Episode 230: Solidarity in Sports: Always Fraught, Always Relevant
In this episode Brenda Elsey, Shireen Ahmed and Jessica Luther talk about solidarity in sports regarding transnational issues. But first, they share their reactions to the Ballon d'Or. Then, they discuss the fraught, powerful and complicated ways that solidarity with political and human rights issues is manifested in sport. They dive into Enes Kanter Freedom's appearance on Fox News to criticize activists, the WTA's action against China for the disappearance of tennis player Peng Shuai, and boycott threats of the 2022 World Cup in Qatar regarding the abuse and deaths of workers constructing stadiums.
Following the main discussion, you'll hear a preview of Dr. Amira Rose Davis's interview with Dr. Nef Walker and Dr. Scott Brooks about gender and race in women's college basketball coaching.
Next, they burn sports garbage this week in The Burn Pile. Then, they celebrate those making sports better, including Torchbearer of the Week, Beth Mowins, who made history as the first woman to do play-by-play for a regular season NBA game. They wrap up the show with what's good in their lives and what they are watching in sports this week.
This episode was produced by Tressa Versteeg. Shelby Weldon is our social media and website specialist. Burn It All Down is part of the Blue Wire podcast network.
Transcript
Brenda: Welcome to Burn It All Down. It's the feminist sports podcast you need. Today on the show, we're going to talk solidarity – transnational solidarity within sports, and among athletes. I'm joined by my co-hosts Shireen Ahmed and Jessica Luther. Before we get to doing all that, and of course burning things that need to be burned and talking about wonderful people in sports like we do every week, I want to ask you both about the Ballon d’Or ceremony. This is of course the award for the best in football, given out by the French Football Federation. I want to say that disclaimer, because when people complain about the award, they often complain at the wrong individuals, right? Specifically FIFA, who does not give out the award. And as much as I love to blame FIFA for everything, this is like the one instance in which they don't actually have much of a say. Feelings about it? Shireen.
Shireen: Yeah. I'm going to jump in, because I will jump at the chance to talk about how beautiful and wonderful Didier Drogba is all the time. Love Drogba. Do not love Chelsea, but love him. He's wonderful. I think he's charismatic. I would love him to host forever. In fact, I think I want them to be the next James Bond. There's a couple of things, like the striker of the year? Are we doing this now? Are we going to have like second official of the year too? Like, no, don't get me wrong. Second official is an important position. But I just…We invented an award for Lewandowski? Does he really need more props? We all get it. He's excellent. We know. If it's not going to be Messi winning shit, it's going to be Lewandowski. He's doing great.
Also, there's like literally one award for women in this entire show, which irritates the fuck out of me. And the fuckery is that Christine Sinclair didn't win such award. And that also irritated me more. I know I've had this question in the chat group, Meg Linehan has explained that it was due where it was due and that's fine, and I understand numbers, but I don't care. I think Christine Sinclair should have won it.
Brenda: No, I don't think it's obvious. So can you explain to listeners…
Shireen: I didn't want to spoil the torchbearer segment [laughs] because Alexia Putellas of FC Barcelona…I just feel like there's something weird there. And Barça’s always gotta win shit. Like, I just sort of feel like that. I know that you don't want to call out FIFA. I think they can be called out for everything. But also in the same vein, Barça can be called out. She played really well in the Champs League, a hundred percent understand that, but I just sort of feel like if there was a year that we could award Christine Sinclair – who's never been given FIFA player of the year and I don't believe she's going to win it, because they just do not want to give it to her – it would have been this. And I'm not happy about that. But I will leave some of the best to Jessica to talk about.
Jessica: Yeah, I have nothing to add about on the pitch stuff. Like, at all. The only thing that I cared about is entirely superficial, which is that Lionel Messi showed up to the event in this brilliant black tuxedo that was like shimmering? I don't even know. You just have to go look at it. Like, it's just the material was amazing, but it wasn't just him. He brought his three sons, and they were all wearing matching tuxes. So you have these four glimmering people, and then his wife just looked gorgeous in her gold dress. Like as a family, it was just the most beautiful, adorable scene. And I just loved every second of that. So that's my… [laughs] There you go. That's what I got.
Shireen: I have an idea for the next live taping of Burn It All Down. I think we should all get matching sequined…I feel like they were sequined.
Jessica: I don't think they were. There's some other thing going on with the fabric. It doesn't look like sequins to me.
Brenda: It was a holiday bonanza.
Jessica: I don't know what it was. It was magic.
Brenda: Yes.
Jessica: It was magic.
Shireen: It was beautiful. Irrespective of the material, I think we should all have matching blazers like this for our live taping next time. I think we should go dressed up as the Messi family.
Brenda: The very concept of solidarity is one that I find really fascinating – having sympathy, showing support for a cause maybe related to yours, but other than specifically your own, right? And we think about the term solitary sometimes rooted in the labor movement; Poland in the 1980s against the communist government, and who became later Pope John Paul II. So, you think about these big transnational movements. Labor unions are often where we think of the term solidarity. So for example, I've written about in the 1970s, the ways in which Scottish or Welsh union auto workers would not help get a plane of Rolls-Royces that had come from Chile onto the tarmac, in solidarity with the Chilean workers who had been killed by Augusto Pinochet.
So these acts of solidarity…And in sports, we have a ton. You think about during Apartheid, that even FIFA was pushed specifically by CONCACAF and Caribbean nations, but supported throughout the football world, in totally banning and ostracizing the South African Football Federation. And that felt very important to the people that were suffering under Apartheid, to political prisoners like Nelson Mandela, et cetera. So, it's a big topic, and it's one of those platforms that sports allows athletes to use – when they want – to speak out about certain issues, and hopefully maybe raise awareness, add support, whatever it may look like.
