Episode 177: Sports, Politics, and Activism
In the spirit of sports being political, Shireen, Lindsay, and Brenda talk about athletes endorsing political candidates, and political activism all over the world. [4:10] And, as always, the Burn Pile [32:50], Torchbearers, starring Marcus Rashford [37:55], and what is good in our worlds [40:15].
Links
Brazilian women’s soccer shouldn’t also have to fight misogyny: https://www.sbnation.com/2019/6/9/18658080/brazil-womens-soccer-sexism-world-cup-history/
Sifan Hassan defies weather to break European 10,000m record in Hengelo: https://www.olympicchannel.com/en/stories/news/detail/sifan-hassan-defies-weather-european-10000m-record-in-hengelo
Football pioneer Emmarae Dale meets her moment in history: https://www.cbc.ca/sports/football/emmarae-dale-saskatchewan-hilltops
Sei Young Kim wins her first major title at the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship: https://www.lpga.com/news/2020/sirak-sei-young-a-major-champion/
ESPN's Jessica Mendoza Makes History at the World Series: https://www.si.com/mlb/2020/10/23/world-series-jessica-mendoza-dodgers-rays/
'He does not give up': how Marcus Rashford became a hero to school kids: https://www.theguardian.com/education/2020/oct/23/marcus-rashford-hero-kids-school-meals/
Transcript
This episode was produced by Martin Kessler. Shelby Weldon is our social media and website specialist.
Shireen: Hello flamethrowers, it’s Shireen here. I’m so excited to be captaining this ship this week with Lindsay and Brenda. We have an amazing show including a discussion on politics, athletes, political athletes, and athletes in politics.
Brenda: There’s probably not another president I can think of in Brazilian history besides Jair Bolsonaro who has used athletes more…
Shireen: Lindsay’s got an interview with Ginny Gilder, co-owner of the Seattle Storm, the 2020 WNBA champs. That interview drops on Thursday, and as usual you’ll hear the burn pile and us uplifting amazing people. Before we start, I have a very important question for my amazing co-hosts. Tree – what is your favorite tree? [Lindsay laughing] Brenda, it’s fall. You know how much I love fall. Tell me about your tree.
Brenda: Well, I have two seasonal trees, neither of which are fall trees. The peach tree, which I think is really beautiful, and I have one; and one of those blue spruce Christmas trees, I love those. I have them in my yard and sometimes I just stand under them and smell. But I also, if we’re talking about trees, I really wanna give a shoutout to the squirrels. I have learned through remote schooling that trees have a lot to thank those amped-up squirrels for. You know that squirrels steal acorns from each other? So they rebury them! That’s why they’re so frantic, they steal. It’s like stashes. Then they forget where they are. So, the eastern gray squirrel forgets over half of the nuts it buries, and as a result there’s entire forest regeneration.
Shireen: Wow.
Brenda: They’re doing the work, yeah.
Shireen: Yeah, I always just thought that was a high-anxiety life. I didn’t realize there was, like, stress behind it. Wow.
Brenda: Yeah, serious stuff.
Shireen: Linz?
Lindsay: [laughing] Sorry. I’m trying to take this as seriously as Shireen would like me to, [Shireen laughing] and I don’t know that I can. Obviously big fan of trees, they do the oxygen thing, I like that. You know, I’m here in North Carolina so I’d say maybe the dogwood trees that are so beautiful in the spring, and then in DC of course the cherry blossoms. Neither one of these are fall trees either, but I think that’s fine because this is ridiculous. [laughs]
Shireen: I love them, I love autumn, and I love the color, the red outside my door. There’s a beautiful maple that’s red leaves…My actual favorite tree clearly is the Japanese maple.
Lindsay: Clearly! [laughter] I’ve always suspected, but I’m glad you confirmed.
Brenda: As if there was a doubt!
Shireen: I actually really have this secret obsession with Christmas, which you all know–
Lindsay: It’s not a secret! It’s not a secret! [laughing]
Shireen: It’s not a secret. And I really love, Brenda, also, spruce Christmas trees and the way that German tradition lights individual candles on it. It’s a huge fire hazard and I’m not gonna actually try it–
Brenda: Yeah. [laughs] Don’t!
