Sports' grip on America sparks summer of political warfare
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The WNBA, Major League Baseball and even a golf startup spent the summer as unlikely proxies in some of the country's fiercest national conflicts.
Why it matters: American culture has shattered into thousands of tiny shards of glass. But sports remains one of the few forces powerful enough to pull much of the country into the same moment — making it a prime target for political fights.
- That kind of shared attention has become a scarce and ultra-valuable resource for activists, politicians and companies.
Zoom in: This summer's fights have blown up far beyond the fan bases involved.
- Caitlin Clark, the WNBA's biggest star, spent the season absorbing hard fouls. The fight over whether refs were protecting her quickly became a fight about race. Eleven House Republicans wrote to the league and the topic has become a staple on conservative media.
- Clark's Indiana Fever teammate Sophie Cunningham told ESPN in July that girls shouldn't have to compete against "biological men." Competing activist groups have clashed outside WNBA games, with Cunningham's words and photos appearing on signs held by her supporters.
- Three San Francisco Giants pitchers wrote Bible verses on their rainbow caps for Pride Night in June. The Justice Department referred the league to the EEOC for possible religious discrimination after it warned the players about violating uniform rules.
- Good Good Golf, a popular YouTube channel and apparel brand, posted an ad last month showing its co-founder shoving a female golfer to the ground. Callaway responded to the uproar over the video by ending a three-year partnership, and Good Good withdrew as the title sponsor of a new PGA Tour event. As commercial consequences for Good Good piled up, conservative commentators took up the cause as an example of cancel culture overreach.
- President Trump's shadow hung over this summer's World Cup. His threats to pull matches from Democratic-led cities and his close alliance with FIFA president Gianni Infantino — who presided over the reversal of a U.S. player's suspension before a critical game — prompted global backlash against FIFA for letting one politician shape the sport.
By the numbers: The NFL alone accounted for 83 of last year's 100 most-watched telecasts in the U.S. College football added seven. Two World Series games, the Kentucky Derby, the men's NCAA basketball final and a boxing match pushed the sports total to 95.
- The remaining five were President Trump's address to Congress, his inauguration, former President Biden's farewell speech, the Oscars and the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade.
Between the lines: The WNBA is the clearest example. It's one of the fastest-growing major sports leagues, filling arenas and becoming a national cultural force in just a few years.
- A game between Caitlin Clark's Indiana Fever and the Chicago Sky last month averaged 3.31 million viewers on NBC and Peacock — the most-watched regular-season game since the league's opening weekend in 1997.
- But the league's biggest stories increasingly happen off the court, where players' personalities and opinions can generate attention faster than games.
- Substacker Derek Thompson called it a "derivatives market" of sports commentary, where most of the conversation is about the conversation rather than the basketball.
- He noted that Fox News published stories about Cunningham's comments six times in one day.
Reality check: America has long fought some of its biggest cultural battles through sports: Muhammad Ali refused to join the Army after being drafted during the Vietnam War and Colin Kaepernick knelt during the national anthem.
The bottom line: As long as sports hold the country's attention, it will keep drawing political fights.
