ESPN writer looks at Olympics differently now, cites presence of US flag as reminder of Jan. 6

ESPN continues to prove to the sports world that it is a left-of-center network that puts a premium on liberal social justice causes. After all, how else can one explain an ESPN sportswriter denouncing on national television the presence of the American flag at the Tokyo Olympics?

William Rhoden, a longtime columnist for The New York Times who is now a writer-at-large with ESPN’s “The Undefeated,”  went on “CBS This Morning” on Monday to say he felt differently about covering the Olympics in 2021, as opposed to previous years.

The difference being that he’s now put off by Old Glory, which represents a nation of white supremacists.

“I love the opening ceremonies, march of countries. Then I realized, you know, man, particularly after these last four years, I had it wrong. Nationalism is not good. We’ve seen the rise of white nationalism. Nationalism is not good,” Rhoden said. “And also, this whole idea — I keep thinking back on the Capitol riots, and I saw a lot of, you know, U.S. flags.”

There seems to be little doubt that Rhoden sees America as an irredeemably racist nation.

“So now when I see the flag and the flag raised, what —  what, what America am I living in? You know, are the ones that don’t think, you know, we should be here? The ones that think that we should shut things down?” he said. “The one —  so I just think that this is a very —  these Olympics should be a time of soul searching and winning sometimes is antithetic to soul searching.”

To recap, the liberal sportswriter ties the flag to the alleged insurrection. Or, in other words, the people looking to overthrow America were proudly waving a banner that represents America. Racist people. Trump supporters. Republicans.

Not all that surprising when considering a member of the NY Times editorial board found it disturbing to see pickup trucks on Long Island displaying American flags.

Asked about the slow start from Team USA, Rhoden said, “Well, I think we should be humbled.

“This whole last year in this country, it’s been about entitlement and privilege,” he proclaimed, getting plenty of agreement from the CBS hosts. “And nobody epitomizes that more than basketball.

The U.S. men’s basketball team got demolished 76-83 by France on Sunday, its first loss in 17 years, which prompted Rhoden to surmise, “Across the board, we just need some humility.”

All of which is consistent with his latest article, where he advocates for the U.S. to stop sending NBA players to the Olympics and, instead, work to establish standing national men’s and women’s teams.

“There’s no longer a need to instinctively flex and endeavor to obliterate the competition,” he wrote.

Rhoden, who likened the competing athletes to “hostages,” was asked if the Tokyo Olympics should have been canceled because of the pandemic.

“Yeah,” he responded. “Ideally — of course they should have canceled the Olympics.”

Here’s a quick sampling of responses to the story from Twitter:

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