break another fighter&#8217;s bones. Mostly because he&#8217;s not a female fighter at all. Notice here how the arbitrary sex versus gender distinction has been collapsed and disregarded. The large, muscular man with a penis and XY chromosomal structure isn&#8217;t just a woman by gender. He is, in fact, a female.
Don&#8217;t count on Zeigler to grapple with that difficulty. We are just supposed to dutifully applaud, accepting at face value whatever lame excuses and justifications are put forward. Zeigler doesn&#8217;t present actual arguments in favor of allowing men like Fox to fight women because there are no arguments available to him. It is objectively wrong on every conceivable level — morally, ethically, scientifically. A coherent defense of the practice cannot be offered, and never has been offered. The most the other side of this debate can do is make vague emotional appeals, hoping we&#8217;ll forget that the women being abused and cheated have emotions, too. But their emotions are irrelevant, we&#8217;re told. Just as science is irrelevant. Just as fairness is irrelevant. All that matters, for some reason, is how this one guy feels. And his insistence on doing what makes him feel good, at any cost, is admirable. Not just admirable, but also heroic. Not just heroic but the most heroic thing anyone has ever done or could ever do.
Heroic. Courageous. Beautiful. Keep repeating it until you believe it.

woman MMA

WALSH: Male Trans MMA Fighter Who Beat Up Women Dubbed ‘Bravest Athlete In History’

LGBT

The Louisiana State University Tigers won their third National Championship in sixteen years Monday night, their Heisman-winning quarterback Joe Burrow making it look pretty easy on the way to throwing for <a href="https://www.espn.com/college-football/boxscore?gameId=401135295">463 yards</a>, tossing five touchdowns and running for another, while star running back Clyde Edwards-Helaire racked up 110 yards on the ground.
But while the Ed Orgeron-coached team was naturally eager to celebrate after their 42-25 victory over the Clemson Tigers, police — and some in the sports reporters — weren&#8217;t going to let them engage in one particular celebratory tradition:
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
Get The Nat <a href="https://t.co/1udC79q6cc">pic.twitter.com/1udC79q6cc</a>
&mdash; LSU Football (@LSUfootball) <a href="https://twitter.com/LSUfootball/status/1216976750007214080?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 14, 2020</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
As pointed out by <a href="https://twitchy.com/gregp-3534/2020/01/14/wtf-lsu-players-smoking-cigars-to-celebrate-the-national-championship-were-threatened-with-arrest/">Twitchy</a>, the media was quick to sound the alarm over all that championship-celebrating cigar smoke.
&#8220;There is cigar smoke emanating from the <a class="twitter-hashtag pretty-link js-nav" dir="ltr" href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/LSU?src=hash" data-query-source="hashtag_click"><s>#</s>LSU</a> locker room,&#8221; <a href="https://twitter.com/RossDellenger/status/1216963818099806209?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1216963818099806209&amp;ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Ftwitchy.com%2Fgregp-3534%2F2020%2F01%2F14%2Fwtf-lsu-players-smoking-cigars-to-celebrate-the-national-championship-were-threatened-with-arrest%2F">tweeted</a> Sports Illustrated&#8217;s Ross Dellenger.
ESPN&#8217;s Heather Dinich was particularly concerned about the &#8220;suffocating&#8221; smoke.
&#8220;It was so unbelievably smoky in the LSU locker room from the players smoking cigars I can taste it &#8230; and no, I didn’t have one. It was suffocating,&#8221; <a href="https://twitter.com/CFBHeather/status/1216969584454094849?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1216969584454094849&amp;ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Ftwitchy.com%2Fgregp-3534%2F2020%2F01%2F14%2Fwtf-lsu-players-smoking-cigars-to-celebrate-the-national-championship-were-threatened-with-arrest%2F">wrote</a> Dinich.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
It was so unbelievably smoky in the LSU locker room from the players smoking cigars I can taste it &#8230; and no, I didn’t have one. It was suffocating.
&mdash; Heather Dinich (@CFBHeather) <a href="https://twitter.com/CFBHeather/status/1216969584454094849?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 14, 2020</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
After about 15 minutes, police got involved — and threatened to arrest players who didn&#8217;t put out the stogies.
&#8220;A smoke-filled LSU locker room got a surprise warning early Tuesday morning,&#8221; <a href="https://t.co/5va9mZqDPS">AL.com</a> reports. &#8220;A police officer threw water on the party when telling the national champions they could not smoke the cigars that burned for easily 15 minutes after beating Clemson. In fact, the officer announced to the players any smoking cigars in the locker room would be subject to arrest.&#8221;
&#8220;Several players holding stogies laughed at the warning like it was a joke but the cop wasn’t smiling,&#8221; the outlet notes.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
Several players holding stogies laughed at the warning like it was a joke but the officer wasn’t smiling.
Cop threatens arrest for LSU players smoking cigars <a href="https://t.co/5va9mZqDPS">https://t.co/5va9mZqDPS</a> <a href="https://t.co/QL7smdGRiT">pic.twitter.com/QL7smdGRiT</a>
&mdash; AL.com (@aldotcom) <a href="https://twitter.com/aldotcom/status/1217070565162409984?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 14, 2020</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
According to the outlet, another officer also spoke with the players, saying while he thought a smoke in the locker room wasn&#8217;t a big deal, his commander said otherwise.
In the end, no one was arrested, and the players — and their many diehard fans in Louisiana — continued celebrating long into the night.
The game ultimately played out as many analysts predicted: LSU&#8217;s high-powered offense eventually wore down Clemson, whose usually stout defense couldn&#8217;t keep up with Burrow&#8217;s precise arm and LSU&#8217;s talented receiving core. Clemson started off strong, scoring first and gaining a 10-point edge early on, but LSU started gaining momentum by the end of the first half.
Clemson pulled the game to within 3 in the early third quarter, 25-28, but it was all LSU after that. After Burrow helped the team gain a 17-point lead early in the 4th quarter, Edwards-Helaire took over on the ground, chewing up yards and time.
By the end of the night, LSU had racked up 628 yards of offense (463 passing and 165 rushing), while Clemson managed over 200 yards less (394 total, 234 passing, 160 rushing). LSU ended the game with no turnovers, while Clemson had one, a fumble by star quarterback Trevor Lawrence in a key fourth quarter-drive in LSU territory.
As <a href="https://www.espn.com/college-football/recap?gameId=401135295">ESPN</a> notes, Burrow&#8217;s six touchdowns (five passing, one rushing) and 463 yards passing are the best of any quarterback in a BCS or College Football Playoff title game.
Related: <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/this-is-america-deafening-cheers-break-out-for-trump-at-national-championship-game">‘THIS IS AMERICA’: Deafening Cheers Break Out For Trump At National Championship Game</a>