So we're going to talk about that right now, because we have three cases this week that have really come to the fore: Enes Kanter Freedom, the WTA/China and Peng Shuai, and Qatar and the FIFA World Cup that is pending in 2022. So, I want to talk about how fraught some of these issues are, how difficult it is to achieve coherence, et cetera. And I'm going to start with Enes, the Celtics player who went on Tucker Carlson this past week with unrestrained praise for the United States, to the glee of the conservative talk show host, who was visibly tickled by Enes Kanter Freedom implying that athletes who support Black Lives Matter should be more educated about the human rights abuses in China and maybe, I think, he said shut up about other things – implying Black Lives Matter.
It was really sort of an uncomfortable moment for people who agreed with some of the critiques that Enes Kanter Freedom had. Shireen, do you want to start us off with this?
Shireen: So, the direct quote was, “They should just keep their mouth shut and stop criticizing the greatest nation in the world.” And that was in reference to activism in the WNBA or the NBA or anything with regards to that, that is directly critical of the nation state. And I mean, that really makes us think about, you know, the way that Kanter Freedom has walked around wearing a WNBA hoodie, the orange one, and just sort of, you know, purported to be a supporter of this kind of activism that directly critiques police brutality in said nation state.
So, I mean, it's just a conflation of everything. So, you know what, Enes? Obviously you can't know what's in someone's brain and heart, but you go on fucking Tucker Carlson and you talk shit about activism in a country – and particularly from a group that you have no idea what it's like? Yes, you can have parallels in your own when you feel you have been persecuted, and he certainly has with the Erdoğan government in Turkey.
And just to clarify with people, Enes Kanter has actually famously been a Gülenist, Gülen’s political and religious party in Turkey. And I reached out to three Turkish scholars that I know; nobody wants to talk on record about this. That's so fucked up and complicated – politics are, in Turkey. Not to mention that Enes Kanter has a right to be critical of Erdoğan’s government. They're literally the most egregious when it comes to jailing journalists in the world.
So yes, there is a case for Enes Kanter Freedom to be critical. However, there's a place where you don't conflate issues and use his criticism of Uyghur Muslims in China – which is absolutely valid, a hundred percent, and really not a popular issue for people to take up, quite frankly, other than Mesut Özil, who was then condemned by people within the football world, including fellow Muslim Yaya Touré who played in China at the time. So I mean, it is quite complicated. There's not one right answer. There's not one wrong answer. I mean, generally human rights abuses are bad and we know this, but the point is, is that not everyone's politics will be completely on point.
But in this case, someone like Enes Kanter Freedom who marched with Black Lives Matter and who has been very active in a supportive women's sports, this is not okay. Particularly what concerns me is this criticism and targeting of people who are critical of the American state. I think that it's important to say that also not just Tucker Carlson, but in addition, Enes Kanter has raised flags for people. His support of the Israeli regime has been problematic, his criticisms of other things have been problematic, and it's coming to a head now.
Now, there's conspiracy theorists out there that are like, oh, he's a CIA operative. Also, former head of the CIA is praising him. You gotta step back, flamethrowers, and wonder what the fuck is going on here. I think that calling out LeBron singularly or bringing him into it is also another way of trying to amplify what he's talking about, but you gotta be really careful when you do that shit, because you will be looked at from a perspective of what are you seeing across the board here.
Brenda: Right. So let's get into the fact that he specifically put a likeness of LeBron James on his shoe looking like he's bowing or being crowned by a Chinese official. So, at that point he advised LeBron to say more and get himself educated. And for many people, this look like one more aggression towards Black Lives Matter and a really racist comment. Strategically though, it is really complicated, because LeBron James of course is a leader in the NBA and beyond in sports more broadly. I mean, people really look to what he's going to have to say about all of these issues. And you know, the issue of the Uyghur in China, this isn't a new issue. This has been since LeBron's been born, you know? This is not his first season. So, strategically, removing everything Enes Kanter said that was just racist and stupid, the problem is that you would want LeBron James to say something about it, right, Jessica?
Jessica: Absolutely. I mean, I think LeBron is really a stand-in here and a lot of ways for just activism out of the NBA, you know? He’s just the face of that at this point within the league – which, you know, he has placed himself there in certain situations. I do also think I'm with Shireen. Like, this stuff is super complicated to talk about, and I don't know. Everyone will remember a couple of years ago, Daryl Morey, when he was the GM of the Houston Rockets, tweeted something in support of Hong Kong. And China was so angry, and there was all this brouhaha around the NBA.
And at the time, LeBron used the same language that Enes Kanter Freedom used against him, to say that Morey just was not educated when he did that, and really criticized Morey for being public in support of the Hong Kong protesters. And that isn't saying that what Enes said was right at all. It wasn't. But this is where it is complicated, where people are sort of talking past each other in lots of ways, and using similar language to do it.
I do just want to say about Kanter going on Tucker Carlson…I mean, you know, he was roundly criticized for it. And in response, he tried to dodge it by saying, “I don't do politics. I do human rights.” And of course, we don’t believe in the idea that you're not “doing politics” just in general whenever you're bringing up political things. But going on Tucker Carlson is not an apolitical or neutral decision in any sort of way. Like, he's a violent white supremacist. He just put out a violent white supremacists documentary about January 6th. This man is making constant, terrible political choices as a figure, and going on his show is not some kind of neutral thing.
