Exactly a week from Wednesday, at high noon in Washington D.C., America gets more than a new president.
America gets normalcy back in sports.
Goodbye, good riddance and get outta here, Donald Trump. A whole bunch of folks throughout athletics won’t miss you, ranging from all of those NFL players you called SOBs to your bogeyman nicknamed King James who worked so hard to get you fired from your job of the last four years.
Even Bill Belichick dumped you.
Just four years ago, Trump and Belichick were so tight that the candidate read a sappy letter to the crowd he got from Mr. Hoodie on the presidential campaign trail, and Belichick ranks with George Halas, Vince Lombardi and Paul Brown on the NFL’s Mount Rushmore of head coaches.
He has six Super Bowl rings, and he joined Tom Brady to help the New England Patriots evolve into the No. 2 team on Forbes list of the league’s most valuable franchises at $4.4 billion.
That same Belichick said Monday he won’t accept Trump’s offer to receive the Presidential Medal of Freedom due to “the tragic events of last week,” you know, the riot at the Capitol inspired by Trump’s words.
Ouch.
Or maybe “fore” is more appropriate since Trump also is hurting these days from a drive to the gut from the PGA Tour. Its board of directors voted Sunday “to terminate the agreement” they had with Trump to hold the 2022 PGA Championship at his New Jersey golf course.
Before the pandemic zapped crowd sizes (and paydays) in sports, the 2019 PGA Championship was at Bethpage Black in Farmingdale, New York, and patch.com said the event had a local economic impact of $120 million.
Ouch, indeed, for Trump.
But this guy won’t remain an irritant anymore regarding those who run, block, dribble, skate, hit, drive, throw, jump or do whatever else.
Joe Biden is kinder, gentler.
You know as much, because you could spend every millisecond between now and Biden’s first inauguration ball next week, dissecting the resumes of the 44 US presidents before Trump, and you still wouldn’t find anything close to those others doing their equivalent to the following:
- Claiming the only Black driver at the highest level of NASCAR hung a noose in his own garage. Yeah, that’s what Trump said Bubba Wallace did last summer in Talladega, Alabama, where FBI and NASCAR officials said that offensive symbol for African Americans actually was placed there nine months before Wallace arrived.
- Blasting the Cleveland Indians and the Washington Redskins for saying they would change their racially insensitive names. This Republican president often brags about his economic skills, but he either didn’t know or didn’t care huge bucks also were involved here. Take The Washington Football Team. According to ESPN.com and other news outlets, “a letter signed by 87 investors and shareholders with a total worth of $620 billion was sent to sponsors FedEx FDX+1.5% , PepsiCo
PEP PEP-0.5% and Nike
NKE NKE-1.4% , asking them to stop doing business with (the Redskins) unless the name was changed.”
- Uninviting the Golden State Warriors to the White House for their 2017 world championship despite megastar Stephen Curry already saying he wasn’t coming. Which meant the other Warriors weren’t coming. Which caused Trump to panic. “Going to the White House is considered a great honor for a championship team. Stephen Curry is hesitating, therefore invitation is withdrawn!,” Trump tweeted, sounding like a 12-year-old going on 8.
- Turning Colin Kaepernick into more of a cult hero. After the former San Francisco 49ers quarterback began his movement for the ages by kneeling during the national anthem to protest social injustice and police brutality, Trump delivered his SOB line to describe the protesters. This wasn’t exactly the stuff of Abraham Lincoln since the overwhelming majority of those kneeling were Black, and the NFL survived Trump’s cheap shots enough to make a record $16 billion last season.
- Picking an eternal fight with today’s greatest athlete, both inside and outside of uniform. At 6-foot-9, LeBron James does all sorts of otherworldly things with his 250 pounds for the Los Angeles Lakers. His tongue is potent, too. He regularly puts his money where his words are. He’s a throwback to the socially active likes of Muhammad Ali, Jackie Robinson and Arthur Ashe of the 20th century, and Trump can’t stand him. The feeling is mutual since James called Trump “a bum.”
Biden is the anti-Trump.
For one, James campaigned for Biden.
For another, Biden stayed deep in the shadows regarding sports during his eight years through 2016 as the nation’s vice president under Barack Obama, who often was an unofficial commercial for ESPN, especially if it involved the initials “NBA.”
While Obama spent a chunk of his life around historically sports-crazed Chicago during the Michael Jordan dynasty with the Bulls of the 1990s, Biden functioned as all things Delaware, where the most famous sports personality to come out of that state has been just about nobody.
This isn’t to say Biden is sports challenged.
He starred as a wide receiver disguised as a tailback for his undefeated high school football team during his senior year in Delaware. He celebrated on the floor of U.S. Bank Stadium in Minneapolis, Minnesota with his Philadelphia Eagles after they won the Super Bowl following the 2017 season.
He’ll also use the 2021 Washington Nationals for the red, white and blue tradition of throwing out the first pitch of a baseball season, just like most presidents have done for more than 100 years.
Trump never did it.
Credit: Source link