American Sports Shifts From Left-Wing Activism To Patriotic Embrace Of God And Country
We've seen two of the planet's biggest sporting events the past month play out with heart-stirring drama and poignancy, not just because the recently concluded Olympic Games and Super Bowl before it were thrilling competitions — the NFL's biggest game, actually wasn't — but because these monolithic athletic events joined the battle between the competing visions for which direction the United States should go.
And let me just say near the top: This absolutely means the "Stick To Sports" argument is dead.
It put up a fight back around 2016ish, when Colin Kaepernick was protesting the American flag on behalf of social justice beliefs he couldn't really keep straight all the time. Many fans back then just wanted to tune in to an NFL broadcast and see a football game instead of a novice activist make a political statement.
Colin Kaepernick has an NFL job offer to join Jim Harbaugh's staff with the Los Angeles Chargers. Will he take the offer? (Credit: Getty Images)
The Left Refused To Stick To Sports
But Kaepernick refused to stick to sports. Same as LeBron James, Megan Rapinoe and Lewis Hamilton. These athletes used their platforms, gained because of their sports prowess, to fight the culture war in America.
And, frankly, they won that battle. They had their say. And they continue to make their points, however misguided we think they are. They're not shutting up and dribbling like many fans wanted.
But something wonderful has happened as the culture war has continued to wage during our sporting events: The right has also found its own voice.
And its own athlete activists.
And we're seeing the right come to this struggle to tilt American society back toward traditional beliefs like love of God and country while using some of the most unlikely allies around.
The right, you see, is using some woke or nonpartisan people to make its points and wage its battle. The right, in its attempt to argue on behalf of conservatism, family, God and country, has set up a much bigger tent than the lefties.
And it is winning now.
Even Liberals Want Men Out Of Women's Sports
There isn't much debate about this even as people on the left would have you believe otherwise.
(Don't listen to people on the left. They still think William Thomas, a 6-foot-1 inch fully intact male, was actually Lia Thomas, a transgender woman who fairly competed in NCAA swimming meets and beat females like Riley Gaines fair and square).
Let's begin there: The trans rights sports activists have included Rapinoe, Sue Bird, Dwyane Wade, who has said keeping boys out of girls sports is akin to silencing a child's spirit., and others.
And the right has answered with a veritable smorgasbord of political and social beliefs and opinions coming together to defend biological females from having to compete against biological males.
That group includes Brett Favre, Aaron Rodgers, Caitlyn Jenner (you know, the 1976 men's Olympic Decathlon gold medalist), Martina Navratilova, and many others.
The battle has been joined by people, many of them quite liberal, who simply want to keep women's sports for biological females.
And they also have refused to just shut up and play.
USA Hockey Made Us All Proud
We are mere days from the moment the United States men and women won gold medals in hockey at the Winter Olympics. And the left hated it because the women, as a team, stood arm-in-arm and all of them sang the national anthem – showing a pride of country that the left works hard to erode.
And, yes, the women's team declined a trip as guests to the State of the Union, citing "timing and previously scheduled academic and professional commitments," but that statement isn't nearly as strong as the pride they showed on the medal stand.
Then, on Sunday, the U.S. men beat Canada. And Jack Hughes, who scored the winning goal after having had multiple teeth chipped or knocked out during regulation, gave a postgame interview for the ages:
"This is all about our country right now," he said then.
The mens hockey team will be visiting the White House.
"Yeah we're excited," Jack Hughes told WSVN in Miami, where the team landed on Monday. "I mean anytime, like everything is so political, we're just, we're athletes, we're so proud to represent the U.S. and when you get the chance to go to the White House, meet the president you know we're proud to be Americans and you know that's so patriotic.
"So, no matter what your views are we're super excited to go to the White House tomorrow and just be a part of that."
Days earlier, figure skater Alyssa Liu wrapped herself in an American flag and drew a startling contrast to Eileen Gu, who competed for communist China. Both come from Chinese-American families and both were offered millions to compete for China.
Gu took the money. Liu, whose father was a protester at Tiananmen Square, competed for the United States.
Liu and Hughes are American heroes now. They are heroes the right is lifting up as what loving our way of life is about.
It's Great To Love America
The amazing thing about this? The right is freely pointing to two advocates who love their country even though they are generally considered woke.
Liu, you must know, used she/they pronouns on her Instagram account for years. She has been an advocate of LGBTQ rights. And so is, you guessed it, Jack Hughes.
In 2024, he supported the New Jersey Devils holding their Pride Night.
So you tell me as the left and the right wage a tug of war between loving America and wanting its downfall, which side seems more inclusive?
The left eats its own if they step out of line. The right is taking people who aren't even in line, and showing everyone it's great to love America.
SANTA CLARA, CALIFORNIA - FEBRUARY 08: Bad Bunny performs onstage during the Apple Music Super Bowl LX Halftime Show at Levi's Stadium on February 08, 2026 in Santa Clara, California. (Photo by Thearon W. Henderson/Getty Images)
Light From Super Bowl Darkness
The Super Bowl, by the way, was quite disappointing on its face for the right. The NFL picked a Trump-hating band to play the pregame. And it picked an ICE-hating halftime performer who put on a show full of ribald dancing unfit for children.
The left loved that because the game's big halftime moment amplified someone who doesn't fit the All-American model and whose love of the USA is in serious question despite his penchant for getting paid in, you guessed it, dollars.
But, you may not have heard, the right had an answer to the left's halftime victory. That came with the Seattle Seahawks winning the game and coach Mike Macdonald and his players speaking after the game.
"I believe God called me to be a coach," Macdonald said. "And I listened to Him. And I thank Him. And we are incredibly blessed to be Seahawks, to be 12s, and now we're world champions."
In their postgame interviews, player after Seattle player spoke of his relationship with God. And with Jesus Christ.
Take A Knee Has Different Meaning
And that was no different than what happened during 2025 when C.J. Stroud and Patrick Mahomes, DeMeco Ryans, and John Harbaugh, Drake Maye, Brock Purdy, Baker Mayfield, Jameis Winston, Chris Jones, Justin Fields, and multiple other players spoke about their relationship with God and Jesus.
It didn't used to be like this.
Players didn't wear MAGA hats in interviews in 2016 but Nick Bosa did in 2024. Players would hold chapel services on game days years ago, but didn't go on national television and praise Jesus in postgame interviews.
Now players gather in locker rooms and on fields after games throughout the season, get on one knee, and pray in front of cameras – a very obvious and public cultural contrast to why Kaepernick got on one knee in 2016.