I mean, this is just…It is incredibly complicated when we look at solidarity, especially trans-nationally, especially with NBA, which is based here in the US, which has all of its own shit, especially around race. But, you know, we've seen LeBron be not great when brought to task around issues in China. So, that's also just part of the story.
Brenda: Well, it is. Capitalism’s a total system, right? Even for Enes Kanter, the coherence, the will to have a coherence around every single issue…You know, is the Celtics jersey made in China? I mean, probably. [Shireen laughs] So, you know, you don't want someone to give up on solidarity because you can't find a perfect coherence. And at the same time, having all these contradictions means that you're bound to have some fraught relationships, even with your own personal choices versus your political ones. Shireen?
Shireen: Just one last thing on Kanter. I'm just going to quote James Baldwin. “I love America more than any other country in the world. And exactly for this reason, I insist on the right to criticize her perpetually.” And I think about that a lot in this case.
Brenda: So, there’s a different kind of reaction that was taken this past week towards a real human rights crisis. Jessica?
Jessica: Yeah. So, on November 2nd, Peng Shuai – a very good tennis player from China, who has been on the tour for decades, is a grand slam doubles champion and a three time Olympian – she accused a top former Chinese official, like tippy top, like we're talking like the top of the communist party in China, of sexual assault in a post on Weibo, a Chinese social media platform. The post was removed very quickly; within 30 minutes, her name was scrubbed from the internet in China, and then she disappeared. They disappeared her, literally. She was not seen or heard from.
But as we all know here, speaking of solidarity and transnationally, women's tennis is a particularly political space, and her disappearance did not go unnoticed. Naomi Osaka, Serena Williams, Billie Jean King, among others. There was an entire social media push from players in the WTA. They expressed concern about her wellbeing. The Biden administration and the UN demanded proof that she was okay. So this became like a massive international political event, like, where is Peng Shuai? And Steve Simon, the head of the Women's Tennis Association, the WTA, said he would pull the WTA out of China if the government did not investigate Shuai’s report and put her in direct contact with the organization.
And guess what? China didn't do those things. And so the WTA, last week, in what I can only describe as a truly surprising decision, immediately suspended all tournaments in China, including Hong Kong. And I just want to read a chunk of what Simon wrote in his statement. “While we now know where Peng is, I have serious doubts that she is free, safe, and not subject to censorship, coercion, and intimidation. If powerful people can suppress the voices of women and sweep allegations of sexual assault under the rug, then the basis on which the WTA was founded – equality for women – would suffer an immense setback. I will not and cannot let that happen to the WTA and its players.”
He also told the New York Times, “We cannot walk away from issues related to sexual assault. If we do that, we are telling the world that it is okay and it's not important. That is what this is about.” So, we are talking about potentially hundreds of millions of dollars in the coming years if the WTA continues not to put on events in China. They hold like 10 events there, 10 tournaments every year, including their huge end of year championship tournament.
Okay. So, let's talk about solidarity. Here we are, once again: a woman centered organization in sports taking the lead on pushing back against China. The only ones actually. We’ve heard nothing about solidarity actions from other sports, including the men's tennis tournament, which seems very key here. The ATP…But I mean, I will say the ATP has showed us, if anything this last year, that they're pretty lukewarm. They don't care that much about gendered violence. They've made that very clear. The NBA, of course, nothing. Premier League, nothing. World Athletics reaffirmed they'll be doing a big championship in China in 2023.
But of course, this matters. The IAAF is led by Sebastian Coe, who is also big in the IOC. And we must speak of the IOC. They're probably sweating fucking bullets over this because the Olympics are starting there in two months. They've done these two Zoom calls with Shuai, and they're like, she's fine! It's all fine. They're participating basically in the Chinese propaganda around her. They’re total fucking cowards. But of course they are, right? There's long been causes…We were talking about the Uyghur Muslims, to boycott the Olympics in China because of the genocide that's going on. So, it's this incredibly scary situation, and it's been amazing on one hand to see what the WTA as an organization and as all these players have come together around her, and devastating to see how they stand alone in this moment.
Brenda: And up to now, so far as I know, Thomas Bach hasn't said anything.
Jessica: I mean, the IOC has just basically put out these statements saying we're doing what we can, this is the best diplomacy. It's very much like when you see reports around sexual assault and people are like, “We are doing the best thing. It's trauma informed. It's centering on the victim” even though the people in the middle of it are like, no, no, this is harmful to us! It's this kind of language that absolves them of making hard decisions. And so they basically said we're doing this human centered response, that this is the best way. But it's literally participating in propaganda. I will say, Ben Rothenberg on No Challenges Remaining interviewed a Human Rights Watch researcher from China who just went hard after the IOC, calling them shameful for the way that they participated in all of this.
Brenda: I'm so mad. But I mean, props to the WTA, like, what a model. I'm so glad that we don't have to burn down every organization on this episode.
Jessica: Yeah. It's startling. I mean, that part of the swing of the tour has been incredibly important for many years. China just had a huge champion in Li Na. When I was listening to No Challenges Remaining, the woman was making the point that like Peng Shuai is famous in China. Like, this is a famous case because the two people involved are incredibly famous. The scrubbing off the internet worked really well, so the conversation died pretty quickly in China itself. So it means a lot to see that the international community, at least within women's tennis, has really picked this up and run with.