LSU Players Celebrate

LSU Players Threatened With Arrest For Smoking Cigars After Victory; ESPN Reporter: ‘Suffocating’

Football

Border patrol agents seized three shipments of fake NFL, MLB, and NHL, championship rings that were being delivered from China.
Fox News <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/us/china-fake-nfl-mlb-nhl-championship-rings-seized">reported</a> that Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officers intercepted the shipments and seized a total of 631 replica rings between October 2018 and 2019. The fake rings included replicas of New England Patriots Super Bowl rings and fake World Series rings for the New York Yankees and St. Louis Cardinals.
(Note: The ring pictured above is not fake.)
“If authentic, the total rings would have been valued at more than $6,300,000,” Fox reported. “All the packages containing the fake sports memorabilia had been shipped from China and were heading to various U.S. addresses, according to the CBP. The poor packaging and craftsmanship of the merchandise tipped off the officers, who later determined the rings were fakes.”
Michael Neipert, Port Director for CBP Memphis, told the outlet that seizing counterfeit goods is another aspect of the CBP’s responsibilities.
“One of CBP’s responsibilities is to protect Intellectual Property Rights. Our officers do a great job of detecting and seizing counterfeit goods,” he said.
As Fox reported, these are simply the most recent seizures of counterfeit sports memorabilia intercepted from China.
In November, the Philadelphia CBP <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/us/cbp-seizes-counterfeit-super-bowl-world-series-rings">seized 11 counterfeit championship rings</a>, including nine New England Patriots Super Bowl rings, one New York Yankees World Series ring, and a Houston Astros World Series ring. If the rings had been real, they would have been worth a total of $526,000.
CBP told Fox News at the time that the rings were being shipped in a $14 “box” to Drexel Hill, Pennsylvania, “of all places.”
“Scammers and transnational criminal organizations take advantage of collectors and sports fans who desire to obtain a piece of sports history to line their pockets with illicit financial gains,” Casey Durst, CBP’s Baltimore field office director of field operations, told Fox.
“Customs and Border Protection will continue to work closely with our trade and consumer safety partners to intercept counterfeit consumer goods that can harm American consumers and our nation’s economy, and steal revenue and brand integrity from U.S. businesses and trademark holders,&#8221; Durst added.
Fox reported that “officers worked with the agency&#8217;s trade experts, the CBP&#8217;s Consumer Products and Mass Merchandising Centers for Excellence and Expertise, along with league and team trademark holders in order to verify that the rings were fake, CPB said.&#8221;
The biggest shipment of fake sports memorabilia in recent memory came in March, when CBP officials at John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York seized 177 fake championship rings that would have been worth a whopping $11.7 million if they had been real.
“The seized rings were infringing on the Major League Baseball (MLB), National Football League (NFL), National Hockey League (NHL), and the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) trademarks,” CBP <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/us/fake-sports-rings-seized-cbp">told Fox</a> at the time.

Superbowl ring

Border Patrol Seizes Hundreds Of Fake NFL, MLB, NHL Championship Rings From China

China

A record number of biological males who self-identify as female may be competing in the 2020 Olympic Summer Games, forcing a public debate over the fairness of transgender women competing against biological women in sporting events.
As the International Olympic Committee (IOC) looks to prepare for the upcoming games in Tokyo, Japan, the world is poised to confront the seemingly divisive issue on what constitutes a female athlete, according to an article published on Tuesday by <a href="https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2019/11/transgenderism_and_the_olympics.html">The American Thinker</a>.
The IOC sought to introduce stricter guidelines for transgender competitors, as more biological males have been smashing women&#8217;s records and sweeping titles at the high school and collegiate levels. However, the IOC&#8217;s panel of scientists have failed to reach a consensus due to the &#8220;politically charged and sensitive&#8221; nature of the debate, reported <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2019/sep/24/ioc-delays-new-transgender-guidelines-2020-olympics">The Guardian</a> in September.
Guidelines established by the IOC in 2015 allow some biologically male athletes to compete in female events, depending on testosterone levels. Accordingly, those athletes are required to maintain testosterone levels below 10 nanomoles per liter (nm/l) for no less than 12 months. The American Thinker notes that biological males generally have between 7.7 and 29.4 nm/l of testosterone, while women have between 0.12 and 1.77 nm/l. This means that biological male athletes can conceivably have a 500% hormonal advantage over their biological women counterparts.
Regardless, crafting guidelines based on testosterone levels alone may be irrelevant as to whether or not transgender women have a significant advantage over the competition. A study compiled by the Karolinska Institutet, a leading Swedish medical and research university, determined that transgender women benefit primarily from their masculine bone structure and upper body strength. Current testosterone levels might actually be relatively insignificant.
&#8220;Not every male advantage dissipates when testosterone drops,&#8221; said Alison Heather, a New Zealand researcher and physiologist at the University of Otago. &#8220;Some advantages, such as their bigger bone structure, greater lung capacity, and larger heart size remain. Testosterone also promotes muscle memory. Transgender women have a heightened ability to build strength even after they transition.&#8221;
The debate of where transgender individuals fit into competitive athletics, however, is likely to be pushed onto the front lines as more than one billion people watch the Olympic Games in 2020 — many of whom have never been fully exposed to the issue.
The news media has notably promoted the politically correct narrative benefitting transgender athletes over their biologically female counterparts and has been suppressing further dissent, according to The American Thinker. However, as more than 25 million Americans are tuned into the international games at any one point in time, many people will be confronted with the striking disadvantage that biological women would face.
The feminist movement, which has sought to highlight and resolve the seemingly unfair treatment of women in a society that allegedly prioritizes males, has, at times, been shut out of the transgender athletics debate in its entirety. But traditional progressive feminists who seek to advance women&#8217;s equality will be pitted against other progressives who feel that the rights of roughly 0.3% of the population should be held at a higher value than the rights of more than half of the population.

