Jason Whitlock is back at it with another far-right perspective that condemns the Deion Sanders Effect on college football and the newfound Taylor Swift Effect on the NFL. Whitlock uses his bully pulpit to point the finger at the two stars for what he sees as a “spectacle,” taking the attention away from the original focus: the game and its players.
“I get the whole Taylor Swift thing, but she ain’t special,” Whitlock said on his “Fearless” podcast, “she’s just another useful idiot, another tool being used to feminize America and to make America a globalist country that’s anti-nationalism, that’s anti-God.”
“Deion Sanders, the same thing; this is happening in conjunction, in college and pro football, the normalizing, the infusion of this whole NBA-styled pop-culture is everything, rappers are everything, what music star is at the game, who’s on the sideline,” he continued. “It’s no longer about the players on the field. It’s about who’s on the sideline.”
Conspiracy Whitlock’d
It is no secret that both Swift and Sanders have vicariously heightened the visibility of the NFL and collegiate football through their celebrity. Although Swift’s appearance in NFL suites is to support her new beau in Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce, the narrative that began to make it a soap opera around their romance was an unintended consequence.
Sanders has been on a mission to revolutionize coaching opportunities for people of color and formerly heightened awareness for HBCU football during his time at Jackson State University. Since entering the Power Five Pac-12 conference, Sanders has attracted the attention of the world and the entertainment spectrum, bringing an HBCU homecoming feel to every home game.
Whitlock feels it is all a setup for a deeper conspiracy.
The Inextricable Intersectionality
“Just think about this past weekend, the returning Heisman trophy winner, Caleb Williams, was playing against Colorado. He was overshadowed by the coach on the sideline. The selling point was the coach on the sideline and all the other rappers and entertainers he was attracting to the game.
“The spectacle of football is now bigger than the actual game. Because the spectacle comes with all of these secular values and consumerism and materialism and sexual degenerecy that they want to force down all of our throats. This stuff is all connected.”
Hardly, but when pop or Black culture is infused into any traditional sport like football, there are bound to be casualties, and Jason Whitlock is now one. Sports, race, and culture are inextricably linked to major sports brands and systems, and that is not going away. Whitlock sounds more like a fan missing the good old days and a purveyor of truth lumping two different circumstances into one giant football conspiracy.
Buy hey, everyone has a microphone these days.