Brenda: And we'll keep up on this story, of course. And as we get closer to the Olympics, I hope we can keep it as much in people's minds as possible. It's really terrifying. So, another ongoing story on solidarity that is unfolding is on the issue of Qatar and the FIFA World Cup of 2022. As national teams qualify – so, for those that are as obsessed with this process – there will be calls for boycotts. There haven't been up until this point, because teams haven't qualified. And so it, you know, looks arrogant for Argentina to be like, “We're not going to Qatar!” when they might not be anyway. So, as this process has unfolded, there have been more and more national teams. Some athletes speak out individually to the media. We've seen signs with the team's taking pictures. We've seen head coaches saying we're really going to have to look at this again.
Basically, trying to send this message that everyone really is unhappy with the fact that the Qatari government has done nothing to address the labor abuses of the stadium workers who have just continued to be hurt and died in incredibly unsafe conditions. Nepali workers whose passports have been taken, perhaps by the federation; lots of disappearances, families complaining that they've heard nothing. It's just really upsetting. Shireen, do you think any of these protests will work?
Shireen: So, if you remember, flamethrowers, we actually talked about stadiums in an episode, episode number 202, and we referenced this entire thing and did actually a pretty deep dive. So, you know, Qatar doesn't like bad PR. So the fact that people around the world are advocating and have been, and these are ongoing situations, you know, whether it is solidarity from players…I know that Joshua Kimmich in Germany was talking about the need for continued conversation. And I think there was a way in which sometimes we get tired and be like, continued conversation? We need action.
But continued conversations is also really important. I mean, this isn't widely discussed in the football media world because it's very unpopular, and you lose access when you report on stuff like this. And we know this. Access is important when doing this kind of story. We've talked about that as well. And I think there's something to be said of the players, but I will go back and take a step that people are still learning. I'm tuned into it because I'm from the part of the world where the exploited laborers are actually from, and indentured servitude is something that, you know, I think about. But not everybody does.
So, this is a point at which we need to start learning and unlearning, and very many of the topics that we're talking about, whether it's Turkish politics, Chinese politics, a lot of peoples historically in sports have said, well, that's a national, internal issue, so we shouldn't get involved because we don't know enough. Well, there's a way to figure that out. It’s actually understand it and learn. And I'm not saying go on Twitter and opine about, you know, Gülenist politics or communism in China. I'm saying listen to the people who are the most involved. Independent media will help with that. And certainly in the case of Qatar, look to independent media. Look to people that are not attached with, you know, privately owned organizations, because that will really help.
And as far as Qatar goes, I'm disheartened because at the same time, you know, I love football, but this issue is so bad. At the end of this turn, and by the time we get to the proposed World Cup, there will been more than 11,000 deaths for that event. 11,000 people would have died to create the stadiums and the infrastructure to host this tournament. This is not a joke. And what would be worse is if we don't honor or recognize that at all, and that's something that I'm actually fearful of. So, you know, can we really critique systems without actually not burning all the shit down? Because I don't have a solution. Not for places in the Gulf that are countries that don't have to reply to anyone. Like, if the United States said to Qatar, we need you to do this investigation, Qatar would be like, fuck off.
Brenda: Yeah. I think there's always a strategic question. You know, how narrow do you make the issue that you want to work on? How broad do you make it? What strategically is ever going to work? And can you divest personally without expecting a global revolution?
Shireen: Do you actually think that people will speak out against the World Cup in Qatar? Because I have no faith that people will. I don't think, at this point, if we haven't seen more than just maybe half a dozen players talk about it…And I don't expect any federations to say anything. Honestly, don't think it's going to happen for the men's World Cup, which is one of the most spineless events in my opinion.
Brenda: I think the European national teams will continue what they've been doing. So I think they will speak out. I think a lot of times they speak out in their own country. You know, the Argentine players have said things in Spanish, in Argentina. They're not going to respond when they're, you know, during the presser [Shireen laughs] for the Inter Milan, you know, end of match, necessarily. But when they go back to Argentina and they say, how do you feel about playing in Qatar? And they say, really awful, you know, not really good, I've seen what's been going on there. So, I suspect that we will get many threats and very few actual…I think we'll get zero boycotts. But I think the threats are also about looking towards the selection process of 2030 and saying we don't want it in China – because that's been batted around – because of their record on human rights.
And you know, our 2026 in the US World Cup committee has Henry Kissinger on it. Henry fucking Kissinger! One of the worst perpetrators of war crimes alive. And so it's very difficult, because you want to have transnational solidarity without forgetting that one of the greatest perpetrators of war crimes is the United States. And that's partly why Enes Kanter is so upsetting when you just hear him say this, you know? So, you want to be grateful for freedoms that we have. You want to be recognizing realms abroad. You know, all of this is a lot for a country that doesn't pride itself on nuance. [laughs] And, you know, it's always going to be a challenge to come up with the right answers of where to put the emphasis, where to put the strategy.
Jessica: Can I add one quick thing? I think this is so fascinating, as you're both talking, it's really making me think about solidarity as existing in opposition to sportswashing, like, that this is one of the possible antidotes to that. And you talking about boycotting Qatar, and even the threat of it, which we're going to see in the run-up to the Olympics as well, whether or not athletes and countries fully boycott – doubtful, right? I'm with you, same with the World Cup. But we might get diplomatic boycotts. We might get huge political statements from countries around this stuff that may in the future alter how these organizations are making decisions. And I just think it's interesting to think about the solidarity as something that can work against sportswashing, which is so incredibly powerful.