Shireen: Anyways, take away from this: trees are good.
Lindsay: Alright, well, in case anyone has forgotten, a week from today, the day the episode drops, is election day in the United States. The incumbent Donald Trump and vice president Mike Pence – who currently has another coronavirus outbreak in his office – are running against Joe Biden and Kamala Harris, on the Democratic ticket. I think it’s safe to say that stakes are high, tensions are high, it is hard to sleep right now. I’m currently in North Carolina which is a swing state. That means there are political ads for either the Senate race between Cal Cunningham and Thom Tillis and the presidential race EVERYWHERE – I opened my mom’s mailbox and it hadn’t been opened in a few weeks, literally, political flyers just fell out. It was like one of those clown cars, like, how many of these can fit in here? It’s just absolutely ridiculous. But unfortunately it’s all I can think about, and so we’re gonna talk about it in this podcast today, but through the lens of athletes because, look, this is something that touches everyone and it touches all over the world. While everything about this feels new and more stressful we all know that politics is not new and that athletes getting involved in politics is certainly nothing new and certainly not unique to the United States.
Brenda: It’s certainly not unique to the United States. In Latin America athletes’ support for candidates, support for processes has a pretty long history. When this pod will drop it’s not only a week away from the US election but it will be 3 days after Chileans go to the polls to determine if they’ll have a new constitution altogether, which is amazing and totally revolutionary in terms of the region. Also in Brazil you have a long history of athletes and clubs, full clubs, coming out in support of not only particular candidates but also in support of the democratic process itself, so, the most famous case – you couldn’t set the names up good enough – is Socrates, who played for Corinthians!
Shireen: Love, absolutely legend.
Brenda: He and his team started the ‘diretas ja’ campaign, which famously was a referendum against the dictatorship in Brazil which had been in place between 1964 and 1985. He actually at the ‘direct elections now’ campaign he wanted so much for the presidential elections to be held that he said if they didn’t he was going to go leave and play in Italy. Actually, it failed and he left for Florence, so, long history there. Currently there’s probably not another president I can think of in Brazilian history besides Jair Bolsonaro who has used athletes more in terms of normalizing and legitimizing his rule, his extreme right government which shows contempt for women, LGBTQ+, Black Brazilians, poor Brazilians, specially-abled Brazilians, immigrants. He has constantly worn…There’s whole Twitter threads of the different kinds of club shirts that he has worn.
While Marta has not endorsed him there are other hallowed players like Ronaldinho, Rivaldo, Zico; younger ones like Lucas Moura and Alisson, who have come out and thrown their full support behind this person who seemingly…You ask yourself, like, why? Why? These are athletes of color, they come from poor places. Why would they support a person like this? You know, there’s a lot of reasons, it’s a lot more nuanced than one might think. They live outside of Brazil, and we might find this when we talk about other athletes in other places right now, that they don’t have to experience actually living under this person’s rule. They get to be abroad, they do most of their work abroad, they wanna protect their wealth, they wanna protect security. So a lot of the times they have things more in common with the Brazilian elite even though they may have grown up in a different class position.
Shireen: Yeah, that is really relevant to…I’m gonna segue into Turkey now and talk about some athletes who are very pronounced. First, of course, being Mesut Özil – I wanna say Arsenal member but he wasn’t actually listed in the 2020-2021 roster – formerly of the German national team. Mesut Özil, forget about endorsing. Turkish president Recep Erdoğan was Mesut’s best man at his wedding – he was actually his best man! Now, I mean, there’s a lot of conversations, it’s quite complex with Mesut Özil who is a third-generation German national of Turkish descent and very very connected to Turkey. He actually stated after the whole debacle with the German national team when he quit, he said, “I am German when we win, immigrant when we lose,” and after – you all remember – the 2018 horrible World Cup performance when Germany just did a horrible job, later announcing he would never be playing for Germany again. So some might think it could be due to…He’s a very outspoken critic of the slaughter of Uyghur Muslims in China and that it was related to all this stuff and the industry that is football, but at the end of the day you’ve got someone who isn’t actually living full time in that place supporting a very polarizing political leader.
