Dave Zirin

Nation Writer: Trump Candidacy, ‘Redskins’ Name Offer ‘A Howl of Anger at a Slowly Evolving World’
By Tom Johnson | September 9, 2015 | 9:56 PM EDT

Donald Trump has been likened to (among others) Ronald Reagan, Richard Nixon, George Wallace, Morton Downey Jr., and Nickelback, the band. “Nickelback” is also a football term, which brings us to yet another Trump comparison: Dave Zirin believes that the Washington Redskins franchise “is becoming the sports equivalent of the Donald Trump presidential run, a dead-ender operation with nothing to offer but a howl of anger at a slowly evolving world.”

As you probably surmised, Zirin thinks Redskins owner Dan Snyder should dump the team’s “Jim Crow era moniker,” but acknowledged in a Wednesday post that “Snyder clings even more tightly to the name, molding a new constituency of newfound ‘fans’ who want the team to be a symbol of the fight against ‘political correctness’…Now this billion-dollar brand stands disgracefully alongside Donald Trump, Sarah Palin, and everyone attempting to turn a carnival barker’s buck on white anxiety.”

Nation Writer: Scott Walker Uses Sports to Exploit ‘What He Imagines to Be the Ignorance’ of Voters
By Tom Johnson | April 7, 2015 | 1:32 PM EDT

In a Tuesday post, The Nation blogger Dave Zirin argued that it’s politically unseemly for Gov. Scott Walker to root publicly for certain Wisconsin sports teams, including the University of Wisconsin basketballers, who came up just short in last night’s men’s national title game against Duke.

Zirin claimed that it’s “almost flagrantly irresponsible” for the media to publicize Walker’s support of the Badger hoops team “while ignoring that…Walker has made it his mission to cut hundreds of millions of dollars from the very public university system bringing glory to the state.” In Zirin’s view, Walker is “a soulless vessel for Koch brothers cash who in the name of a career advancement to the White House, is willing to both mercilessly attack any and all expressions of public life while at the same time using sports to shamelessly bank on what he imagines to be the ignorance of the US electorate.”

Lefty Sports Reporter Calls NFL ‘Brain Damage For Profit’
By Jeffrey Meyer | February 2, 2015 | 11:57 AM EST

On Sunday, MSNBC’s Melissa Harris-Perry program previewed the upcoming Super Bowl with a panel of liberal commentators including notorious lefty Dave Zirin of the Nation magazine, to bash the sport of football. Speaking during a panel discussion, Zirin blasted the NFL and insisted that “if we lived in a sane world this sport would not exist. This is brain damage for profit, that's what it is. Science is not this sport's friend.”

Tebow Joins ‘Bluest of Blue State’ Patriots
By Matt Philbin | June 11, 2013 | 2:18 PM EDT

And Rabbi Joshua Hammerman thought he had a “Tebow Problem” before. Back in 2011, the columnist at The Jewish Week fretted that the Tim Tebow-led Denver Broncos might beat his “beloved” New England Patriots in the upcoming AFC championship game. But his wasn’t a fan’s normal pre-game nervousness. It was the hand-wringing of a liberal bigot.

Hammerman imagined that the rubes in fly-over country regarded the “blue-clad Patriots, from the bluest of blue states” as the “Sons of Darkness, with their perfectly coiffed Hollywood quarter back” their “diabolical hoodie-clad coach” and “the most identifiably Jewish owner in sports.” Against Tebow, the “poster boy of the Christian right,” they’d be “playing the role of Pilate.” (In the event, the Broncos lost, forestalling Tebow’s Christian fans from “burning mosques, bashing gays and indiscriminately banishing immigrants” in celebration, as Hammerman had warned.)

Sports Media Launches Olympic-Sized Blitz from Left
By Paul Wilson | July 26, 2012 | 11:57 AM EDT

The Olympic Games, which begin this week, is an exhibition of the sportsmanship, teamwork, and the competitive spirit that make sports so enjoyable. But for many in the media, sports is just another excuse to engage in divisive political commentary. The sports media transform an apolitical past-time into a forum for their own politics.

Progressives have actively attempted to remake the Olympics into a celebration of their own political ideals. From calls to make the summer Games “a forum for the promotion of LGBT rights,” to criticism of the International Olympic Committee as “the 1 percent of the 1 percent,” lefties care less about the thrill of victory and the agony of defeat than using the world’s biggest sporting event to pound for their pet causes.

Media Continue Anti-Religious Attacks on Tebow
By Paul Wilson | March 27, 2012 | 7:42 AM EDT

Wherever devout Christian quarterback Tim Tebow goes, he is dogged by the hatred of those who cannot stand him or his faith. Tebow was traded from the Denver Broncos to the New York Jets amid much media fanfare, and some sportswriters naturally used the occasion to engage in personal attacks on Tebow, his religion, and his fans.