Brenda: Right. And people will try to derail that. There'll be like, how can players with Dubai Air complain about this? And it's like, because it's a total system! You have to pick your battles. You can't do everything, of course, and you can't make everything coherent. In the United States, we benefit from Chinese child labor by having goods that we can afford every day, you know? But it's not going to change if we don't say anything, but it might change a little if you do. So, to talk about how boycotts and solidarity can be effective, here’s Jessica Stites Mor, author of the new book, South-South Solidarity and the Latin American Left.
Jessica Stites Mor: Transnational solidarity gestures tend to be successful in raising consciousness when they operate on a large enough platform. But beyond raising awareness, even the most powerful gestures can be quite empty if they aren't followed up by direct action. In the 20th century, some of the most successful solidarity movements were effective because they were attached to a movement that had the means to move from a social movement into complexly embedded political organizations. In Latin America, for instance, that sometimes may have included the revolutionary state, perhaps the Catholic church, political parties, and even labor organizations.
Another great example is the movement against South Africa's apartheid state, which involved not only many different kinds of activists inside South Africa, but also those operating in exile, people working to pass resolutions at the United nations, even Cuban intervention, not to mention actions taken across boardrooms and in policy-making events around the world that led to a successful economic boycott.
Brenda: So like, it is this dance with fraught politics, but it doesn't mean that one should just disengage. And you get that a lot. People get pushback a lot.
Shireen: One of the things too is that I'm thinking about singular issue…Like, Muslims can stand behind Kanter talking about Uyghur Muslims, but then he's anti-Black in the way that he comes at criticisms of Black Americans literally fighting in a crisis against police brutality. It's so difficult, because then you're like, I can't get behind this guy! But you're not abandoning that issue. It's almost like he’s…It made me really angry. He plays people’s sympathy and compassion, you know? He plays that against them.
Brenda: Yeah. Before we leave the topic of solidarity, it's worth revisiting a wonderful conversation between Toni Smith-Thompson and Amira, our co-host Dr. Amira Rose Davis, in September, 2018 when they discussed Nike and Kaepernick, how money and power works in solidarity.
Toni: There’s a spectrum of support where you can sort of agree with something, you can support something, and all the way at the other end there’s solidarity. So I don’t think the general public is saying, oh I agree with what he did, or I can understand his position. Those people are not necessarily and not likely going to demand that he get his job back. Or demand that everybody has equal opportunities in employment.
So I think we just need to think about, yes money dominates. Yes, companies are thinking about their bottom line. But we also know looking at the state of our country right now, there’s also something stronger at play often than money. And that is white dominant culture, racism is still very alive and well. And Colin Kaepernick being the face of this Nike campaign is going to be popular. I think it does sell very well and I think there are pieces of it that can be helpful. At the same time it doesn’t threaten any power structure. It’s not threatening at all.
Amira: Right. ‘Cause resistance is now going to buy some Nike shoes.
Toni: Yeah, exactly. It doesn’t threaten the NFL’s power structure. It may make some people mad or feel bad. It may provoke some outrage from people, you know, we’ve seen a lot about rage already. But it doesn’t threaten any existing power structure. It just makes people feel different things. And that’s a very different type of action. One that threatens to upend power, and one that shifts people’s feelings.
Brenda: And this week's interview drops on Thursday, when Amira talks with Dr. Nef Walker and Dr. Scott Brooks about race and gender in women's college basketball coaching.
Dr. New Walker: You know, college athletics is racist and sexist, ableist, amongst many other things as well. But if we're just talking about racism and sexism, having people in these positions, folks of color, women in these positions of power, doesn't erase the racism and sexism. And it doesn't erase the racism and sexism that they have to deal with every single day in their job. So the idea of having the role models, hiring a few people, having Black coaches in these positions…You know, Amira, you mentioned a breakthrough or warning. I think the warning is that we can't ignore the fact that these are still racist and sexist institutions.
Brenda: And now it's time for everyone's favorite bonfire, the burn pile, where we take all of the ridiculousness in sports for the week and put it on a proverbial pyre. Jessica, do you want to start us off?
Jessica: Yeah, I really do. I'm ready for this. So, last week we once again saw the paychecks for college football coaches here in the US hit new heights. Brian Kelly just left Notre Dame at a point in the season when the team was it possibly going to qualify for the postseason playoffs. So like, an incredible season. But he got an offer that was apparently too good to pass up. LSU has agreed to pay Kelly just over $100 million in basic compensation over the next 10 years. His base salary is technically $400k, but as Steve Berkowitz wrote a USA Today, Kelly’s supplemental compensation begins at an annual rate of $8.6 million, which would then put him over $9 million per year.
And then he’s offered the possibility of $1.3 million in annual bonuses, including $500,000 each time LSU is bowl eligible. So, if they're 50-50 in their season, he gets an extra $500,000. Most of his bonuses are tied to how well the team does, which of course means Kelly is literally incentivized to make choices that lead to winning on the field. I have long said that this is a recipe for encouraging coaches to prioritize winning over and above everything else in ways that make me incredibly nervous.
On top of this, LSU is paying Ed Orgeron $17 million to go away. And I want to point out a tweet by Morgan Lamandre, attorney for sexual assault survivors at STAR, the Sexual Trauma Awareness and Response center in Baton Rouge, where LSU is located. Morgan tweeted, “Friendly reminder that while Brian Kelly makes roughly 10 million a year, sexual assault centers receive $0 a year in state funding.” Now, my small fact check on Morgan is that most of the money paid to Kelly will probably come from boosters who are happy to donate money if it leads to football wins.
