Welcome to the edge of sports podcast. I'm Dave Ziron. This week, we are going to talk about the year that was in sports in 2020.

We, of course, are going to talk about what happened to Damar Hamlin of the Buffalo Bills and what it says about not just the National

Football League, but about football itself. And then we're going to talk some football. Yes,

this is a mess of contradictions with my son, Jacob Zyron, for the segment that we call

Jake's Takes.

Now, I know I haven't done a show in a hot minute because of all kinds of madness, but we're

going to get back on the schedule and do this right in the weeks ahead.

So first, I want to say something about the year that was.

Okay, look, there is a famous apocryphal quote about the onset of revolution.

There are decades when nothing happens and there are weeks when decades happen.

Flip that quote on its head and you can understand

what the politics of sports has felt like since the summer of 2020. It's been less than three years,

but it feels like decades. Or to paraphrase Oscar Wilde on prison, each day is a year, a year whose days are long.

In 2020, the sports world was at the heart of the largest set of demonstrations in U.S.

history following the police murder of George Floyd.

Yet in 2022, as this country faced a seething and violent right wing, fear and silence ruled the day.

It's not surprising.

Athletes don't live in a hermetically sealed universe

apart from the rest of the world.

Instead, they reflect the trends in society,

a confused populace in retreat,

and a right wing puking up the barbarism of decades past.

...