{"id":2615215,"date":"2026-06-17T13:24:01","date_gmt":"2026-06-17T17:24:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/the-left-never-loved-athletic-activism-just-athletes-who-agreed-with-them\/"},"modified":"2026-06-17T13:26:17","modified_gmt":"2026-06-17T17:26:17","slug":"the-left-never-loved-athletic-activism-just-athletes-who-agreed-with-them","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/the-left-never-loved-athletic-activism-just-athletes-who-agreed-with-them\/","title":{"rendered":"The Left Never Loved Athletic Activism, Just Athletes Who Agreed With Them"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"float:left\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">24<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fthe-left-never-loved-athletic-activism-just-athletes-who-agreed-with-them%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=2615215&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p>The article discusses the contrasting reactions to athletes exercising their First Amendment rights, highlighting how support was initially given to Colin Kaepernick&#8217;s kneeling during the national anthem, which was framed as a constitutional right and a form of political expression. It contrasts this with the backlash faced by San Francisco Giants players who wrote Bible verses on their hats during Pride Night, an act also protected by free speech but labeled homophobic and exclusionary by the media and critics.The piece argues that the left and mainstream outlets have selectively supported athletic activism when it aligns with their views but have condemned it when athletes express beliefs that oppose their ideology. It suggests that the initial support for kaepernick was rooted in endorsing a narrative about America&#8217;s alleged racism, and that the recent criticism of the players&#8217; religious expression reveals a hypocrisy &#8211; that their true issue is disagreement with the message rather than the right to free speech itself.  <\/p>\n<p class=\"readmore\">\n    <button onclick=\"showReadMore()\" id=\"readmorebtn\">Read more&#8230;<\/button>\n<\/p>\n<hr id=\"line\">\n<span id=\"more\"><\/p>\n<div>\n<p>Nearly ten years ago San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick made headlines when he kneeled for the national anthem. The decision to disrespect the flag was met with praise from the left and its corporate media allies.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cColin Kaepernick <em>absolutely<\/em> has a constitutional right to express his opinion on the politics of diversity in America,\u201d one headline in the San Francisco Chronicle read. <\/p>\n<p>The New York Times\u2019 Daniel Victor <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2016\/09\/06\/sports\/obama-colin-kaepernick-national-anthem.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">wrote a piece entitled<\/a>: \u201cObama Says Colin Kaepernick Is \u2018Exercising His Constitutional Right.&#8217;\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The article details how then president-Obama framed Kaepernick\u2019s kneeling as a constitutional right and that \u201cthe president said there was a long history of sports figures making political statements.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>An op-ed by <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2017\/09\/25\/opinion\/colin-kaepernick-football-protests.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Eric Reid<\/a>, who also took a knee with Kaepernick, was published in The New York Times and declared that kneeling for the flag was part of the First Amendment. <\/p>\n<p>Peaceful protest <em>is<\/em> a First Amendment right \u2014 but so is freedom of religion. Which is why it\u2019s so interesting to see the same outlets that cheered the First Amendment\u2019s guarantee of the right to free speech and protest condemn a handful of San Francisco Giants players\u2019 exercise of their First Amendment right to freedom of religion.<\/p>\n<p>During a Friday Pride Night game, several San Francisco Giants players wrote Bible verses on their hats. One player later explained there was \u201cno hate at all. It\u2019s just what I stand for, and what I stand on: I believe in God.\u201d The same player noted that the rainbow is a symbol of God\u2019s covenant and promise.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019m thankful we live in a country where, you know, we have the freedom to believe what we want, and express what we want,\u201d he added. <\/p>\n<p>But apparently that freedom \u2014 the freedom enshrined in the same amendment that justified Kaepernick\u2019s disrespect \u2014 is only reserved for people who agree with <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/devin-nunes-tees-off-on-biden-we-cant-counter-hypersonic-missile-launch-with-better-pronoun-usage\/\" title=\"Devin Nunes Tees Off On Biden: \u2018We Can\u2019t Counter Hypersonic Missile Launch With Better Pronoun Usage\u2019\">left-wing dogma<\/a>, so says the left and the propaganda press.<\/p>\n<p>The San Francisco Chronicle (you know, the same outlet who 10 years ago framed Kaepernick\u2019s disrespect toward the flag as a \u201cconstitutional right\u201d to free speech) published an <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sfchronicle.com\/sports\/annkillion\/article\/giants-pitchers-alienate-fans-san-francisco-22306122.php\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">article<\/a> by Ann Killion: \u201cGiants pitchers didn\u2019t just deface Pride uniforms. They alienated their fans and city.