Women jumping over hurdles

Transgenderism Brought To The Forefront As Biological Males Look To Compete In Women’s Olympic Events

On Tuesday’s episode of “The Ben Shapiro Show,” the Daily Wire editor-in-chief talks about how the sports media complex only allows politics in sports when it comes from the Left. Video and partial transcript below: 
So there is a rule in sports media. The rule is that if you are on the Left and you want to talk politics, then you are a hero; If you&#8217;re not on the Left and you to talk politics, you get fired. 
That is the rule in sports media. We&#8217;ve talked about this — my friend Clay Travis, who is a lifelong registered Democrat as far as I&#8217;m aware, and he fully agrees that the sports media are extraordinarily biased to the Left. Like more so, statistically speaking, than the news media, actually. This is how you end up with these two juxtaposed stories: 
In <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/11/11/opinion/deadspin-sports.html">The New York Times</a>, an editorial by a guy named Barry Petchesky, who is the former deputy editor of Deadspin — [which] had turned into this wild Left outlet that had almost nothing to do with sports, they spent their days ripping on Ted Cruz until Ted Cruz owned them — [Petchesky] has a piece called “I Was Fired from Deadspin for Refusing to ‘Stick to Sports.’”
<blockquote>Two weeks ago, I was fired as acting editor in chief of Deadspin, where I’d worked since 2009. The entire staff resigned, following me out the door after we refused a new company mandate to &#8220;stick to sports.&#8221; Jim Spanfeller, installed as chief executive of G/O Media by the private equity firm that bought the company seven months ago, called me into his office, pointed to some offending stories on our home page and had me escorted from the building.
This is the first time I&#8217;m speaking up about my firing, and my stance remains the same as in the countless meetings with management where I explained and insisted that sports don&#8217;t end when the players head back to the locker room.
We refused to &#8220;stick to sports,&#8221; because we know that sports is everything and everything is sports: It&#8217;s the N.B.A. kowtowing to its Chinese business interests; it&#8217;s pro sports leagues attempting to become shadow justice systems for publicity reasons; it&#8217;s the opioid epidemic roiling N.F.L. locker rooms at least as hard as anywhere in Appalachia, even as the league refuses to relax its marijuana policies; it&#8217;s racist fan chants chasing black players off the pitch in Italian soccer matches; it&#8217;s Washington Nationals catcher Kurt Suzuki wearing a &#8220;Make America Great Again&#8221; cap at the White House. (These last few stories occurred in the past week and so were not covered on Deadspin; the &#8220;stick to sports&#8221; diktat forced the outlet to ignore the biggest sports stories in the world.)
Reporting sports with integrity requires knowing that there&#8217;s no way to wall off games from the world outside.</blockquote>
This guy&#8217;s a hero! I mean, it doesn&#8217;t matter that Deadspin was basically bankrupt, which is why a private equity firm had to buy them, and reinvigorate them and change everything out. But the idea here is that if you speak about politics from the Left in the sports world, then you are a hero of the republic.
<iframe src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Pp0DgVLogMs?start=2919" width="560" height="315" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"></iframe>
This guy Petchesky, he said:
<blockquote>Deadspin was the voice of the long-suffering fan, finding the humor and the heartbreak in everything in the world of sports. It was the fan wondering why he was paying $200 to go to a football game to watch a team whose owner would rather pocket profit than pay to improve the roster. It was also the fan troubled by the culture and politics of sports, the fan who couldn&#8217;t help noticing that the larger issues of the real world spilled onto the field.</blockquote>
Okay, so New York Times gives that guy an op-ed, and we&#8217;re all supposed to lament the return of Deadspin to pure sports. Then, there&#8217;s Don Cherry. 
So Don Cherry is a longtime hockey analyst for the NHL, and he was on SportsNet and he commented on SportsNet on the fact that it was Remembrance Day in Canada. Now, on Remembrance Day — I’ve been there, and everyone wears a red poppy in remembrance of the Canadian soldiers who fell during World War I — and he was upset because he said who&#8217;s walking around the streets of Toronto, and he saw people who he assumed were immigrants who were not wearing the red poppy. Here&#8217;s what Don Cherry said:
<blockquote>CHERRY: I live in Mississauga, nobody wears — very few people wear a poppy. Downtown Toronto, forget it downtown Toronto, nobody wears a poppy. &#8230; Now you go to the small cities and you know those, the rows and rows, you people love — they come here, whatever it is, you love our way of life, you love our milk and honey, at least you could pay a couple of bucks for a poppies or something like that. These guys pay for your way of life that you enjoy in Canada; these guys paid the biggest price. </blockquote>
Okay, so he said this and, you know, might not be wel-articulated, but he is entitled to his opinion unless he happens to be on the anti-immigration Right, at which point he gets fired. Don Cherry was indeed fired from SportsNet. SportsNet President Bart Yabsley said, quote, “Sports brings people together — it unites us, not divides us. Following further discussions with Don Cherry after Saturday night&#8217;s broadcast, it has been decided it is the right time for him to immediately step down. During the broadcast, he made divisive remarks that do not represent our values or what we stand for.”
I mean, you could just say that, right? You could just have that debate, theoretically. But the point here is that the media will lament if Deadspin is told not to do politics; but if Don Cherry is told not to do politics, then that is SportsNet acting just as a wonderful diverse company should. 
You see the same thing at ESPN. At ESPN, they will cover Colin Kaepernick kneeling for years on end, but if Mike Ditka says something they don&#8217;t like because it happens to be conservative, he says something about how he doesn’t like Barack Obama or something, they&#8217;ll fire him. He&#8217;s gone, end of Mike Ditka. You see that with Curt Schilling, too. Curt Schilling can&#8217;t appear on the network because [he] once tweeted that al-Qaeda was bad and compared al-Qaeda to the Nazis, which, of course, you&#8217;re not allowed to do even though al-Qaeda is kind of like the Nazis.
So just gonna point out the double standard in sports media — one of the reasons why sports circulation is declining. The answer to this probably is to separate off politics from sports again, or if you are going to not separate off politics from sports, then you should, in fact, allow the same sort of freedom of opinion to reign as you would in the political sphere. Don Cherry wouldn’t have been fired for saying what he said on CNN, so if politics and sports are not separate, then let a thousand voices be heard. If politics in sports are separate, well, then supplementing it when left-wing political hacks start hijacking sports websites for their own political agenda. 
<a href="https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-ben-shapiro-show/id1047335260">Listen to full episodes of “The Ben Shapiro Show” on iTunes. </a>
<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/show/the-ben-shapiro-show">Watch “The Ben Shapiro Show” on-demand!</a>