But not all athletes are big Erdoğan fans, and Boston Celtics’ Enes Kanter is a staunch vocal opponent of Erdoğan who is head of the AK party. Enes Kanter is a Gulenist. A Gulenist is someone – and just stick with me here – who follows Fethullah Gulen. The fued between Gulenists versus Turkish government, who are the ruling AK party, began in 2013 after a civil dispute in Turkey regarding Gulen’s criticisms of the violent handling at Gezi Park. Essentially, the AK party accused the Gulenists of trying to destabilize the government. So, the government responded with armed measures and reformed judiciary and police forces, so major criticisms have been made of Erdoğan and judicial independence and authoritarianism in Turkey. Now, this is key: Kanter is a Gulenist, and Erdoğan has been critiqued globally for the lack of press freedom and social media mobilization that’s allowed in Turkey.
According to a 2017 report from Amnesty International, the Committee to Protect Journalists says Turkey is the highest jailer of journalists in the world, and this is not a surprise to anybody. So, with regards to Kanter, and I’m quoting from a Vox article by Jen Kirby here, “It’s personal for Kanter, as he and his family have been singled out by the Turkish government. But his story is also part of a larger crisis unfolding in Turkey, where, after a 2016 failed coup that tried to remove him from office, Erdoğan has consolidated power and purged perceived political opponents in the judiciary, police, and public sectors, jailing tens of thousands of civil servants, journalists, and other dissidents.” This is scary because we think of Turkey being more progressive considering where it is geographically, but geopolitically, no. Now, Enes Kanter is very very vocal about this and has actually said,
Enes Kanter: The Turkish government is very famous for hunting down people who talk about the government and Erdoğan. That’s why I was scared of his long arms.
Shireen: So, as we see, there’s no one shoe that fits, and I would love to see a debate between Mesut Özil and Enes Kanter, which is never going to happen. Just for those that wanna know, Enes Kanter’s national citizenship was revoked, and so he’s basically stateless until he becomes an American citizen. Lindsay?
Lindsay: Yeah, I think it’s important that we talk so much about – or I, specifically, talk so much about – athletes in the United States and the pressure on them to speak up politically and right now it’s pretty much if athletes aren’t speaking up against Trump they’re thought less of by a certain segment of the audience, including myself. But it’s important to remember that in the United States while we certainly do not have a true democracy and certainly have a long way to go when it comes to equality that right now we have not reached full authoritarianism, at least not yet, so the stakes aren’t as high as they are for some athletes in other countries. I mean, in the burn pile for a couple of weeks I talked about what was happening to Yelena Leuchanka, the Belarusian basketball star who was part of the athletes that were leading the protests against president Alexander Lukashenko stolen election, how he stole the election there. She was put into jail for 15 days because of that, her celebrity status was used against her and they put her in jail as a warning to other athletes who speak out. I think that’s an important perspective to remember, you know, that part of what we’re fighting for here in the United States is the ability to keep fighting and continue to have the freedom to fight.
Shireen: I’m just gonna segue from this part, when we’re on this part of the world, and talk about Khabib Nurmagomedov, the UFC fighter, who actually announced his retirement on Saturday after winning against Justin Gaethje at UFC25. So, Nurmagomedov has known ties to the leader of Chechnya, Ramzan Kadyrov. Both men claim to be very observant Muslims, and – this is where I’m going with this – and in 2018 Nurmagomedov was actually made an honorary citizen of Chechnya and Kadyrov gifted him a Mercedes. Kadyrov runs a state-sponsored gym and has close ties to the MMA world, and he runs the state-sponsored gym named after his late father, Akhmad Fight Club is what it’s called, from where Magomed Bibulatov…He’s an Akhmad gym alum, and Zubaira Tukhugov – they actually are Chechen. So there’s a notable presence in the MMA from Chechnya.
Kadyrov is also alleged to have killed many in the queer community in a horrific roundup, shortly after which Nurmagomedov posed in a photo with him. The Kremlin-backed leader of Chechnya has actually been accused of creating a very horrible Black hole of human rights abuses in that country, and for Nurmagomedov to really be centered as this Muslim hero…I’m seeing this all over social media. A couple of months ago I actually threw his comments on the burn pile about how misogynistic he was in his attitude towards women in the MMA generally. Brenda?
