Posted on 01/11/2025 11:33:27 AM PST by nickcarraway
Marcus Freeman kicked woke sports talk in the a** with a postgame speech for the ages.
Notre Dame's win on Thursday night against Penn St. featured several incredible moments. But Freeman stole the spotlight after the game, giving a sharp response to what sounded like a pointed question by ESPN.
ESPN has been known to make some out-of-touch commentary and nudge folks into discussing race during interviews.
It's a bold direction for the sports network.
Interviewing Marcus Freeman after the win, ESPN reporter Molly McGrath asked the Fighting Irish coach to give his thoughts on becoming the first African-American coach to reach a national championship.
Freeman answered but pivoted to highlighting the skill of his team — choosing not to give attention to his race, which was an intangible element of Notre Dame's Orange Bowl win against the Nittany Lions.
Looking at the tape, McGrath's question clearly didn't land with Freeman as she'd expected.
WATCH:
Viewers nationwide had major questions, one of which was OutKick's fearless leader, Clay Travis.
Clay reacted to McGrath's interview with Freeman.
"Notre Dame just won its biggest game since 1988. How does ESPN react? By focusing on one half of Marcus Freeman’s race," Travis posted. "Freeman absolutely crushes his answer and says he hopes all coaches regardless of race get great opportunities like he did."
Race-Baiting Is A Favorite In The ESPN Playbook
ESPN has faced criticism for race-baiting, particularly under the Disney banner, which has tainted its commentary and led to accusations of bias in its coverage.
Sports fans flat out hate identity politics.
One instance includes former NBA analyst Jay Williams making up a tweet about Ime Udoka becoming "the first head coach of color for the Celtics" and calling it a historic win.
Well, the facts revealed that Udoka was the sixth African-American coach in Celtics history.
Kendrick Perkins is still a top NBA commentator for ESPN, even after refusing to vote for Nikola Jokić during an MVP race against Joel Embiid due to Jokic's whiteness.
Clay Travis continued his fiery criticism of ESPN on Thursday night following the Orange Bowl victory.
"Freeman is half Asian and half black for those who care. He’s both the first Asian and black coach to make a title game. Making his race one of the first questions he’s asked is everything that’s wrong with ESPN’s embrace of identity politics."
ESPN's disconnect from the pulse of sports discourse has become apparent.
By ESPN's estimation, black coaches are focused on being black rather than the X's and O's of a win over James Franklin's Nittany Lions.
Freeman swatted that line of questioning, joining black coaches before him who had challenged the media for pushing questions about race.
Identity politics in sports has failed to stick in sports over its direct conflict with the concept of meritocracy, which translates to "the best athlete or team always wins."
Tampa Bay Buccaneers coach Todd Bowles openly admitted to not giving much thought to his accomplishments through the lens of an African-American coach, highlighting the hard work instead.
Mark Jones. Domonique Foxworth. Ryan Clark. Elle Duncan.
With those players on their roster, ESPN has shown its interest in heavily leaning on identity politics.
Go woke, go broke!
Personal faith or just have ESPN recognize the name of the school...
Very cool.
Where do they come up with African-American anyway? His mother is Korean.
It is vey obvious that the media, whether it be sports, news or political, does not see its job as informing and entertaining any more, but sees it as dividing, exposing and pushing specific ideology. That is why they are, as Trump said, the enemy of the American people.
I’m a buckeye fan, but I really like this guy Marcus Freeman.
He’s the real deal. I’m honestly torn. I wan’t the Irish to win. I don’t want a coach that motivates collegiate men to be poached for the NFL.
Freeman played linebacker for Ohio State, I think under Tressell, but I could be mistaken. Class act.
“ESPN has promoted anti-white rhetoric and dialog as long as it has existed.
You just don’t notice it, because you are used to letting it slide, because a) you don’t want to cause trouble; b) you don’t want to be called a pussy; c) you “don’t see race”; or d) you are under 40 and you have been raised to look at it as normal or even laudable.”
I only see ESPN at the gym. It’s actually embarrassing to me to think that white men watch these low IQ black guys doing some kind of act where they pretend to...I don’t know, get all fired up about some sportsball game or player. They had a black guy on the other day that was dressed as a stereotypical pimp. Ridiculous.
I must have missed the part in the Bible were Jesus coached the X’s and O’s.
I’m sure someone can point it out. It must have been very subtle and I just didn’t pick up on it.
Yea. That’s the ticket.
How/who is motivating college men to be poached by the NFL?
You wrote this post on a computer. Where in the Bible does it mention computers?
No. The coach is the one i don’t want poached. Sorry.
Likewise, being black does not qualify anyone to become something.
ESPN Is Disney so whatbdid you expect?
Idiot hyper-socialized white women, leading the charge again and always.
I thought he gave an excellent response.
From the look of the reporter, though, I think it was simply too logical for her to understand.
My son just sent this to me. It’s taken from Caleb Downs’ perspective when Jack Sawyer did his strip sack followed by a scoop and score. Tell me these kids don’t get the big picture.
https://www.instagram.com/reel/DErFaxwOKlh/?igsh=NTc4MTIwNjQ2YQ==
Can only imagine living in that type of moment and it probably was quite overwhelming.
Standing in a stadium as a player on that kind of stage at 18-22 years old.
Definitely a memory he will never forget.
Very Cool.
Thanks
I saw that. All the Bucks, Howard, Sawyer, Downs have been publicly vocal in their praise to God.
When CJ Stroud (now QB for the Houston Texans) played for the Bucks, he was pretty vocal about his relationship with Jesus then, just as he is now. He has an inspiring story, and I’m sure some of these guys who played with him a few years ago were influenced. Isn’t that how it’s supposed to be? Share Him. It’s good to see.
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