New York, NY &#8211; Nov 1: An employee of the website Deadspin show

SHAPIRO: Left-Wing Sports Coverage Pushed Deadspin Into A Death Spiral

Leftism

Media Bias

Progressivism

Iconic Canadian broadcaster Don Cherry was <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/watch-don-cherry-fired-for-telling-immigrants-to-honor-fallen-vets-responds-to-backlash">fired</a> from his job with Sportsnet this week after using his “Coach’s Corner” segment to encourage immigrants to honor fallen troops. Cherry was apparently upset that a diminishing number of people in the Toronto area wear the traditional poppy pins to commemorate Canada’s Remembrance Day. He (not unreasonably) connected this drop off in traditional observance to the increasing number of immigrants in the area. Here’s how he put it:
<blockquote>“You people love — you, that come here, whatever it is — you love our way of life, you love our milk and honey. At least you could pay a couple of bucks for poppies or something like that. These guys paid for your way of life, that you enjoy in Canada.”</blockquote>
The worst thing you could possibly say about these comments is that they’re a little bit gruff. But Don Cherry is 85 years old and 85-year-old men have earned the right to be gruff. Other than this lack of diplomacy, there is nothing remotely offensive or bigoted in his point of view on this issue. He isn’t telling immigrants not to come to Canada. He isn’t saying they are inferior to, or less than, himself. He certainly isn&#8217;t saying anything &#8220;<a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/nhl/2019/11/11/don-cherry-fired-racist-anti-immigrant-comment/2566800001/">racist</a>,&#8221; as USA Today matter-of-factly put it. He doesn&#8217;t mention race at all and could just as easily be talking about immigrants from a mostly white country. His only point, it seems to me, is to lament a perceived deficit of patriotism and gratitude.
Of course, we live in a time when the only thing more lacking than patriotism is fortitude, so everyone associated with Cherry immediately threw him under the bus and prostrated themselves before the outrage mob. The president of Sportsnet, Bart Yablsey (a fitting name, somehow), announced Cherry’s firing while publicly scolding him for &#8220;divisive remarks&#8221; that &#8220;do not represent our values.&#8221;
The NHL chimed in with its own bit of finger-wagging, accusing Cherry of saying things &#8220;that are in direct conflict with the values of diversity and inclusion that we embrace as pillars of the sport.&#8221; Hockey used to be a game where rough men got their teeth knocked out. Now the National Hockey League delivers lectures on &#8220;inclusion.&#8221; We are truly living in &#8220;Idiocracy,&#8221; except everyone has lost their spines as well as their brains.
<iframe title="Media and Hollywood Rally Behind Convicted Rapist and Murderer | The Matt Walsh Show Ep. 369" width="500" height="281" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/BlehMV5yg8U?start=1366&#038;feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe>
Speaking of spineless, Cherry’s longtime co-host, Ron MacLean, who sat and nodded while Cherry was making these comments, tried desperately to keep his job by knifing his friend in the back. MacLean, doing his best to pretend that he understands why people are upset about this nonsense, called Cherry’s remarks &#8220;hurtful, discriminatory&#8221; and &#8220;flat-out wrong.&#8221; He even thanked the whiney masses for &#8220;calling Don and me on that&#8221; and teaching them a &#8220;great lesson.&#8221; Then his skin turned translucent and he morphed into a literal jellyfish on live TV.
I think there are two points to be made about all of this.
First, Don Cherry was correct. It is indeed important to inculcate patriotism and gratitude in all citizens. As for immigrants, it is their responsibility to assimilate themselves to their new country and show a proper respect for the traditions of their adopted home. Cherry’s point is a good one: If you’re immigrating to a country in order to enjoy its freedoms and luxuries, you should appreciate that many people had to die in order to provide you that opportunity. If there is not enough appreciation for that fact, who should we be scolding — Don Cherry, or the people who made his comments necessary in the first place?
Second, let’s pretend for a moment that Don Cherry’s comments really were &#8220;hurtful&#8221; and &#8220;discriminatory,&#8221; like his aquatic broadcasting partner claims. Could they possibly be more hurtful and discriminatory than a blackface costume? And if they don’t &#8220;represent the values&#8221; of Canadians, then does a man who <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/blackface-photo-justin-trudeau-surfaces-trudeau-ryan-saavedra">wore blackface multiple times</a> represent them?
The hypocrisy is so blatant that it probably doesn’t need to be pointed out, but I will anyway. There was so much outrage in Canada over opinions expressed by a television host that the host was fired. Yet the prime minister of the country wore blackface and still won re-election. Of course, we Americans have no room to gloat. Megyn Kelly was fired from her job at NBC just for talking about blackface.
It just goes to show that these faux-racism outrages are political and performative. Calling the outrage mob &#8220;sensitive&#8221; or &#8220;snowflakes&#8221; misses the point and gives them too much credit. They aren’t sensitive — they’re just frauds.

Don Cherry

WALSH: Legendary Canadian Broadcaster Fired For ‘Racist’ Comments. But Blackface-Wearing Trudeau Remains In Office.