And I just want to say, side note here, it's wild that people are like, “We shouldn't have women's sports unless they pay for themselves.” And then men literally donate millions of dollars. They just give away millions of dollars to pay for a college football head coach’s salary. Like, come on. Still, Morgan's point stands that there is money that exists and people choose exactly where to funnel it. I will gently remind everyone that the outside law firm who looked into LSU’s failure around Title IX found that underfunding was one of the major problems. But also, you know, they could just pay the fucking players.
Additionally, when thinking about how much money Kelly is going to get paid, it's fun to look back at his career at Notre Dame and find articles like this one from 2016, titled, Notre Dame is running out of reasons to keep Brian Kelly after latest indiscretion. The list includes the death of a student who was filming a practice in high winds, when the scissor lift he was on crashed; pressuring silence around a sexual assault case involving a football player; and academic misconduct by a member of his staff that led to vacated wins. And this is who LSU is going to pay $10 million a year. That's cool.
I'm picking on Kelly and LSU because they were the news this week, but these skyrocketing coaching salaries are not new. I hate them. I’d like to remind everyone every chance I get that we're talking about employees at schools, at educational institutions. Paid to make sure a fucking game happens and that they do well in them, at the expense of basically everything else. Everything. It’s gross, I hate it, and I want to burn it again. So burn.
All: Burn.
Brenda: Ugh. I want to burn ESPN’s lack of coverage about the amicus brief that was put together by women athletes, some of them you may have heard of – Sue Bird, Megan Rapinoe, Brittany Griner, and others – who are Olympians or lesser known, whose lives have been impacted and whose careers have been enabled by having access to reproductive rights and who, along with 65 million other women in the United States, would like to continue to have access to reproductive rights. And yet the Supreme court last week started hearing the case Dobbs vs Jackson Women's Health Organization, which is going to open up Roe v. Wade again.
I hate that ESPN relegated, these athletes filing this amicus brief to the Supreme court, which is being considered to ESPNW. And this is not to disrespect ESPNW or consider it a relegation, but we know the difference in traffic. We know the difference in resources that those two sites get. The fact that it’s only important on that site and not on the main ESPN site is…It just fucking sucks. And ESPN makes me so mad for doing that time and time again. So, instead of covering that, I would like to just tell you what they do have on their site. Title, lede: “Never doubt Nick Saban, and other lessons from championship week.”
Jessica: Nick Saban, who's paid $9 million a year.
Brenda: Nick Saban. So, just to link up here with Jessica Luther's highest paid public employee. So, you know, let's not give certainly clinics and health clinics for women…Let’s not only not fund them, but let's criminalize them and go after them, but give Nick Saban a whole lot of money. And ESPN, you're part of the problem. When instead of posting these really brave athletes’ amicus brief, which is ad the Supreme court…If LeBron James even looked at the Supreme court, you would put it on the head of that page. But instead it goes only to the place where you feel obligated to put it.
So I want to burn this terrible coverage and the people who think that they somehow are supporting women when they're absolutely not. And we really, really need it. This is going to take months for this case to be decided. And we need everybody to care about this, right now. So, burn, burn, ESPN coverage.
All: Burn.
Brenda: Shireen?
Shireen: Trigger warning to those listening for anti-Blackness and racism. Friends, hockey continues to be a pile of doo-doo, a stinking burning piling of doo-doo. So, Mark Connors as a young Black goalie with the Halifax Hawks, a u-18 AA team. And he says he was called the n-word and told that this is a “white man's sport.” And I'm just quoting from a CBC article, and this is what he said. “Some of the younger kids in the stands were calling me a racial slur. One guy said, ‘Halifax has a n-word for a goalie,’ said Connors. ‘In the third period, they kept on talking, saying, n-word, n-word, n-word.’”
This hurts for a lot of reasons. It hurts because it's kids saying this. It hurts because this is someone out there on the ice trying to compete and is being violently and racially abused. It's so upsetting for so many reasons, not just because Halifax is my hometown, but because of course anti-Blackness and white supremacy are pervasive everywhere. But when they’re pervasive on the ice, when it's coming from the mouths of babes, what the fuck? Like, how do you not know and have conversations with your children?
And I'm not only talking about white people here. I'm talking about anybody here. Any cultural community with anti-Blackness, any racialized community. This is not okay. This behavior is deplorable. And I think that we have a tendency to think because hockey is so white…But those systems are upheld by other people. I'm saying if you see it, call it the fuck out. If you see a kid using the n-word, holy shit, that is not only against policies – which have been updated for many teams – but that is actually not acceptable. One of the things that hurts the most is to actually hear Connors’ voice about this.
Mark Connors: That made me feel pretty bad, honestly, because I was just there to play hockey, and then people just had the ruin the experience for me.
Shireen: In an era where I've seen in particular hockey be impacted by the voices of youth and their power, whether it's fighting racism, homophobia, transphobia, misogyny, there's just been so much action from youth. And I think that I've been inspired by that. It's a sport that I will continuously fight for. I'm starting to see more people in hockey media start stepping up to talk about shit that should have been talked about a long time ago, whether it's anti-Indigeneity, whether it's anti-Blackness, whether it's transphobia, whether it's homophobia, I'm seeing those conversations happen. I want to take Mark Connors and be like, I'm so proud of you for actually going to media!
Because in addition to this being humiliating – and make no mistake about it, being racially abused while you're playing others you in a way that is so painful, I cannot tell you. It is so unbelievably painful and humiliating, because you're there because you love the sport and you're good at it. To have this happen hurts in a way that I cannot explain. It’s happened to me and I will never forget it. The first time I was racially abused was on a soccer pitch and I was 12, which is ironically the first time that Mark Connors heard the n-word thrown at him while he was playing hockey. It stays with you forever.
