Women Athletes >
As one of my favorite seasons is approaching, Eagles’ Season, I’m reminding myself that in a world of Saquons there are some Jalen Hurts male athletes in existence. And in a world of Eagles’ fans, some claim to be progressive and allies…and some still worship Saquon.
This has everything to do with Saquon choosing to align himself with Tr*mp, when it is so incredibly easy not to. You will never catch me wearing his number or sporting Barkley merch. Why? Because he so openly chose to be around a man who is making life incredibly difficult for Americans. AND Saquon CHOSE to go out of his way to make sure everyone knew he was cool with Tr*mp, even doubling down. I’m tired of the old response of it being a great honor and privilege to go to the White House and be celebrated by the President. And that they take politics out of it. What an incredible privilege it must be to be a male and rich that you get to just forget about politics when you look at the President…whose literal job IS POLITICS! That honor and privilege FLEW out of the window as soon as anyone in that position is doing what Tr*mp is doing to Americans. He is actively stripping Americans of health care, increasing taxes for the lower and middle classes while rewarding the millionaires and billionaires. He is encouraging and participating in the rolling back of LGBTQ+ rights and freedoms, allowing politicians to make decisions about women, their bodies and reproductive rights, dismantling public education, kidnapping people off the streets, separating them from their families, and do I even need to mention “the list” we all know he is on? And Saquon is over here ready for another round of golf with THIS guy? Saying it is an honor to be around him because of the position? Sir, it would be honorable of you to stand up against everything he and his administration are doing. Recently, Saquon may have taken a page out of Hurts’ playbook with scheduling conflicts and declined a spot on Tr*mp’s Council on Sports, Fitness and Nutrition. See? That wasn’t that hard, now was it Saquon? I promise this is the only paragraph hating on Saquon, because this is really about strength and courage in the face of backlash and criticism.
I’m forever reminded why women athletes are superior and why it is so much fun to cheer for women's sports. Women are fearless. They have EVERYTHING to lose… sponsors, viewers, salaries that are pennies to the dollar compared to their male counterparts… yet they consistently show the country just how important it is to do the hard thing and use their platforms to speak out against injustice. Women athletes are more likely to be one of the minorities that are targeted by hateful agendas and ideologies. They put it all on the line to make sure America can see just how much “politics” affects everyone.
They consistently show how important it is to stand up for minorities, those being discriminated against, and to stand up to hate. In 2019, the USWNT led by Megan Rapinoe, made it clear they would absolutely not be going to the White House. Pinoe then endured a relentless barrage of rage and hate from THE PRESIDENT which dominoed into his following rooting against American women winning the World Cup. She didn’t falter and continued to use her platform to speak out against the injustices caused by Tr*mp in America. Prior to this stance, she also knelt with Kaepernick in 2016 to draw attention to the police brutality of black and brown Americans and took on massive amounts of criticism.
Do you want to know who helped get Raphael Warnock elected to be one of Georgia’s Senators? The entire WNBA. No, literally. If you thought the 2025 “Pay Us What You Owe Us” t-shirts were controversial, welcome to being a new WNBA fan lol …that was nothing seeing as they once wore shirts with bullet holes in the backs to take a stance against police brutality.
All the way back in 2016, Lynx players wore “Change Starts with Us: Justice and Accountability” shirts after Philando Castile was killed by an officer. Liberty, Fever, and Mercury players joined with “Black Lives Matter” shirts. They had police officers, who were acting as WNBA player security, walk out. I guess it’s true what they say about that blue brotherhood. The players were even fined for the shirts they wore, on their meager salaries almost 10 years ago. It still didn’t matter. They knew right from wrong. They knew they had a platform and they chose the hard, but right thing. They even refused to answer media questions unless it had to do with police brutality. This was league wide. It was well thought out and organized. They knew they had power in numbers. Even after Tr*mp said athletes who took a knee during the anthem were “sons of bitches” the entire Lynx team knelt during the anthem. The Sparks team walked right off the court into their locker room. These women are so fucking badass and I’m telling you, women’s sports are so much more exciting to watch because of politics.
In 2020 after George Floyd and Breonna Taylor were murdered at the hands of police, the WNBA players did something incredible. They united and REFUSED to play under their COVID season negotiations unless the league agreed to dedicate that entire season to BLM and “Say Her Name” campaigns, as well as create social justice councils in the league and allow the players to put the names of black and brown people that had been killed by the police, on the back of each players’ jersey. The league agreed and backed these women.
There was one person who let it be known they disagreed with all of the social justice in the W… Kelly Loeffler, the Atlanta Dream co-owner who was also the Georgia Republican Senator. As Julia Roberts said, “Big mistake. Huge!” The players were rightfully pissed off and took to their cricuts once more… kidding, Sue Bird got the shirts made for the League this time. They all showed up with “Vote Warnock” shirts AFTER vetting him, interviewing him, and making sure he aligned with their values. This brought so much attention to Warnock from media coverage and socials, that it truly helped him to rocket ahead to the runoff with Loeffler. Not only did Loeffler sell her shares of the Dream, she also lost the Senate election. Girl, bye.
Women are incredible. Women athletes are fearless and badass. They quite literally have everything to lose, will be targeted and scrutinized harder than any male athlete, and they still choose to do the hard thing because it’s right. Politics are everywhere and we do not have the luxury or privilege of pretending it’s not (ahem Saquon). Imagine if the extremely rich and influential male athletes operated in this way. The change that could be made and brought to light would be so incredibly immense. Instead Bosa, Butker and Goodell are just a few in the NFL who didn’t have scheduling conflicts like Saquon and Hurts. Hoping Saquon took time after the backlash and listened and learned. I find more and more that male athletes are silent when it comes to injustice, yet women athletes are loud about it and proud to take a stand. Until he is as loud as he was about “respecting the position” and “looking forward to finishing the round” ... until he is brave enough to stare politics in the face like women are, he doesn’t deserve to be idolized and you aren’t as progressive as you thought you are if you’re still worshipping the dude. Watch women’s sports, too! Rant over!
Go Birds,
♡KT