Canada

Immigration

Military

A week after making headlines for the explosive crowd response to his appearance at Game 5 of the World Series in Nationals Park, Sports Illustrated&#8217;s <a href="https://www.si.com/college/alabama/bamacentral/alabama-football-lsu-president-trump">BamaCentral</a> is reporting that President Trump will be attending the most anticipated game of the college football season: No. 1 LSU versus No. 2 Alabama at Bryant-Denny Stadium on Saturday.
The game, which starts at 3:30 p.m. Eastern and features the undefeated LSU Tigers (8-0) playing against their biggest rival, the undefeated Alabama Crimson Tide (8-0), will now draw even more attention, if Sports Illustrated&#8217;s sources are correct.
&#8220;BamaCentral has learned that the University of Alabama is making preparations for President Donald Trump to attend the LSU game at Bryant-Denny Stadium on Saturday,&#8221; the outlet reported Monday. &#8220;Alabama officials could not be reached to confirm or deny, but sources have confirmed his expected visit.&#8221;
LSU edged out Alabama in the most recent <a href="https://www.espn.com/college-football/rankings">AP poll</a> (1479-1472), though Alabama returned the favor in the <a href="https://www.espn.com/college-football/rankings">Coaches Poll</a> (1591-1531). ESPN&#8217;s <a href="http://www.espn.com/college-football/statistics/teamratings">Football Power Index</a> lists Alabama at 2nd and LSU at 4th overall, giving Alabama a 31.6% chance of winning out the rest of the way and LSU an 11.7% chance. The index gives Alabama a 50% chance of winning the conference and LSU a 16.4% chance, in large part because of the daunting task of taking out Alabama. The line for the game currently gives Alabama a -6.5 point advantage.
<article class="story-body clearfix">
<div class="tml body">
&#8220;The high-profile game was already attracting a lot of attention, including ESPN&#8217;s pregame show &#8216;College Gameday,'&#8221; BamaCentral reports, noting that due to security concerns, the stage for the show had to be moved from the Walk of Champions outside the stadium to the Quad. SEC Nation and the Marty &amp; McGee show will also be filming on location on the campus.
This isn&#8217;t the first college football game starring Alabama that Trump has attended. He also made it to the National Championship game in 2017, when Alabama managed to come back in the second half to beat another SEC team, the Georgia Bulldogs.
Though Trump left at halftime when Alabama was still trailing 13-0, the president made sure to celebrate their 17th championship (their 5th under Nick Saban) with them at the White House, calling it &#8220;a win for the ages.&#8221;
As <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/watch-alabamas-football-team-prays-trump-white-ryan-saavedra">The Daily Wire</a> reported, when the Crimson Tide team visited the White House to meet the president in April 2018, WBRC News sports reporter Christina Chambers posted a moment on video that went viral:  A member of the team asked if they could pray for the president.
“What a cool moment! [Alabama Football&#8217;s punter JK Scott] asked [President Trump] if he could pray for him and his staff,&#8221; wrote Chambers in a tweet. &#8220;Video below shows President Trump and Bama players praying after the Tide’s [at] WhiteHouse visit!&#8221;
WATCH:
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">
What a cool moment! .<a href="https://twitter.com/AlabamaFTBL?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@AlabamaFTBL</a> JK Scott asked <a href="https://twitter.com/POTUS?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@POTUS</a> if he could pray for him and his staff. Video below shows President Trump and Bama players praying after the Tide&#8217;s <a href="https://twitter.com/WhiteHouse?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@WhiteHouse</a> visit! <a href="https://twitter.com/WBRCnews?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@WBRCnews</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/BarrettSallee?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@BarrettSallee</a> <a href="https://t.co/tE4hj4k38l">pic.twitter.com/tE4hj4k38l</a>
— ChristinaWBRC (@ChristinaWBRC) <a href="https://twitter.com/ChristinaWBRC/status/983798776866459649?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 10, 2018</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
White House Press Secretary Stephanie Grisham posted a tweet celebrating the moment. &#8220;As a proud Arkansan, I’m not an Alabama football fan, but I was a big fan of this prayer for [President Trump,&#8221; Grisham wrote.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
As a proud Arkansan, I’m not an Alabama football fan, but I was a big fan of this prayer for <a href="https://twitter.com/POTUS?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@POTUS</a>. <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/SEC?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#SEC</a> Always <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/WPS?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#WPS</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/ArkRazorbacks?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@ArkRazorbacks</a> <a href="https://t.co/P65jAN29zS">pic.twitter.com/P65jAN29zS</a>
&mdash; Stephanie Grisham (@PressSec) <a href="https://twitter.com/PressSec/status/983904413768089600?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 11, 2018</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Trump also issued a tweet in response to the team&#8217;s visit. &#8220;Today, it was my great honor to welcome the 2017 NCAA Football National Champion, Alabama Crimson Tide – to the White House. Congratulations!&#8221; he tweeted. adding, &#8220;#RollTide.&#8221;
&nbsp;
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
Today, it was my great honor to welcome the 2017 NCAA Football National Champion, Alabama Crimson Tide &#8211; to the White House. Congratulations! <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/RollTide?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#RollTide</a><a href="https://t.co/hF5EZHlSVS">https://t.co/hF5EZHlSVS</a> <a href="https://t.co/JfGue4IIs1">pic.twitter.com/JfGue4IIs1</a>
&mdash; Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) <a href="https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/983824424532144128?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 10, 2018</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
</div>
Related: <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/roll-tide-alabamas-top-donor-calls-boycott-against-ryan-saavedra">ROLL TIDE: Alabama’s Top Donor Calls For Boycott Against State, University Over Abortion. Alabama Gives His Money Back, Takes His Name Off Building.</a>
</article>

Alabama at LSU

Trump Going To Alabama-LSU Game

Alabama

Louisiana State University

As has been the trend among liberal athletes, a Washington Nationals relief pitcher won’t visit the White House with his teammates because of his disdain for President Donald Trump.
Sean Doolittle had previously remained silent on whether he would visit the White House upon winning the World Series when the prospect was merely a hypothetical. But now that the Nationals have won the title, Doolittle <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2019/11/01/sean-doolittle-declining-white-house-invite-i-dont-want-hang-out-with-somebody-who-talks-like-that/">told The Washington Post</a> that he would not visit the president of the United States.
“There’s a lot of things, policies that I disagree with, but at the end of the day, it has more to do with the divisive rhetoric and the enabling of conspiracy theories and widening the divide in this country,” Doolittle told the Post. It is unclear whether Doolittle would decline an invite from a Democratic president, who could just as easily be accused of “widening the divide in this country.”
“My wife and I stand for inclusion and acceptance, and we’ve done work with refugees, people that come from, you know, the ‘s&#8212;hole countries,’” he added.
Trump’s rhetoric on refugees was about how we needed to be sure who they were before we let them into our country, as many could be terrorists posing as refugees.
Doolittle also said he feels “very strongly about [Trump’s] issues on race relations” and the LGBT community. Doolittle’s wife “has two mothers who are very involved with the LGBTQ community,” the Post reported.
Trump is the first president to enter office supporting same-sex marriage, yet he has been painted as anti-LGBT. The claims are typically due to his picking Mike Pence as vice president. Pence is religious and believes in religious liberty, which is often at odds with LGBT beliefs. The Left paints religious people as hateful for their religious views.
Doolittle also criticized Trump for mocking a reporter who was disabled, saying he has an autistic family member.
“I have a brother-in-law who has autism, and [Trump] is a guy that mocked a disabled reporter. How would I explain that to him that I hung out with somebody who mocked the way that he talked, or the way that he moves his hands? I can’t get past that stuff,” Doolittle told the Post.
Doolittle was referencing Trump’s alleged mocking of New York Times reporter Serge Kovaleski, who has difficulty moving his right arm and hand due to arthrogryposis. Liberal media outlets have maintained that video of Trump mocking Kovaleski shows him mocking the reporter’s disability. Investor’s Business Daily <a href="https://www.investors.com/politics/commentary/fake-news-trump-did-not-mock-disabled-reporter-and-other-lies-from-the-left/">reported</a> that this is how Trump mocks “the mannerisms of people, including himself, who are rattled and exasperated.” Previous videos of Trump show this. As IBD also reported, it didn’t make sense for Trump to mock a man with limited movement by thrashing his arms wildly. Yet the anti-Trump myth persists.
So far no other Nationals player has said they would not attend the White House event honoring their win. Doolittle responded to those who disagreed with his decision not to attend.
“People say you should go because it’s about respecting the office of the president and I think over the course of his time in office he’s done a lot of things that maybe don’t respect the office,” he said. “I don’t want to hang out with somebody who talks like that.”

