How grievances splintered American sports
Post Reports
The Washington Post
4.4 • 5.1K Ratings
🗓️ 19 June 2024
⏱️ 32 minutes
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Summary
American sports have changed from a unifying bond to a platform for division. Is there any going back?
Sports columnist Jerry Brewer has been thinking about the state of sports for decades. In the past few years, it has soured in his mind. In his new series of essays titled “Grievance Games,” Brewer set out to explore why he believes the unifying power of sports has been ruptured through grievance politics. And how many of those grievances are racially charged.
Today on Post Reports, Brewer narrates the first piece in the series, which serves as an introduction to his thinking.
You can find this column, and the next three in the series, here.
This story was written and narrated by Jerry Brewer. It was produced and mixed with original music by Bishop Sand.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hey there. It's Alahay. It's Wednesday, June 19th, and we're off today for Juneteenth. |
| 0:07.0 | But today we get to hear from sports columnist Jerry Brewer. |
| 0:11.0 | Jerry lays out why he believes the unifying power of sports has been ruptured through |
| 0:16.9 | grievance politics and how many of those grievances are racially charged. It's the first column in a series Jerry |
| 0:25.9 | wrote called The Grivens Games about the political and cultural forces that are |
| 0:30.4 | fracturing American sports. Okay, here's Jerry. |
| 0:37.6 | Huntsville, Alabama. At this sports crime scene, a great myth suffered a random death. |
| 0:45.4 | The games we love lost their unifying superpower here. |
| 0:49.9 | It ruptured in a sound bite. Some consider Donald Trump the culprit, but he was just a |
| 0:56.2 | closer. Tension was already there, prime for manipulation. |
| 1:01.9 | 7 years ago. manipulation. |
| 1:04.0 | Seven years ago, during a political rally at the Von Braun Center, |
| 1:09.0 | Trump used his presidential privilege to finish the job. |
| 1:14.2 | With one vulgar and meandering diatribe against protesting NFL players, he made American |
| 1:20.8 | sports civility collapse. It seems no one cares to rebuild it. |
| 1:27.0 | The president shouted, |
| 1:29.0 | Wouldn't you love to see one of these NFL owners when somebody disrespects our flag? to say get that son of a bit off the |
| 1:35.0 | get that son of a bitch off the field right now out he's fired |
| 1:40.0 | he's fired! Fire! |
| 1:50.0 | His taunt His taunt |
| 1:51.0 | became the soundtrack for Sports Discord. |
| 1:55.0 | It spawned a counter movement that politicizes the arena |
... |
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