2024 Woke All-Star Challenge: Play-In Round Voting IS LIVE!

Welcome to the 4th annual OutKick Woke All-Star Challenge where we honor the sports wokes – this year we allowed our first news media wokes to compete for the title – who have used their platforms to embrace the woke, the virtue signaling, the cop-hating and the DEI. 

At this point in the history of the Challenge, you get the goal here: We want to determine who will join woke legends Jemele Hill ('21), Keith Olbermann ('22) and Bomani Jones ('23) on the Mount Rushmore of the Woke. Remember: Past champions have been retired because they're just so damn good at this game. Take Olbermann. If we allowed this guy to stay in the competition, he'd never lose. 

Just this week, Olbermann was referencing an assassination of Trump. It's like the guy knows it's that time of year when we honor wokes. 

Like the NCAA basketball tournament, the Challenge follows a bracket format – and a play-in round to determine which wokes will face the No. 1 seeds. 

Gaslight Region: 

In a historic matchup of the very first black news media members (we haven't allowed any white straight news media members into the Challenge!), we have Joy Reid facing off with moron Don Lemon. 

Let's face it, you're forced to pick the bigger woke moron here. It's tough, especially when you consider Don put on a fierce last-minute push with his interview of Elon Musk that was a complete disaster for the former CNN talker. 

You know what you're getting from Reid. She's as flat-out crazy as they come. Good luck picking the bigger woke. 

#MeToo Region

Perennial woke all-stars Mina Kimes and Elle Duncan ARE BACK for another Challenge, but there's a twist – if either of them wants to make the Identity Politics Final Four, they'll have to go through a female-only #MeToo Region that IS STACKED. The Kimes-Duncan winner will have to face race expert Dawn Staley in a HUGE Sweet 16 battle. 

Buckle up. 

Never forget that Elle Duncan called on dads to speak up so their daughters would have the right to have abortions. I hate to sway your opinion of the wokes, but I have to dump out the woke facts before you vote. 

Consider me a vote influencer. 

Toxic Masculinity Region

This is Mike Florio's time to shine. The guy just loves this time of year. However, he's up against newcomer RG3 who has positioned himself within the ESPN ecosystem as a guy who injects his woke takes on just about any and all topics. The former Heisman winner couldn't help himself after the Kansas City Super Bowl parade shooting. 

His first reaction was to call for gun control. 

Meanwhile, Florio can't take Colin Kaepernick's d--k out of his mouth. 

Again, good luck picking the bigger woke. 

Nonbinary Region

And, finally, we have this titanic matchup of newcomer Mark Cuban and his months-long crusade to proclaim that DEI isn't bad for corporate America against Dan Le Batard, who knows this business all too well. 

In November, we had Le Batard coming to the defense of Deadspin, the 2024 Woke Challenge participant where all employees were recently fired, which many believe to be the direct result of a lawsuit against the site over the Chiefs blackface controversy. 

Cuban-Le Batard is a Final Four matchup in the play-in round. That's just how stacked the tournament is this year. 

Good luck. May the best woke win.