Sean Doolittle

Liberal Washington Nationals Player Won’t Visit White House Due To Trump’s ‘Divisive Rhetoric’

A time that should have been marked by triumphant celebration ended up being a moment one member of the Houston Astros&#8217; staff has come to regret.
Astros Assistant General Manager Brandon Taubman&#8217;s locker room comment to female reporters after the Astros&#8217; defeated the New York Yankees in Game 6 of the American League Championship series on Saturday has cost him his job.
According to Sports Illustrated, Taubman repeatedly yelled at a group of female reporters after the game, &#8220;Thank God we got Osuna!  I’m so f***ing glad we got Osuna!&#8221;
Taubman was referencing closer Roberto Osuna, who was traded to the Astros by the Toronto Blue Jays after being suspended for 75 games by Major League Baseball for domestic violence.
Here is how <a href="https://www.si.com/mlb/2019/10/22/houston-astros-roberto-osuna-suspension">Sports Illustrated</a> first reported the incident, which the magazine framed as an example of &#8220;MLB&#8217;s forgive-and-forget attitude toward domestic violence&#8221;:
<blockquote>[I]n the center of the room, assistant general manager Brandon Taubman turned to a group of three female reporters, including one wearing a purple domestic-violence awareness bracelet, and yelled, half a dozen times, “Thank God we got Osuna! I’m so f&#8212;&#8212; glad we got Osuna!”
The outburst was offensive and frightening enough that another Houston staffer apologized. The Astros declined to comment. They also declined to make Taubman available for an interview.</blockquote>
Initially, the Astros claimed that Sports Illustrated was fabricating the story, describing it as &#8220;misleading and completely irresponsible.&#8221;
&#8220;The story posted by Sports Illustrated is misleading and completely irresponsible,&#8221; the <a href="https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EHcvIdRXkAAm7Rx.jpg">statement</a> read. &#8220;An Astros player was being asked questions about a difficult outing. Our executive was supporting the player at a difficult time. His comments had everything to do about the game situation that just occurred and nothing else — they were also not directed at any specific reporters. We are extremely disappointed in Sports Illustrated&#8217;s attempt to fabricate a story where one does not exist.&#8221;
But after an investigation by the league, the team released a <a href="https://dfw.cbslocal.com/2019/10/24/astros-fire-assistant-gm-brandon-taubman-clubhouse-incident-female-reporters/">statement</a> on Thursday announcing that they were &#8220;wrong&#8221; in their initial assessment and that Taubman was out.
&#8220;During the past two days, the Astros pro-actively assisted Major League Baseball in interviewing Astros employees as part of MLB’s investigation of the events published in the recent Sports Illustrated article. Major League Baseball also separately interviewed members of the media over the past 24 hours,&#8221; the statement read.
&#8220;Our initial investigation led us to believe that Brandon Taubman’s inappropriate comments were not directed toward any reporter,&#8221; the statement continued. &#8220;We were wrong. We sincerely apologize to Stephanie Apstein, Sports Illustrated and to all individuals who witnessed this incident or were offended by the inappropriate conduct. The Astros in no way intended to minimize the issues related to domestic violence.&#8221;
&#8220;Our initial belief was based on witness statements about the incident,&#8221; the Astros explained. &#8220;Subsequent interviews have revealed that Taubman’s inappropriate comments were. in fact, directed toward one or more reporters. Accordingly we have terminated Brandon Taubman’s employment with the Houston Astros. His conduct does not reflect the values of our organization and we believe this is the most appropriate course of action.&#8221;
As reported by <a href="https://www.si.com/mlb/2019/10/24/jeff-luhnow-addresses-brandon-taubman-firing-astros">Sports Illustrated</a> on Thursday, Astros general manager Jeff Luhnow said the team was &#8220;wrong&#8221; for initially dismissing the SI claim. The initial statement, he said, &#8220;should have never been sent.&#8221;
&#8220;That original reaction by the Astros was wrong, and we own it as an organization,&#8221; Luhnow said. &#8220;There were many people involved in reviewing that and approving that, and I&#8217;m not going to get into the details of that. It was wrong. It was the Astros&#8217; decision.&#8221;
Related: <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/mlb-will-investigate-umpire-who-posted-violent-pro-trump-tweet">MLB Will Investigate Umpire Who Posted ‘Violent’ Pro-Trump Tweet</a>

Houston Astros

Houston Astros Fire Assistant GM After Incident In Locker Room With Female Reporters