MSNBC invited Nation sports editor Dave Zirin to give his opinion on Tebow’s move to New York. Zirin bizarrely argued that “there are a lot of LGBT people that live in New York City who are also football fans”and that “the new, possibly, starting quarterback for the New York Jets wants them to move backwards 30 or 40 years.”(The Denver Broncos refused to participate in anti-heterosexual Dan Savage’s “It Gets Better Project” when Tebow was still on the Broncos, drawing the ire of the gay community and the left-wing media.)

On MSNBC: Leftist Writer Smears Tim Tebow as Wanting to Set Gays Back '30 or 40 Years'
By Scott Whitlock | March 21, 2012 | 3:58 PM EDT

MSNBC can't even keep liberal politics out of sports. Nation sports editor Dave Zirin appeared on the cable network, Wednesday, to hyperventilate over the announcement that Tim Tebow has been traded to the New York Jets. Zirin berated, "...There are a lot of LGBT people that live in New York City who are also football fans and they might want to know why the new, possibly, starting quarterback for the New York Jets wants them to move backwards 30 or 40 years."

Why does Tebow want to set gays back 40 years? Because he once did a very mild pro-life commercial for Focus on the Family? Completely going off on a tangent, Zirin whined, "Now, I don't want to shock you, Tamron, but there are a lot of women in New York who use birth control." [See video below. MP3 audio here.]

MSNBC Gives Platform for Tebow-bashing, This Time by Leftist Writer Dave Zirin
By Ken Shepherd | January 13, 2012 | 3:45 PM EST

"I have lost the debate on Tim Tebow’s skill as a quarterback. But I’ll still challenge Tim Tebow’s politics for as long as necessary. And in that battle, the fight continues."

That's how leftist sportswriter Dave Zirin concluded a January 8 column at EdgeofSports.com. So naturally Zirin was the perfect guest for MSNBC to bring on today to discuss the "polarizing" Tim Tebow. [MP3 audio available here; video posted below page break]

NBA Fans Shouldn't Back the Blackwater Magic? Zany Zirin's Sports Analogies
By Tim Graham | August 1, 2010 | 11:10 PM EDT

Support the Orlando Magic, support war in Iraq? That's what MSNBC's favorite leftist sports guru, Dave Zirin of The Nation magazine, argued on taxpayer-subsidized Pacifica Radio's Democracy Now on Friday. Blackwater CEO Erik Prince is the brother-in-law of Magic owner (and conservative funder) Dick DeVos. So Zirin thought NBA fans ought to think twice:   

I mean, I don’t think a majority of sports fans, when they go see an Orlando Magic game and cheer for players like Dwight Howard or Jameer Nelson, are saying, "I’m also buying a ticket to support Blackwater’s efforts in Iraq!" No, that—and effectively, though, that’s what they have us doing. It’s coercive, and I’m against it.

Zirin doesn't say Erik Prince actually owns the Magic, he just draws a Crayola line to him. Zirin also argued it was "money laundering" for sports owners to accept public money for stadiums and then hold political fundraisers in them. His villain was Arizona Diamondbacks owner Ken Kendrick, who supports the SB-1070 immigration law:

MSNBC Features Lefty Sports Writer to Trash ‘Racist’ ‘Swine’ Rush Limbaugh
By Scott Whitlock | October 12, 2009 | 12:09 PM EDT

MSNBC on Monday featured the Nation magazine’s sports editor to rant against Rush Limbaugh as a "unreconstructed racist," a "swine" and also lobby that the conservative host shouldn’t be allowed to purchase the St. Louis Rams football team. Morning Meeting guest host Contessa Brewer completely ignored the left-wing affiliation of Dave Zirin and identified him only as "sports writer." [Audio available here.]

Raging against the idea that the Limbaugh might soon own a football team, Zirin asserted that the issue is "about having somebody in an NFL owners box who [players] know views them with naked and open contempt because of the color of their skin." He fumed that the radio star is someone who "has made hundreds of millions now on the issues of hatred and division."

Zirin even used a dubious, disputed quote that he assigned to Limbaugh: "[Players] don't want an owner who has said slavery was a good thing because it made the streets safer." A Google News search finds this supposed comment attributed to the host: "I mean, let's face it, we didn't have slavery in this country for over 100 years because it was a bad thing. Quite the opposite: Slavery built the South. I’m not saying we should bring it back; I’m just saying it had its merits. For one thing, the streets were safer after dark."