Someone, somewhere likely thinks the perfect football game would consist solely of Colin Kaepernick kneeling in protest at the 50-yard-line while Bob Costas delivers an hour-long gun control lecture from the broadcast booth.
Most people, though, enjoy sports as sports, realizing that the players are athletes, not social justice warriors. Leave it to CNN and Michael Smerconish, then, to attempt to kill all fun associated with the NCAA tournament by bringing on sports writer Larry Platt to present his “socially conscious” NCAA bracket.
Here's what a "socially conscious" NCAA bracket looks like, explains sports journalist @platt_larry https://t.co/jBeo8h4hpm
— CNN (@CNN) March 18, 2017
At least there’s one refuge on cable for the progressive sports fan who thinks ESPN has just gone too far to the right.
https://twitter.com/nikki199x/status/843112405559336960
https://twitter.com/pun15sh3dsp00n/status/843196499282591745
https://twitter.com/glenn_carswell/status/843098555472580609
I don't think the English language has 4 words that are more boring than "socially conscious NCAA bracket." https://t.co/jRtHIbkRAH
— NeoN: Automataster (@neontaster) March 18, 2017
https://twitter.com/DallasGerber/status/843143320561946625
Socially conscious NCAA bracket? "I believe you get your ass kicked for sayin' that, man."
— Richard DeCamp (@richdecamp) March 18, 2017
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it's just a bracket that shows academics instead of basketball. Kind of a cool idea but yeah that headline ruined it.
— indefatigable wonderer (@RyanKohout) March 18, 2017
Just quietly change the headline, then. No shame in that.
, just pick the best teams, bro.
— Kenny Howard (@KennyHoward12) March 18, 2017
Liberalism must be especially contagious this time of year, because we’ll admit we were a little triggered by the words, “best teams.” Deep down, isn’t every team “the best?”
Thank goodness; it looks like there’s an antidote for all of this.
https://twitter.com/CaseyMattox_/status/843142245087875072
BRACKET OF SHAME: Which #MarchMadness School Is The Biggest Anti-Free Speech Dump? https://t.co/KD4GLgBqrC pic.twitter.com/7Eaxvuqv4w
— Daily Caller (@DailyCaller) March 18, 2017
That’s more like it, as long as we’re going to insist on mixing sports and politics.
The Alliance Defending Freedom put together its own bracket of shame, calling out universities for their attacks on students’ First Amendment rights. Without further ado …
https://twitter.com/CaseyMattox_/status/843096201838903296
“In an epic battle between UCLA and the University of California system and the University of Wisconsin, the Badgers ultimately come out on top,” declares ADF senior counsel Casey Mattox, but the competition is tight:
The UC System includes UC Berkeley, which, despite its decades-old reputation as the birthplace of the student free speech movement nearly burned itself down recently to avoid hearing a speaker, and UC Hastings, which terminated First Amendment rights of association for every student group rather than allow a small group of Christians to have Christian leaders. Is it fair to compel UCLA to be associated with the anti-freedom actions and policies of UC Berkeley and UC Hastings? Maybe not, but it’s consistent.
Until universities snap out of their PC-induced comas, the idea of a “socially conscious” bracket can go warm the bench for a while.
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