<div id="story-body" class="story-body sp-story-body gel-body-copy">
Transgender athlete Rachel McKinnon, a biological male who identifies as female, won the women&#8217;s Masters Track Cycling World Championships sprint title for the second year in a row.
&#8220;The 37-year-old, competing in the female 35-39 sprint category, had set a new world best time in qualifying,&#8221; according to the <a href="https://www.bbc.com/sport/cycling/50111521">BBC</a>. &#8220;The Canadian beat American Dawn Orwick for the gold, with Denmark&#8217;s Kirsten Herup Sovang claiming the bronze.&#8221;
McKinnon also took silver in the 500m time trial earlier in the week, BBC notes.
The athlete celebrated the win on social media and made a point of citing critics who&#8217;ve spoken out against biological men participating in women&#8217;s sports.
</div>
&#8220;This jersey, these medals, and this world record mean a whole lot more to me than my first,&#8221; McKinnon wrote via Instagram on Monday. &#8220;There were many more barriers this year, a much bigger spotlight, truly incessant hate and people doing everything in their power to have me banned, make me fail, and make me quit. But I didn&#8217;t. And I won&#8217;t.&#8221;
&#8220;I will be back next year,&#8221; the cyclist added. &#8220;I will be stronger and faster than ever. You can count on it.&#8221;
<blockquote class="instagram-media" data-instgrm-captioned data-instgrm-permalink="https://www.instagram.com/p/B34TBQglVAD/?utm_source=ig_embed&amp;utm_campaign=loading" data-instgrm-version="12" style=" background:#FFF; border:0; border-radius:3px; box-shadow:0 0 1px 0 rgba(0,0,0,0.5),0 1px 10px 0 rgba(0,0,0,0.15); margin: 1px; max-width:500px; min-width:326px; padding:0; width:99.375%; width:-webkit-calc(100% - 2px); width:calc(100% - 2px);">
<div style="padding:16px;"> <a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/B34TBQglVAD/?utm_source=ig_embed&amp;utm_campaign=loading" style=" background:#FFFFFF; line-height:0; padding:0 0; text-align:center; text-decoration:none; width:100%;" target="_blank"> 
<div style=" display: flex; flex-direction: row; align-items: center;">
<div style="background-color: #F4F4F4; border-radius: 50%; flex-grow: 0; height: 40px; margin-right: 14px; width: 40px;"></div>
<div style="display: flex; flex-direction: column; flex-grow: 1; justify-content: center;">
<div style=" background-color: #F4F4F4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; margin-bottom: 6px; width: 100px;"></div>
<div style=" background-color: #F4F4F4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; width: 60px;"></div>
</div>
</div>
<div style="padding: 19% 0;"></div>
<div style="display:block; height:50px; margin:0 auto 12px; width:50px;"><svg width="50px" height="50px" viewBox="0 0 60 60" version="1.1" xmlns="https://www.w3.org/2000/svg" xmlns:xlink="https://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"><g stroke="none" stroke-width="1" fill="none" fill-rule="evenodd"><g transform="translate(-511.000000, -20.000000)" fill="#000000"><g><path d="M556.869,30.41 C554.814,30.41 553.148,32.076 553.148,34.131 C553.148,36.186 554.814,37.852 556.869,37.852 C558.924,37.852 560.59,36.186 560.59,34.131 C560.59,32.076 558.924,30.41 556.869,30.41 M541,60.657 C535.114,60.657 530.342,55.887 530.342,50 C530.342,44.114 535.114,39.342 541,39.342 C546.887,39.342 551.658,44.114 551.658,50 C551.658,55.887 546.887,60.657 541,60.657 M541,33.886 C532.1,33.886 524.886,41.1 524.886,50 C524.886,58.899 532.1,66.113 541,66.113 C549.9,66.113 557.115,58.899 557.115,50 C557.115,41.1 549.9,33.886 541,33.886 M565.378,62.101 C565.244,65.022 564.756,66.606 564.346,67.663 C563.803,69.06 563.154,70.057 562.106,71.106 C561.058,72.155 560.06,72.803 558.662,73.347 C557.607,73.757 556.021,74.244 553.102,74.378 C549.944,74.521 548.997,74.552 541,74.552 C533.003,74.552 532.056,74.521 528.898,74.378 C525.979,74.244 524.393,73.757 523.338,73.347 C521.94,72.803 520.942,72.155 519.894,71.106 C518.846,70.057 518.197,69.06 517.654,67.663 C517.244,66.606 516.755,65.022 516.623,62.101 C516.479,58.943 516.448,57.996 516.448,50 C516.448,42.003 516.479,41.056 516.623,37.899 C516.755,34.978 517.244,33.391 517.654,32.338 C518.197,30.938 518.846,29.942 519.894,28.894 C520.942,27.846 521.94,27.196 523.338,26.654 C524.393,26.244 525.979,25.756 528.898,25.623 C532.057,25.479 533.004,25.448 541,25.448 C548.997,25.448 549.943,25.479 553.102,25.623 C556.021,25.756 557.607,26.244 558.662,26.654 C560.06,27.196 561.058,27.846 562.106,28.894 C563.154,29.942 563.803,30.938 564.346,32.338 C564.756,33.391 565.244,34.978 565.378,37.899 C565.522,41.056 565.552,42.003 565.552,50 C565.552,57.996 565.522,58.943 565.378,62.101 M570.82,37.631 C570.674,34.438 570.167,32.258 569.425,30.349 C568.659,28.377 567.633,26.702 565.965,25.035 C564.297,23.368 562.623,22.342 560.652,21.575 C558.743,20.834 556.562,20.326 553.369,20.18 C550.169,20.033 549.148,20 541,20 C532.853,20 531.831,20.033 528.631,20.18 C525.438,20.326 523.257,20.834 521.349,21.575 C519.376,22.342 517.703,23.368 516.035,25.035 C514.368,26.702 513.342,28.377 512.574,30.349 C511.834,32.258 511.326,34.438 511.181,37.631 C511.035,40.831 511,41.851 511,50 C511,58.147 511.035,59.17 511.181,62.369 C511.326,65.562 511.834,67.743 512.574,69.651 C513.342,71.625 514.368,73.296 516.035,74.965 C517.703,76.634 519.376,77.658 521.349,78.425 C523.257,79.167 525.438,79.673 528.631,79.82 C531.831,79.965 532.853,80.001 541,80.001 C549.148,80.001 550.169,79.965 553.369,79.82 C556.562,79.673 558.743,79.167 560.652,78.425 C562.623,77.658 564.297,76.634 565.965,74.965 C567.633,73.296 568.659,71.625 569.425,69.651 C570.167,67.743 570.674,65.562 570.82,62.369 C570.966,59.17 571,58.147 571,50 C571,41.851 570.966,40.831 570.82,37.631"></path></g></g></g></svg></div>
<div style="padding-top: 8px;">
<div style=" color:#3897f0; font-family:Arial,sans-serif; font-size:14px; font-style:normal; font-weight:550; line-height:18px;"> View this post on Instagram</div>
</div>
<div style="padding: 12.5% 0;"></div>
<div style="display: flex; flex-direction: row; margin-bottom: 14px; align-items: center;">
<div>
<div style="background-color: #F4F4F4; border-radius: 50%; height: 12.5px; width: 12.5px; transform: translateX(0px) translateY(7px);"></div>
<div style="background-color: #F4F4F4; height: 12.5px; transform: rotate(-45deg) translateX(3px) translateY(1px); width: 12.5px; flex-grow: 0; margin-right: 14px; margin-left: 2px;"></div>
<div style="background-color: #F4F4F4; border-radius: 50%; height: 12.5px; width: 12.5px; transform: translateX(9px) translateY(-18px);"></div>
</div>
<div style="margin-left: 8px;">
<div style=" background-color: #F4F4F4; border-radius: 50%; flex-grow: 0; height: 20px; width: 20px;"></div>
<div style=" width: 0; height: 0; border-top: 2px solid transparent; border-left: 6px solid #f4f4f4; border-bottom: 2px solid transparent; transform: translateX(16px) translateY(-4px) rotate(30deg)"></div>
</div>
