Trump detractor and former ESPN SportsCenter anchor Jemele Hill, who called the president and his supporters "white supremacists" last fall, is now condemning an NFL team owner who raised money for the commander in chief. Now a sports writer for ESPN's The Undefeated blog, Hill targeted Tampa Bay Bucs' owner Ed Glazer for attempting to help Trump's re-election campaign raise $5 million.
Hill writes that Trump-supporting NFL owners, who frowned on player protests as too political, are hypocrites for engaging in political activities themselves. Glazer drew her ire for hosting a fundraiser for Trump at his Beverly Hills home earlier this week.
"The owners wanted the players to pipe down when it came to politics" last fall, Hill writes. "Come to find out, it was more of a do as I say, not as I do, kind of thing." Commissioner Roger Goodell said at the time that “What we are trying to stay out of is politics.” Some of the league owners actually do want to be involved in politics, though, she complained.
This wasn't even Glazer's first political activity either. He gave Trump $98,000 for the 2016 campaign and $250,000 for the president’s inauguration. Hill wrote: "For the record, I don’t have an issue with Glazer supporting Trump, financially or otherwise. It’s his house. It’s his money. It’s his financial network. But let’s call this what it is – blatant, unadulterated hypocrisy."
NFL owners viewed last season's anthem protests as "bad for business. Too disconcerting for fans. Too political. Too divisive," Hill continued. "But throwing a luxurious fundraiser for the president who slandered your players, and continually takes shots at your league? All good." Hill added:
"We have two sets of rules here, one for owners and one for players. Players who speak up about important societal issues or engage in the politics are often told to just concentrate on sports, as if they aren’t allowed an identity beyond the sport they play. As if someone else has the right to tell them when they can behave as citizens of this country."
Upon further review, Hill's arguments ring hollow. The NFL gave $89 million to the players for social justice issues, and that would not have happened if the owners opposed the move. Also, the Seattle Seahawks' Doug Baldwin and Commissioner Goodell, among others, engaged in political activism aside from the whole anthem debacle, too. Those two contacted congressmen to push for prison reform. Harold Jenkins of the Philadelphia Eagles and others met with congressmen about political issues. You don't see any of this in Hill's blog. That qualifies for -- in her words -- blatant, unadulterated hypocrisy.
The benefit of enormous wealth gives the owners the freedom to make up the rules as they go along and they don't have to explain themselves, writes Hill. She griped about owners like Dallas's Jerry Jones who supported Trump financially and who also urged the NFL to disallow player protests during the national anthem. Once again, though, she left herself open to criticism, because Jones supported the $89 million gift to the players for social activism. Here's what he said in December:
“I know everybody has their heart in the right place, those players are trying to do the right thing, I know the league is trying to do the right thing, advance the ball on these social issues."
The owners actually want to advance the social issues. Facts so often behave stubbornly for those in the left-stream media trying to advance their hollow narratives.