Brenda: In terms of pressure on athletes to support or not support particular candidates, I can’t think of anyone who had a tougher time than Jackie Robinson. I mean, so much pressure on him following his very important leadership role in the civil rights movement, he was so active and out there and upfront, so, a ton of pressure. But his case also provides us with a sense of how nuanced things can be. Robinson famously endorsed Nixon when he ran against Kennedy, which attracted a ton of critics. It still does. People flippantly mention that and say, “Oh, wow…” as if he’d made this huge mistake. Robinson didn’t feel as though Kennedy and the Democrats were committed enough to civil rights and really here’s where history whispers that he was 100% right. I mean, still, Nixon – bleugh, right? But Robinson also worked for Nelson Rockefeller and the Republican party at various points, uses Robinson whenever they can. It's interesting because you can see Jackie Robinson’s frustration, you can see that he’s feeling criticism from the Black community and that maybe there’s no perfect option out there, and so these are really really tough choices. In the end, famously, in 1968, he cuts ties with Nixon and goes out for Hubert Humphrey who is a more progressive candidate on civil rights, but also it’s really important to recognize that Robinson was right – there wasn't any perfect choice for a presidential candidate on the topic of civil rights. When we look back, JFK’s record isn’t particularly wonderful, even if his rhetoric is better and his public image is certainly more likable and charismatic.
Lindsay: Yeah, I think that’s a very important point that none of this is straightforward, sometimes, especially when looking backwards, as it seems it should be. There’s been kind of a group of former Black football players…I mean, Herschel Walker supporting Donald Trump. Herschel Walker was brought out at the Republican national convention to be able to tell everyone that Trump is not racist. I mean, you of course had Dennis Rodman; I think Terrell Owens has even said at times, of course Tiger Woods has been good friends with Trump and played golf with him and received the medal of freedom from him. So, even when it comes to Black men in positions of power there’s been some strange choices, especially considering how Trump uses Black male athletes in particular as punching bags in order to rile up racism and hatred in his base, and that’s really hard to see. But of course people identify with different parts of their identities at different times and at different times when things are convenient for them. You certainly see a bunch of powerful former football players…It is certainly not just Herschel Walker. I mean, very few of these are Black men. The most high profile example right now is what we’re seeing from the white former quarterback, Brett Favre, and his consistent teaming with Trump on all things. I just don’t understand how seeing how Trump has treated your colleagues, current and former, you could go about partnering with him on things, you could go about endorsing him, you could go about supporting him. But here we are, and of course we all remember back to the 2016 election when both Tom Brady and Bill Belichick tried to play it coy with whether or not they were endorsing Trump. Tom Brady had his Make America Great Again hat in his locker just kind of hanging there. Bill Belichick wrote a letter to Trump that Trump then read out loud at a rally the day before election day in 2016. But Belichick was all, “I’m not officially endorsing him!” So you see how Trump is more than willing to exploit these relationships with those in the athlete community to use as cover for the way he treats Black athletes and it’s pretty sickening to see anyone give him any cover for that, but it's happening.
Shireen: And just from that point, we’ve also seen a tradition start to be incredibly more scrutinized, of White House visits by teams, which has been a storied tradition for champions of various leagues to go visit with the head of the “greatest country on Earth,” or what is that old saying? But I think that it’s important that there is critique of this. I wrote a piece for Vice about the Pittsburgh Penguins, the 2017 champs, led by Sidney Crosby, who is Canadian, and part of the system and problem of this was the excuse that Crosby made which was, “Well, actually I’m Canadian so I don’t need to get involved,” – because systems of racism end at the border? Sidney Crosby’s actually from an incredibly known community in Canada called Coal Harbour in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia, where race riots made national headlines not too long ago. So for him to argue that issues of police brutality and racial injustice that are in crisis in the United States aren’t a problem in Canada? Well, sorry, that’s not gonna work.