<div style="margin-left: auto;">
<div style=" width: 0px; border-top: 8px solid #F4F4F4; border-right: 8px solid transparent; transform: translateY(16px);"></div>
<div style=" background-color: #F4F4F4; flex-grow: 0; height: 12px; width: 16px; transform: translateY(-4px);"></div>
<div style=" width: 0; height: 0; border-top: 8px solid #F4F4F4; border-left: 8px solid transparent; transform: translateY(-4px) translateX(8px);"></div>
</div>
</div>
</a> 
 <a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/B34TBQglVAD/?utm_source=ig_embed&amp;utm_campaign=loading" style=" color:#000; font-family:Arial,sans-serif; font-size:14px; font-style:normal; font-weight:normal; line-height:17px; text-decoration:none; word-wrap:break-word;" target="_blank">This jersey, these medals, and this world record mean a whole lot more to me than my first. • There were many more barriers this year, a much bigger spotlight, truly incessant hate and people doing everything in their power to have me banned, make me fail, and make me quit. • But I didn&#39;t. • And I won&#39;t. • I will be back next year. I will be stronger and faster than ever. You can count on it. • 🌈🦊🥇 #rainbowfoxracing #rainbowfox #worldchampion #herthighness #quaddess #quadzilla #quadgoals #wtfsracebikes #trackcycling #cycling #racing #sportisahumanright #inclusivesport #lgbtq #lgbtqsport #transathlete #transrightsnow #transinclusivesport #girlslikeus #socialchange #socialjustice #transvisibilty #gofastturnleft #transgender #inspiration #sportforall #noplaceforhate * * * °@fujibikes Bike °@fsa_road Chainrings, stem °@vision_tech_usa Crankset, chainrings, wheels °@lazersportusa Helmet, sunglasses °@vie13_kustom_apparel Speedsuit * Coach: @empiricalcycling Nutritionist: @paulsaltercoaching Pro Ambassador for @athleteally</a>
<p style=" color:#c9c8cd; font-family:Arial,sans-serif; font-size:14px; line-height:17px; margin-bottom:0; margin-top:8px; overflow:hidden; padding:8px 0 7px; text-align:center; text-overflow:ellipsis; white-space:nowrap;">A post shared by <a href="https://www.instagram.com/rachelvmckinnon/?utm_source=ig_embed&amp;utm_campaign=loading" style=" color:#c9c8cd; font-family:Arial,sans-serif; font-size:14px; font-style:normal; font-weight:normal; line-height:17px;" target="_blank"> Rachel McKinnon, PhD</a> (@rachelvmckinnon) on <time style=" font-family:Arial,sans-serif; font-size:14px; line-height:17px;" datetime="2019-10-21T12:06:35+00:00">Oct 21, 2019 at 5:06am PDT</time>
</div>
</blockquote>
<script async src="//www.instagram.com/embed.js"></script>
In a tweet Monday, McKinnon also appeared to deny having any competitive advantage anymore from being biologically male because &#8220;my body doesn&#8217;t produce testosterone anymore.&#8221;
&#8220;I&#8217;m just going to come out and say it: My body doesn&#8217;t produce testosterone anymore. And it hasn&#8217;t for nearly a decade. Draw your own conclusions,&#8221; the cyclist wrote.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
I&#39;m just going to come out and say it:
My body doesn&#39;t produce testosterone anymore. And it hasn&#39;t for nearly a decade.
Draw your own conclusions.
&mdash; Dr. Rachel McKinnon (@rachelvmckinnon) <a href="https://twitter.com/rachelvmckinnon/status/1186237256895553537?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 21, 2019</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Some biologically female athletes in the sport have spoken up about McKinnon&#8217;s participation. &#8220;The decision to let McKinnon race alongside cis female (people whose gender identity matches their biological sex) competitors has been criticised by some track rivals, including Victoria Hood,&#8221; reported <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/women/rachel-mckinnon-transgender-cyclist-interview-unfair-womens-sport-a9161241.html">The Independent</a>.
&#8220;The science is there and it says that it is unfair,&#8221; Hood said.
Additionally, Jen Wagner-Assali, who placed third behind McKinnon at last year&#8217;s World Championships, called McKinnon&#8217;s first place finish &#8220;unfair.&#8221;
Responding to Hood, McKinnon posted a lengthy statement on Twitter Sunday, which deemed Hood transphobic and argued that &#8220;fairness in sports&#8221; means transgender &#8220;inclusion.&#8221;
&#8220;Ms. Hood has expressed an irrational fear of trans women. An irrational fear of trans women in the dictionary definition of transphobia. Transphobia has no place in sport,&#8221; McKinnon wrote.
&#8220;Dr. McKinnon supports trans people&#8217;s right to compete in their legally recognized gender,&#8221; the now two-time Masters Track Cycling World Champion added. &#8220;Fairness in sports means inclusion and respect of every athlete&#8217;s right an identity. #SportsIsAHumanRight.&#8221;
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
 <a href="https://t.co/D16irhepzU">pic.twitter.com/D16irhepzU</a>
&mdash; Dr. Rachel McKinnon (@rachelvmckinnon) <a href="https://twitter.com/rachelvmckinnon/status/1186042810388172805?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 20, 2019</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
After last year&#8217;s victory over biological female athletes, McKinnon, who has conceded that biological men could have an advantage over biological woman in sports, similarly branded critics as transphobic.
Amid critics pointing out that there are basic, biological differences between men and women that give men advantages in some athletic competitions, McKinnon slammed detractors, <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/transgender-cyclist-lashes-out-calls-critics-emily-zanotti">The Daily Wire</a> reported following McKinnon&#8217;s 2018 win.
&#8220;Lots of transphobic bigots are responding to my world championship win saying that &#8216;Next up, the paralympics.&#8217; Hey women, you realize that ALL of these people (many of them women) are comparing you to disabled people&#8230;right? Women = &#8216;disabled men&#8217; they think. Wow. Offensive,&#8221; McKinnon posted.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
Lots of transphobic bigots are responding to my world championship win saying that &#39;Next up, the paralympics.&#39; Hey women, you realize that ALL of these people (many of them women) are comparing you to disabled people&#8230;right? Women = &#39;disabled men&#39; they think. Wow. Offensive. <a href="https://t.co/K5cbZgaOMc">pic.twitter.com/K5cbZgaOMc</a>
&mdash; Dr. Rachel McKinnon (@rachelvmckinnon) <a href="https://twitter.com/rachelvmckinnon/status/1051462807017811968?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 14, 2018</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Related: <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/transgender-cyclist-celebrates-world-championship-hank-berrien">Transgender Cyclist Celebrates World Championship In Women’s Event, Says Critics Are ‘Transphobic Bigots’</a>

Menu