This fucking hockey culture is deplorable. You hear kids in the stand, you hear anyone on the fucking stand using racist language, fucking say something and do something about it. Otherwise, kids like Mark are going to be discouraged and may not play. So, we stand in solidarity with Mark Connors and all other players who are racialized, who’ve received and will continue to receive this kind of abuse until we fucking do something. I want to take this, I want to take those kids, and metaphorically burn that shit down. Burn.
All: Burn.
Brenda: After all that burning, we like to celebrate the people who are trying to change things for the better. And this week we have one in memoriam. Jessica?
Jessica: Last week, Lee Elder passed away. He was one of the first Black golfers to have success in the sport, which remained staunchly segregated until 1961. Elder’s breakthrough came in 1968 when he was 34 years old. Augusta National, which hosts the famed Masters tournament and has a horrific history of exclusivity, decided in the early 1970s that participants had to win a PGA tour event to qualify for the Masters – probably assuming it would keep their tournament lily white. Elder had other plans. In 1974, he won the Monsanto Open. And so in 1975, he was the first Black golfer to participate in the Masters. He had to face down death threats to do it. When Tiger Woods won the Masters in 1997, he credited Elder, saying, “He was the first. He was the one I looked up to. Because of what he did, I was able to play here, which was my dream.” Rest in peace, Lee Elder.
Brenda: Shireen, who are fireballs of the week?
Shireen: Well of course it will be Ballon d’Or winner Lionel Messi with his seven, and Spain's Alexia Putellas with her first Ballon d’Or on the women’s side.
Brenda: And the fire-spitter of the week: Alex Scott is the first woman to win the FSA pundit of the year award. Congratulations! Shireen, who's the speedster of the week?
Shireen: Winners that the World Athletics awards: Elaine Thompson-Herah, Athing Mu, and Anju Bobby George.
Brenda: And can I get a drumroll, please? [drumroll] Jessica?
Jessica: Beth Mowins made history last Friday, December 3rd, when she became the first woman to do play by play for an NBA regular season game on ESPN. Doris Burke was the first woman to be an analyst during games on ESPN back in 2018, and now Mowins is doing the call. This is also just the latest in barriers broken down by Mowins. Perhaps most famously in 2017, she was the first woman to call a national broadcast of an NFL game when she did play by play on Monday Night Football. Thanks, Beth, for everything you've done and continue to do for women in sports media.
Brenda: In dark times, we like to focus on what's good in our world. Jessica?
Jessica: I'm laughing at myself because I have written down here “advent calendars,” and now I'm going to embarrass myself with telling you guys how many advent calendars I have in this house. [laughter]
Shireen: I’m here for this.
Jessica: So, I have one for holiday cookie baking. So I'm going to make my first cookies from that today. Peppermint mocha cookies. We have one for coffee, we have one for wine. Ralph has one where he gets toys. My son has one where he gets a different fidget thing every day, so, sometimes squishy things, sometimes things he pulls apart. And then I thought I ordered like a cute little cross-stitch thing where you do like a little piece of it every day, and it's actually embroidery. So here I am learning to embroider in the month of December, like, what? So I have all these advent calendars and they make me really happy. I really enjoy the thing of opening them every day.
I also want to say shoutout to Peacock, the streaming service from NBC. Aaron and I watch Girls5eva, which is hilarious. We Are Lady Parts, which is probably one of the best things I've seen in a really long time, about a British all-Muslim women rock band…It’s phenomenal. But then we got our subscription for a month because Saved By The Bell, the reboot, has returned for its second season, and I swear to god there's nothing better out there for anyone to watch. I adore it. I highly recommend it. I know people make fun because it's Saved By The Bell, but I will go to my grave saying that this reboot is phenomenal. [Brenda laughs] It’s phenomenal
Shireen: I saw your tweet about that: “This isn't an Italian soccer game. Racism will not be tolerated.” [laughs]
Brenda: That’s so good.
Jessica: They have this great episode where they talk about…There’s a Black Dominican girl taking a Spanish class and being forced to do Spain Spanish and is angry about the fact that they will not let her talk in the way that Dominican people talk, the way she learned Spanish. And they bring up the fact that they never mentioned that Slater is Latino. And so they have this great moment where the white Spanish teacher goes hard after this girl for wanting to speak Spanish as she learned it, and the principal interjects and says, “We are a school, not an Italian soccer game. Racism will not be tolerated here!” [Shireen laughs]
Brenda: That’s so good.
Jessica: And I have so many zingers like that, just constantly. They're such a smart writing staff. So anyway, Saved By The Bell on Peacock made me very happy.
Brenda: Let's see. What's good? Gingerbread houses are kind of fun, if we're staying on a holiday theme.
Jessica: They are.
Brenda: My stepfather, who’s really wonderful, for some reason spends an enormous amount of money sending us heavy things throughout the year. [laughter] I don’t know why. I love you, Michael. One of those is a big gingerbread mansion for each of the girls, but they–
Jessica: I’m sorry, he sends three separate gingerbread mansion?
Brenda: Yes, in one box. And so one inevitably gets broken, because it's flying from Florida to New York, you know? So we tried the last couple of years to make them into crime scene gingerbread houses so that the girls wouldn't fight. And now it's something that I'm really excited about. So we had a gingerbread breaking into, like, if the roof is broken, then the gingerbread is like trying to break into the house. You know, it's a little macabre, but it's kind of like making Christmas into Halloween, which is sort of my favorite idea. [laughter]
Also, friend of the show, Howard Megdal, is calling the Bard games for their livestream now, Bard College. And I went and saw one with also former BIAD producer, Martin Kessler. And we got to see Howard, and it was so cool. It's where he went to college, and he was just so professional and smart and did all his research about the Bard team. And anyway, that was really fun and what was good too. Shireen, I'm excited about yours, because I can see in the doc that it has something to do with Justin Bieber. [laughter]
Shireen: Yeah. Well, first we'll start with my mom's birthday is December 8th. Happy birthday to my mom. I love my mom.