So I think that happens quite a bit, that Canadian athletes don’t feel like they have an invested say in this, and that’s a huge problem. The 2017 WNBA champions, Minnesota Lynx, also did not visit the White House. In 2018 Sue Bird, of the champions that year in the WNBA, said, “The Seattle Storm had not received an invitation from President Donald Trump to visit the White House. The new WNBA champions have no interest in going even if one is extended.” Her partner and, I will say liberally, Megan Rapinoe, also assumed to be a Burn It All Down fan, has actually been quoted famously to say,
Megan Rapinoe: Pfft. I’m not going to the fucking White House.
Shireen: In 2019 the WNBA champs, the Mystics, didn’t even receive an invitation, while the Washington Nationals accepted and went after winning the World Series, as did the NHL’s Washington Capitals, that year’s Stanley Cup champs. The NBA champs skipped the visit in 2017 and actually instead met with president Barack Obama in an unofficial and lovely visit. Bren?
Brenda: Yeah, I’m taken back…Just to talk about Barack Obama and the difference it makes to have a Black presidential candidate and the ways in which athletes feel like they’re connected and step up. I remember in 2008 when LeBron James hosted a free concert by Jay-Z in Ohio, which was such an important state in that election. I understand there’s waves and generations of this, but I feel like it really launched, for LeBron’s generation, a kind of awareness of the power of that platform in terms of campaigning. Of course there’s been tons of athlete protests that we cover all the time – Amira and Lindsay and Shireen, you’re always doing it. But I also feel like this is a slightly different topic, when you officially link yourself with a candidate and that that sort of sparked a kind of generational…I don’t know, awareness; LeBron’s leadership on that particular campaign trail.
Lindsay: Yeah. I’ve been inspired by how I’ve seen female athletes more involved in the endorsements, and not that they haven’t been involved politically before, because we all know women in sports are on the front lines. But I do believe that they are being taken more seriously as people with power that can be harnessed to use politically. I think that helps and we’re seeing more women running for office. We saw Megan Rapinoe’s endorsement of Elizabeth Warren during the primaries treated in a way I don’t think I’ve ever seen an endorsement from a female athlete treated before
Reporter: Elizabeth Warren picking up a big endorsement today from Megan Rapinoe, the soccer star and social activist…
Lindsay: I mean, Warren rolled out this huge campaign video about the phone call when Rapinoe told her she was giving her her official endorsement. There was just something so powerful about that, because like I said I’m not used to seeing, first of all…It’s still unfortunately rare to see a women have a serious shot at becoming a presidential nominee, and we don’t take the power that female athletes have seriously enough – certainly men in sports often don’t – in order to leverage that, and to use their popularity to help the political process. The marriage makes so much sense because female athletes are so inherently political, as we talk about on this show all the time. On that note, in the interview this week you’ll be able to hear my talk with Ginny Gilder, the co-owner of the Storm, about why the Seattle Storm as an organization decided to officially endorse Joe Biden and Kamala Harris, and that’s something that we really haven’t seen from teams and it just makes sense that it’s a women’s pro sports team that is taking this leap.
But you also had during the WNBA season the Say Her Name campaign which was the primary focus, but underneath everything were WNBA players getting people to the polls and harnessing the power of the vote, and nowhere was that more apparent than when Kelly Loeffler, the senator from Georgia and co-owner of the Atlanta Dream, used the WNBA players and the Say Her Name and Black Lives Matter campaign in order to try and gain political points, and she just shat all over them and their ideals and their beliefs. The WNBA players responded by not only refusing to say Loeffler’s name for the remainder of the WNBA season but they officially endorsed her opponent, Reverend Warnock, and Reverend Warnock made videos with these players, he announced how much fundraising he got because of their support, and their support of him on ESPN, ESPN2, wearing those ‘VOTE WARNOCK’ shirts – that really catapulted, I think. That was a big part of his race, raising awareness for who he was.
