ESPN Host Says Female Athletes Should Have More Opportunities, Ignores Lia Thomas Story

ESPN host Michael Eaves says he wants female athletes to have more opportunities to fulfill their dreams. However, he has so far kept silent about Lia Thomas, a biological male who now competes as a transgender woman in women's college swimming.




Eaves tells all his Twitter followers that he cares about female athletes. Of course he says that -- such comments rate well on social media. Except it's all for show.

If Eaves meant what he tweeted, he would have at least commented on the Thomas story, which is not only one of the biggest women's sports stories at the moment, but it's also a clear threat to the very female athletes Eaves claims to support.

Lia Thomas is a man competing against women, and he's breaking records and taking "opportunities," to use Eaves' word, away from female swimmers. Yet neither Eaves nor ESPN will cover the story. Not even ESPN's girl power vertical ESPNW will touch it.

Nor will these hypocrites speak to Thomas' female teammates, who are desperately trying to bring awareness to the threat that Thomas and other men pose to female competitors. One of Thomas' teammates told OutKick she hopes one day she has a son instead of a daughter because she fears every spot on women's athletics teams will be given to biological men like Thomas.

Thomas himself even admits what he's doing is "historic." An anonymous teammate claimed last week that Thomas goes around practice comparing himself to Jackie Robinson.

If Eaves cared about helping female athletes fulfill their dreams as he claims, he'd use his platform to address the problem of men in women's sports. And ESPN has given Eaves new opportunities to expand his reach and effect change. Ever since Eaves worked behind the scenes to remove Sage Steele from a social justice special in 2020, ESPN has increased his airtime at the network.

So Eaves is clearly a phony. He tweets regularly about alleged social justice issues, but he hasn't said a word about Chamath Palihapitiya, the owner of the Golden State Warriors who openly admitted this week that he doesn’t care about Chinese genocide against Uyghur Muslims. Keep in mind, ESPN has made Eaves one of its two NBA pregame hosts. So as an NBA and a social justice commentator, you'd think Eaves would be eager to cover that story. But neither genocide nor the impending death of female sports has moved Eaves to comment.

Eaves is a coward. He wants you to think he's an activist when he's actually virtue-signaling online for his own social and professional advantage.

The inclusion of Lia Thomas in women's sports means fewer women can fulfill their dreams. Yet supposedly pro-female sports pundits like Michael Eaves cannot be bothered to comment.

















Written by
Bobby Burack is a writer for OutKick where he reports and analyzes the latest topics in media, culture, sports, and politics.. Burack has become a prominent voice in media and has been featured on several shows across OutKick and industry related podcasts and radio stations.