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYet some of the snowflakes on the Giants, the pitching staff specifically, decided to say a giant F-you to a good chunk of their fan base. On a night that was supposed to be about inclusion, they hijacked the event for their own purposes. In the name of Christianity, they took a decidedly un-Christian stance of exclusion and judgment,\u201d Killion wrote, adding that the pitchers are \u201chomophobic.\u201d <\/p>\n<p>The Athletic\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/athletic\/7358121\/2026\/06\/13\/sf-giants-pride-night-bible-verses-caps\/?eafs_enabled=false\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Grant Brisbee wrote<\/a>: \u201cGiants pitchers\u2019 Bible verses on Pride Night caps show how they\u2019ve missed the point.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Note that The Athletic is a subsidiary of The New York Times \u2014 the same outlet that celebrated Kaepernick\u2019s First Amendment right to protest in mulitple pieces. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe verse details God\u2019s covenant with humanity after the great flood, as Noah is told that the rainbow will be a symbol of the covenant. By choosing this verse as a response to the rainbow colors of the pride hat, the message appeared to be: Don\u2019t forget what the rainbow is really about,\u201d Brisbee wrote, adding, \u201cthis was another tone-deaf response to what should have been a moment for community unity. They made the night about \u2018us versus them.\u2019 That\u2019s the only thing they could see.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Brisbee then went onto claim that without the pitchers supporting Pride Night, \u201cLGBTQIA+ individuals are much more likely to be told that they are without value\u201d and also attempted to blame the pitchers for \u201cLGBTQIA+\u201d persons committing self harm or being assaulted. <\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s hard to ignore how the left went from celebrating the First Amendment to using it as a cudgel against a handful of pitchers who simply expressed their <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/house-republicans-push-bill-aimed-at-balancing-lgbt-rights-and-religious-freedom\/\" title=\"House Republicans Push Bill Aimed at Balancing LGBT Rights and Religious Freedom\">sincerely held religious beliefs<\/a>. But this really isn\u2019t a contradiction for the left once you understand what was happening all along.<\/p>\n<p>The left didn\u2019t champion Kaepernick because they were deeply committed to the First Amendment\u2019s right to freedom of expression. They championed him because they agreed with his message. Kaepernick\u2019s protest reinforced a narrative about America that the left had already believed, which is that America is fundamentally racist and our institutions are fundamentally unjust. The First Amendment defense was merely used because it helped shield Kaepernick\u2019s wildly unpopular and disrespectful protest from criticism. Americans were told not to focus on the fact that Kaepernick kneeling for the anthem was disrespectful but rather that it was his \u201cright\u201d to do so, and therefore actually inherently American.<\/p>\n<p>But now that athletes are expressing views that the left-wing dogma doesn\u2019t like, the same defense of the First Amendment has disappeared. <\/p>\n<p>The Giants\u2019 pitchers didn\u2019t stop anyone from participating in Pride Night. They didn\u2019t harm anyone. They didn\u2019t prevent gay people from watching baseball. They simply (and subtly) expressed their sincerely held religious beliefs. <\/p>\n<p>And yet the same media outlets that <a href=\"https:\/\/amzn.to\/3YuVZYV\" >spent years defending athletic activism<\/a> and the First Amendment were nowhere to be found. And suddenly the same crowd that seemingly loved athletic activism hates athletic activism.<\/p>\n<p>Why?<\/p>\n<p>Because they never actually loved athletic activism \u2014 just athletes that agreed with them and their ideology.<\/p>\n<hr>\n<p>      Brianna Lyman is an elections correspondent at The Federalist. Brianna graduated from Fordham University with a degree in International Political Economy. Her work has been featured on Newsmax, Fox News, Fox Business and RealClearPolitics. Follow Brianna on X: @briannalyman2<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Left cheers Kaepernick\u2019s protest; condemns religious expression<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":74,"featured_media":2615216,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/Screenshot-2026-06-17-at-12.08.22-PM-scaled-e1781712635616-1024x577.png","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[33651],"tags":[81323,81321,36487,81322,36625],"class_list":["post-2615215","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-western-journal","tag-athletes-opinions","tag-athletic-activism","tag-cultural-critique","tag-politics-and-sports","tag-social-justice"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/Screenshot-2026-06-17-at-12.08.22-PM-scaled-e1781712635616-1024x577.png","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2615215","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/74"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2615215"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2615215\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2615219,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2615215\/revisions\/2615219"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2615216"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2615215"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2615215"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2615215"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}