Once again, it was exciting to see female athletes use their power in this way, and it was exciting to see a candidate take them seriously enough to do that. So, as we sit here in the United States…I know not everyone listening here is in the United States but this is where I am and this is where my head is now. You know, as we sit here on this precipice let’s do what we do with this show all the time and let’s follow the lead of women in sports and of these leaders, particularly in the WNBA, and harness our collective power to get out and vote. I know you all are getting voting PSAs everywhere, but I feel like I wouldn’t be doing my job if I didn’t use my platform to echo that sentiment and tell everyone that this is not a perfect choice, there is no pure good in this political system, but in order to move forward: vote, and let’s just say it, vote for Joe and Kamala.
Shireen: This week’s interview is Lindsay chatting with Ginny Gilder, co-owner of the 2020 WNBA champions, the Seattle Storm, about the Storm’s endorsement of presidential candidate Joe Biden.
Ginny Gilder: How do we use this amazing platform of the Seattle Storm to promote the values that we as an organization – certainly we individually – have, and get out our point of view? If we can make a difference at all we want to. Mind you, the players already had started before that with Black Lives Matter, and we had already made the decision that we were backing them even if the league wasn’t gonna back them, and we made that clear to the league. So this is just another step in the progression of who we are.
Shireen: That interview drops on Thursday. Now on to everyone’s favorite segment: the burn pile. Lindsay, what are you torching this week?
Lindsay: Alright, look, I hate to even say either of these people’s names. [laughs] But this week former Fox Sports radio host and current contributor to the Clay Travis blog ‘Outkick the Coverage’ – Jason Whitlock, or Jason Shitlock, isn’t that what you call him, Brenda?
Brenda: [laughs] Yes.
Lindsay: He did a one on one lengthy interview with president Donald Trump – because WHY NOT! He praised Trump for bringing Big Ten college football back, which Trump did not, and Jason Whitlock who is Black but has long spoken out against Black athletes and their political power in progressive issues, discussed the president’s relationship with the Black community saying, “Antifa is the modern-day KKK.” Whew! “They are a domestic terrorist organization and they are doing things that they say are for the benefit of Black people, but that are not benefiting Black people,” Shitlock continued, and Trump of course agreed with this. I just would like to say that Jason Whitlock and Clay Travis and everyone at Outkick has made their careers now, made this website out of the idea that politics don’t belong in sports, and then they publish an exclusive interview with the president right before an election on their website! Do you not see the problem here? If this is not once again an example that these people don’t want politics out of sports, they want our politics out of sports, they want progressive politics out of sports, then this is what it is. I just want to throw the entire Outkick website and Jason Whitlock’s interview with Trump and of course Trump and all of that onto the burn pile. Burn.
Brenda: Burn.
Shireen: Oh, I was muted, sorry. Burn! I’m gonna go next. We all know that the Fédération Française, the FFF, is racist and xenophobic. We know this. Noël Le Graët has been a regular on our burn pile. We know he’s a twatwaffle. First he went on national television in real time and denied that racism is a thing that exists in French football, and franchement, Noël, you don’t get to use Black and brown bodies of your national teams winning world championships and pretend that you aren’t an asshole. The New York Times released a piece on “toxic culture” last week and now the FFF has commissioned an external report to investigate the senior leadership team for allegations of sexism and bullying. Well, they don’t need a fucking report. That place is bubbling with xenophobia and systems of oppression. We actually know this. Now, starting with deliberate and intentional exclusion of Muslim women from playing. So, yes, do your investigation, do your report. In the meantime there are so many people who are absolutely affected by his horrible policies. As they say in French, allez vous faire foutre. That actually means fuck you in French, just so you guys know. Burn.
All: Burn.
Brenda: Alright, I’m next, and I’ve got a quickie. We can just sear through this. The Barcelona wunderkind Ansu Fati has had some amazing starts for Barcelona recently and Spanish journalist Salvador Sostres came out and wrote about how wonderful they were, comparing Ansu Fati to a young Black street vendor running away from the police through the Catalan city streets. He’s a 17 year old Black Spaniard. What are you doing, Salvador Sostres? I mean, this is a place where young Black men are constantly characterized as criminals. So, Ansu Fati, that’s who comes to your mind when you see a super talented young Black man, that he reminds you of a thief, running away from a street vendor? Um. How did the editor…That just went right past them, right? So, I wanna burn Spanish media and the way that they talk about an incredibly talented child, the way that they characterize him and what lack of care they have for the racism that is so prevalent in Spain. So, burn.
