“We don’t typically call it sportswashing or propaganda when American politicians do it,” wrote Awful Announcing’s Brendan Kleen in Monday’s *The A Block* newsletter.
“When President Barack Obama connected with Americans through his love of basketball and his annual appearances filling out an NCAA tournament bracket on ESPN, he was practicing the same thing Trump was this weekend. Of course, Trump goes further. The attention-seeking leader of the free world wants his name on Washington’s stadium, wants a UFC card on his birthday, and wants adoration from as many stars as he can get it from.”
Kleen was discussing Donald Trump’s appearance in a Fox NFL booth during Sunday’s Commanders-Lions game. The president integrated himself into the broadcast for nine minutes, regaling announcers Kenny Albert and Jonathan Vilma with genial stories and anecdotes, while everyone stayed far, far away from the government shutdown and its fallout or the violence currently being perpetrated in major cities under Trump’s watch.
The appearance was complicated for many viewers. On the one hand, there’s a longstanding tradition of American presidents attending sporting events and speaking with broadcasters. On the other hand, “this country is a lot different politically now than it was 16 years ago,” as Awful Announcing’s Drew Lerner put it on Monday’s episode of *The Play-By-Play*. “So the optics of having a sitting president interviewed during a live game broadcast is certainly different now than it was in 2009, the last time this happened.”
Donald Trump presents a unique problem for the sports media world. You could argue that he is the most sports-friendly president we’ve ever had. You could also use that same line of logic to say that he uses that relationship to “sportswash” his image, considering he is deeply unpopular at the moment.
While he has the unbreakable support of some, he’s the last person others want to see or hear from when they turn on sports programming. In many ways, Trump epitomizes the reasoning behind the “stick to sports” mantra. He is intensely disliked, polarizing, and divisive.
The whole point of “stick to sports,” we’ve been told, is to keep people like that out of our sports programming because that exists to be “an escape” from politics and rhetoric.
One person who has long trumpeted that call is Pat McAfee. The bombastic *Pat McAfee Show* host and *College GameDay* analyst has long lived by the mantra that sports unite us and exist to allow everyone to put their squabbles aside and come together. He’s also made it very clear that his desire is always to keep politics out of what he does.
“I’m not a politics person,” he said in the wake of Charlie Kirk’s death. “I’ve been thrown into the political world a couple of times by my own mistakes, but also because of my own opinions. It’s a blender over there.”
“I’m rather certain that nobody’s wanting to come hang out with us to hear us talk about politics,” he said in the wake of criticism over Aaron Rodgers’ political commentary on his show. “I think it’s probably a massive reason for our success, actually. So all of this has been a good reminder of what we’re good for, and who we’re good for. Some day, I’ll try and build up enough of a brain to dive into the politics world, but that time is nowhere near now.”
That time appeared to be Tuesday when McAfee welcomed Trump onto his show as part of its Veterans Day celebration.
As noted above, there’s a certain logic and tradition that makes sense about it. Past presidents have made similar appearances, and there has long been a collegial expectation in these scenarios, regardless of personal politics.
However, as also noted above, Trump is not a normal president, especially when it comes to these kinds of appearances. Case in point: instead of sticking to talking points honoring veterans, the president took shots at his political opponents, joked about the Big Lie, touted his own accomplishments, and questioned the Washington Commanders’ name change.
And honestly, we all got off lucky. It wasn’t out of the realm of possibility that Trump would have taken the opportunity to insult war heroes, publicly denigrate Gold Star families, or refer to fallen military members as “losers,” as he’s done in the past. To say nothing of what he might have said about his administration’s recent efforts that have harmed Americans in need and veterans around the country.
Pat McAfee rolled the dice, however. And he ended up happy with how the sportswashing appearance turned out.
He was also aware enough to realize he was likely to be criticized for having Trump on, so he told his audience that he had also invited former President Barack Obama, but they couldn’t make it work schedule-wise.
McAfee has long been quick to criticize others, especially ESPN talent, about what they do and say. He often positions himself on the high road as the voice of the sports fan and the scourge of the “suits.”
One wonders how he would have reacted had Trump appeared on *First Take* with Stephen A. Smith instead. Would he have talked about how much he appreciated seeing it happen, or would he have taken a shot at Smith for besmirching the sanctity of sports? What if that *First Take* discussion had been peppered with images that glorified Trump instead of the veterans he was supposedly there to support?
That’s the tricky thing with him. You never quite know where he really stands because the rules seem to be different for him than they are for others.
For Pat McAfee, but not for thee.
https://awfulannouncing.com/espn/pat-mcafee-wants-it-both-ways-donald-trump.html
