Jay Maxson

A few days ago, USA Today News & Enterprise Reporter Scott Gleeson made a list of 12 athletes "who would make great politicians." The reasons given for the athletes' political qualifications are in some instances thin to say the least. Not surprisingly, the vast majority of them are progressives, headed up by the Los Angeles Lakers' LeBron James and including the Eagles' Malcolm Jenkins, NBA coaches Steve Kerr and Gregg Popovich and former Olympic skater Adam Rippon (see photo). Tim Tebow made the list, but as a Christian pro-lifer he's in the minority.

At last a crack in what has been the media's almost universal support for Colin Kaepernick has surfaced. A new Medium blog contributor named Kitanya Harrison has until now been unwavering in her support of the social justice warrior, but she takes a sharp deviation from her past literary praise for Kaepernick to relay troubling information from a reader about the America-hating ex-quarterback. It's that he mistreated women in the past, he is propping up an abuser of women and that Kaepernick and his girlfriend, Nessa Diab, are guilty of ethical improprieties.

Progressives are often quick to cry "voter suppression!"  ̶  even if race-baiters like Jemele Hill have to personally manufacture such claims. Hill told the world via Twitter that she was going to vote in a state that is no longer her place of residence. When she met resistance at her old polling place in Florida, she and a poll worker claimed the "red brigade" and President Donald Trump were trying to deny her the right to cast a ballot.

A group of partisan, progressive athletes that includes current social justice warriors, kneeling NFL players, a past Olympic protester and others, has signed a last-minute get-out-the-vote letter. Known as Athletes4Impact, their stated motivation is the struggle against hate and violence. But guess who, in their view, is responsible for all the hate? President Donald J. Trump, of course.

The firing of an African-American NFL coach who won just three of his 40 games is a huge blow to diversity despite his dismal record. This is the reasoning of Jason Reid, senior writer for the ESPN blog that never misses an opportunity to play the race card, The Undefeated.

From the "if-you-won't-take-my-Colin-Kaepernick-advice-then-I'll-just-yell-a-lot-louder" files: With the NFL season at the midway mark, sports webs are staging yet another collective Colin Kaepernick rallying cry. The New York Daily News, TMZ and Deadspin are throwing hissy fits because unheralded quarterbacks are being thrust into starting roles, instead of the free agent quarterback who's passing for hundreds of yards a day without an interception in his personal training sessions.

Almost without exception when NBA luminaries get political, it's the Republicans who take the "hard foul." Los Angeles Clippers' head coach Doc Rivers says he disagrees with virtually everything President Donald Trump says, and he believes the president deserves a "technical foul" for worsening the nation's racial divide. Rivers' political remarks appeared in an interview with Sports Illustrated's Justin Barrasso.

The Huffington Post is starstruck by LeBron James and his support of Beto O'Rourke, the Texas Democrat running against Sen. Ted Cruz for the U.S. Senate. Writer David Barden said James' political activism, including his wearing a "Beto for Senate" cap in San Antonio, is a "slam dunk."

In an op-ed in today's Washington Post opinion section, no doubt timed for the election 12 days from now, former Olympic men's decathlon champion Caitlyn Jenner (see file photo) faults herself for voting for Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump in 2016. She writes that the trans community is now under relentless attack from the president and his administration's unscientific focus on birth gender is "politics at its worst."