All: Burn.
Shireen: Onto an uplifting segment of torchbearers of the week. Linz, can you get us started with our firecracker?
Lindsay: Our firecracker of the week is Dutch runner Sifan Hassan who earlier this month set a new European record for the women’s 10,000m – 29 minutes and 36.67 seconds, in rainy conditions, beating Paula Radcliffe’s 2002 mark by more than 24 seconds.
Shireen: Bren, can you tell us about our marshmallow roaster?
Brenda: Absolutely. Saskatchewan’s Emmarae Dale, 22, is the first woman on the roster of a Canadian Junior Football team. She plays for the Saskatoon Hilltops.
Shireen: Lindsay, tell us about our sun-saluters.
Lindsay: South Korean golfer extraordinaire Sei Young Kim won her first major title at the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship with a tournament-record: 14-under-par 266.
Shireen: And Brenda, can you tell us about both trailblazers?
Brenda: Our trailblazers are former Canadian women’s national team player Kaylyn Kyle, the first woman to become a color commentator for La Liga in North America. She called the Atlético Madrid vs Celta Vigo last weekend for BEINSports USA. And speaking of calling, Jessica Mendoza is calling the World Series for ESPN Radio and is the first woman to serve as an analyst.
Shireen: Can I get a drumroll please, or a very Olympic hymn?
[drumroll]
…That just sounded like slapping. [laughs]
Brenda: I’m looking for my drum.
Shireen: I thought that was in response to the “Olympic hymn”…That’s fine. [laughs] Our torchbearer of the week is Manchester United and English national team player and person extraordinaire Marcus Rashford for his advocacy of child poverty and nutritional health in the UK. He has elevated the issue of child food poverty and made it his own personal cause as someone who had relied on state-funded lunches as a young lad, that were recently opposed by Boris Johnson’s government in the UK. We do not deserve Marcus Rashford, and Boris Johnson certainly does not.
Tell me what’s good! Lindsay, tell me what’s good.
Lindsay: Okay, so this is gonna start out weird, [Shireen laughs] but I actually feel really sick and gross right now and the reason is because my cousin had a cookout yesterday – which involves something else good, in a minute – but he had worked really hard, you know, he was hosting and he was serving burgers and brats. I had not been eating meet, but I also when I stopped eating meat was like, I’m not gonna be an asshole about it, the main thing I wanna do is not purchase meat myself. So I ate what was being served, and I feel terrible. That is good because I kind of like this vegetarian lifestyle, and I think my fear was I’m gonna take a bite of meat and love it so much that I’m just gonna back, you know? Like it’s just gonna be hard for me to go back. That’s not the case, so yay me wanting to continue to eat vegetarian. Also, at this cookout though, I got to meet his baby who’s 7 months old and I got to hold and play with a 7 month old baby! She’s so precious. So, a lot of my cousins are right now having babies or just given birth, and it’s very very exciting. Yay!
Shireen: That’s so awesome, and Brenda’s probably so excited to have another vegetarian on the team. [Brenda laughs] I’m gonna go next and talk about Football People festival from Fare which was on last week and I was lucky enough to be asked to be on a panel. Brenda also was amazing on her panel, Jessica slayed, and I actually just wanna say that I love everybody but I feel like my panel was the most fun. [laughter] It was me and and Musa, Anne-Marie, and Jon, who are activists and brilliant, brilliant speakers in their own right. Anne-Marie is in Mexico City, Jon’s in the UK and Musa’s in Berlin and I love them all dearly and I have a huge crush on Musa which is no surprise to anybody, and he almost made me cry in the panel when he said that Burn It All Down is the gold standard of all sports podcasts, so that was lovely.