Jessica: Aw, happy birthday mom!
Brenda: I guess your mom is more important than Justin Bieber. Yeah, happy birthday.
Shireen: Barely! But yeah, just kidding. And so Jess, I got a memory yesterday on my Instagram, because last year you sent her your book with an inscription, and Jessica Luther wrapped it beautifully and flagged all the pages in which I was named in her book. And my mother just loves it. And she's obsessed with everybody, but she just loved that. It was so lovely. So I've got a memory of that.
Jessica: That was lovely. Your mom is lovely.
Shireen: And she's inviting everyone to go visit her at her house. She says that every time we talk. “Can they come visit me?” I'm like, yes, it'll happen one day. So, Timbiebs. Let's break it down. I did talk about my lit up beaver, whose name is Justin Beaver. We talked about this on a previous episode in my what's good. So now we're taking it to the next level. What is better than a Justin Bieber Christmas collab? Tim Hortons getting involved and elevating this to what you didn't think it could be. For the Canadians out there, the Timbiebs box is an old box that looks like…It’s dark brown and yellow, and it's the old retro one. We love it. He's got flavors…He came up with these flavors, allegedly, by himself. But we think there was some testers–
Brenda: [laughs] He came up with these flavors by himself?
Jessica: What are…Gimme some of the flavors.
Shireen: Birthday cake waffle is one of them.
Jessica: I would eat it.
Shireen: There is a mint chocolate chip sour glazed.
Brenda: Ooh! Okay.
Jessica: I would eat it.
Shireen: And the other one, the other one is a white fudge chunk. So there's little pieces of fudge chocolate and white chocolate all over this Timbit.
Jessica: I would eat it. Shireen, you need to go get one and like do an unboxing kind of video.
Shireen: I will, but the problem is getting them. I think I might go right after this recording, because I went…This is the third time I've gone and they're sold out by the time I get there.
Brenda: Timbiebs donuts are impossible to get in Canada?
Shireen: They're sold out! Like in my neighborhood, because it's all the rage…And they also have merch. I tried to get myself a toque – sold out. So I need to acquire one. And of course the totes…I have so many totes. [Brenda laughs] I want a toque, because it makes sense for me.
Brenda: A toque and a toke from Timbiebs. [laughs]
Shireen: Not a toke, a tote! Brenda, focus! [laughs] That would be an interesting collab though. So, I'm excited. Justin Bieber, thank you. Also, I think that your underneath the mistletoe song is underrated. I know, I get the Mariah Carey love, but I just want to hold space for his contributions to his discography in Christmastime. Quickly, my best friend Eren makes cookie gift boxes every year for Christmas. I love them, and she gave me one yesterday. I'm not sharing it with the kids. I have currently hidden it. It has an amazing molasses ginger cookie that has…The recipe calls for fresh cloves, which I love. So it's like delicious. Love it.
Lastly…Not lastly, I have two more. Nespresso advent calendars. Thank you to Jessica Luther for getting me on the advent calendar thing. There is one by Tiffany's, which is $150,000 that I'm looking at, that will never happen, but it's nice to look at. Steph Yang pointed it out to me, thank you Steph. And just Nespresso calendars…I’m doing an unboxing every day, hoping that Nespresso Canada will give me some type of endorsement deal, because I'm not really an influencer, but I think it's important that I bring your coffee to you.
Lastly, Shang Chi. Hadn't seen it yet. I wish I saw it in the theater, saw it last night. Fellow Canadian, Simu Liu is in it. Simu Liu is beautiful. The whole film is exquisitely shot. I loved it. It was hilarious. I saw it with my kids last night. It was so, so good. So, I'm having a very good week, actually. And I was in a CBC film called Superfan and went to a red carpet premiere. Yeah, I forgot about that. Anyways, good week for me this week.
Brenda: Wow. That is a holiday what's good classic [Shireen laughs] from Shireen. It had food, it had entertainment, it had a cool-ass thing that she did…
Jessica: And her mom.
Brenda: And a quest for sponsorship. [Shireen laughing] I mean, that is just…Just re-listen to that. Thank you, Shireen. I want to mention that we are watching this week, the NCAA volleyball tournament, which started on December 2nd and goes through December 18th. And our continuing…Our painful fandom of the men's Champs League continues this week. If you're listening to this on Tuesday, you will already have experienced the frustration, if you're a fan of anyone that I am, [Shireen laughs] but tune in Wednesday for a big Champs League bonanza.
That is it for this episode of Burn It All Down. This episode was produced by Tressa Versteeg. Shelby Weldon is our web and social media wizard. Burn It All Down is part of the Blue Wire podcast network. Follow Burn It All Down on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Listen, subscribe and rate the show on Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, Spotify, Google Play, and TuneIn. For show links and transcripts, check out our website, burnitalldownpod.com. You'll also find a link to our merch at our Bonfire store. And thank you, thank you to our patrons. Your support means the world. If you want to become a sustaining donor to our show, visit patreon.com/burnitalldown. I'm Brenda Elsey, on behalf of Jessica Luther and Shireen Ahmed: burn on, and not out.