I’m a little bit obsessed – and I went down a rabbit hole on TikTok – with a song that, if you’re South Asian or have been to a South Asian wedding or party, you know this song. It’s called Sadi Gali. Martin, cue it up. [Sadi Gali plays]
You can keep it on, I love it so much. Now, what I didn’t realize is this is actually a TikTok phenomenon, and now footballers are using this as part of their goal celebration with this broken wrist thing, which is how they think you do bhangra, like, screw in the lightbulb, have a broken wrist…I don’t see that, but okay, whatever. I’m also a little bit obsessed with Stevie Nicks and Fleetwood Mac, not that I haven’t been, but again, parlaying that to TikTok. I did have a really cute video call with my niece yesterday who just…You can cut that, Martin. [laughs]
Lindsay: Please! [record scratch, music stops]
Shireen: I had a wonderful video call with my niece, Zara, who I love dearly. They live across the city so they’re about an hour away, but she got her first makeup stuff. She’s 12, so we went through all the things she got, including clear mascara. I have no idea what clear mascara is but I sent my daughter Jihad out to go get it immediately. So it was amazing. I’m also…I’m afraid to say this in front of Lindsay. I’m so excited about Amar’e Stoudemire joining Steve Nash at the Knicks. I love them both, and I’m pulling out my Phoenix Suns old jersey! So excited. Brenda?
Brenda: I also loved the festival at Football People Weeks and I also loved watching all of the pictures, as I said for my what’s good last week. It runs for a couple of weeks, all the grassroots programs that are going on around the world. Big shoutout to Zorros Football Club, which is a LGBTQ football club in Mexico City that’s doing amazing work with HIV testing and just some wonderful stuff. I was on a panel with Crystal Dunn…And that’s kind of my what’s good.
Shireen: BIG flex!
Brenda: I know! Even my daughter thought it was really cool, so it gave me a lot of points, and she’s just amazing and I really admire her, so that was really exciting. Last thing is youth soccer. Man, the drama! I can’t even tell you…Yesterday there was a big fight between the coaches because one had not worn his badge and then the other one let the team score too many points – because we have a unicorn rule where you can only win by 7. So the coach was hopping up and down, and I was just like, this is so fun! This is like Pep Guardiola is right in front of you, you know?
Shireen: I was gonna say, this is like La Liga! [laughs]
Brenda: Yeah! I love the drama.
Shireen: That’s amazing. Now, what are we watching this week? The World Series, apparently, is a thing.
Brenda: It’s super fun! It’s amazing.
Lindsay: Oh my gosh, the end of game 4–
Brenda: UGH. Oh my gosh…
Lindsay: I didn’t even watch it live but I spent like an hour in bed this morning watching the replays.
Brenda: Yeah!
Shireen: I don’t know much about the baseball but I’m excited for everyone who’s excited about this. I’m happy for you.
Brenda: Yeah, and the spending differentials is really a David and Goliath story between the Rays and the Dodgers, I mean, it’s kind of neat.
Lindsay: I love you, Brenda.
Shireen: I know. I wanna go to a baseball game with y’all. I think we’d have a lot of fun. I would just eat. I’m all for stadium food. But I would appreciate the energy. Also, CONCACAF men’s league soccer is on. Champ’s league has started again, that’s very exciting. If anyone’s interested in watching Women’s Super League in the UK can just watch Vivianne Miedema slay on women’s Arsenal side.
That’s it for this week in Burn It All Down. You can always burn all day and all night with our fabulous array of merchandise including mugs, pillows, face masks, hoodies and bags. What better way to crush toxic patriarchy in sports and sports media than by getting someone you love a pillow with our logo on it. Burn It All Down lives on the Blue Wire podcast network but can be found on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, Google Play and TuneIn. We appreciate your reviews and feedback, so please subscribe and rate and let us know what we did well and how we can improve. You can find us on Facebook and Instagram @burnitalldownpod and on Twitter @burnitdownpod, or you can email us at burnitalldownpod@gmail.com. Check out our website, burnitalldownpod.com, where you will find previous episodes, transcripts, and a link to our Patreon. We would appreciate you subscribing, sharing, and rating our show, which helps us do the work we love to do and keep burning what needs to be burned. This episode has been produced by the genius that is Martin Kessler, also who loves Japanese maple trees; and our social media guru is Shelby Weldon. We wish you all safety and health and whatever joys you can muster during this chaotic and unprecedented time. As Brenda always says: burn on, not out.