by Patrick Sauer | Sep 16, 2026 | Article, NFL, Politics and Movements: US, Reprint, Sports, The Cultural Front
This story originally appeared in Truthdig on Sep. 15, 2026, and is shared with permission.
During the national anthem of the first three 2016 NFL preseason games, San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick sat down on his team’s bench between two Gatorade coolers. Few noticed, and nobody made mention of the gesture until a Black reporter for NFL Network named Steve Wyche asked him about it following the third exhibition tilt, a home game against the Green Bay Packers. Wyche’s interview with Kaepernick put the quiet protest on newsfeeds across the country. Then, shortly after police shot and killed Alton Sterling and Philando Castile within a 48-hour period — Kaepernick and a teammate, safety Eric Reid, went a step further before the final preseason game on Sept. 1. Instead of sitting on the bench during the anthem, they took a knee. The rest is civil rights and sports history.
The story of Kaepernick’s life before and after that fateful stand is the subject of his new memoir, “The Perilous Fight,” co-written with Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and author Nick Chiles. Kaepernick’s journey from a shy adoptee of color to white parents uninterested in exploring his Black experience, to a boldfaced protest icon is a singular American story, whose hinge moment came at the cusp of the Trump era. The book, which comes out tomorrow, will be available at most places where books are sold — but not Target. Kaepernick is boycotting the retailer over the company’s anti-diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives. I spoke with the author in late August. Our conversation has been edited for length and clarity.
Truthdig: Beginning where the book begins, have you thought about what it means to be a public face for adopted children?
Colin Kaepernick: It’s interesting,
by Ja'han Jones | Sep 15, 2026 | Congress, Opinion, Sports
Saturday’s college football game between Ohio State and Texas began, as usual, with the home fans singing “The Eyes of Texas,” a song introduced by white students at a minstrel show in 1903. And remarkably, things got more racist from there.
After the Longhorns erased a 20-point deficit in the fourth quarter en route to a wild comeback win, the fans in Austin erupted with glee, as normal people tend to do when their team wins. Yet the scene had some prominent figures in the MAGA movement angrily typing and posting about images of nonwhite fans sharing in the joy.
This, to be clear, is an insane way for anyone to experience sports. And the abject racism that has been unleashed by these posts is fueling infighting among Republicans as they reckon with the bigotry festering within their own party.
Bo French, the Republican nominee for Texas railroad commissioner, set things off with several racist posts bemoaning nonwhite fans, and the idea of what he called “foreigners” on campus. These posts on X were promoted and defended by conservative influencers and activists, but they received pushback from some on the right as well, including a warning from Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas.
“This is the Republican nominee for statewide office,” Cornyn wrote about French. “Are other Republican elected officials going to condemn the intolerance and racism, or look the other way while it becomes normalized. This is how great political parties self-destruct. Sad.”
This is the Republican nominee for statewide office. Are other Republican elected officials going to condemn the intolerance and racism, or look the other way while it becomes normalized. This is how great
by Sydney Carruth | Sep 15, 2026 | culture, News, Sports
A viral ad campaign for a sports prediction market featuring a nearly nude Sydney Sweeney drew backlash from professional women athletes and highlighted an unfolding regulatory battle between the Trump administration and states.
The “Euphoria” actor, who courted controversy last year over an American Eagle ad campaign, wears “just sports” in the new ad for Novig, a sports-only prediction market. She is shown covering parts of her body with sporting equipment such as footballs and basketball hoops.
“No betting on wars, or deaths and no politics,” Sweeney says in the ad. “Just you, your takes and sports.”
Timed to align with the start of the 2026 NFL season, the campaign sparked outrage from professional female athletes who argue its “hypersexualized” nature reinforces sexist stereotypes. Some raised concerns over the “damaging” message it sends to young women athletes.
“I can’t describe how infuriated I feel when I watch this,” Ariarne Titmus, a four-time Australian Olympic gold medalist, wrote in a statement posted to her Instagram account. “How do we live in a world where monetising a women’s body and sexualising women’s sport is still a thing?” the retired swimmer wrote.
Sweeney’s ad has garnered more than 42 million views since it was posted to Novig’s Instagram page last week. Social media users, from Olympians to fitness influencers, have responded with a cascade of videos of themselves pushing their athletic abilities and highlighting major accomplishments in women’s sports.
“I absolutely hate Sydney Sweeney’s new ‘sports’ ad,” Mia Vallee, an NCAA springboard diver for the University of Miami, wrote over a video clip of her executing a complicated dive routine. “Media focuses on how we look not what we
by Ja'han Jones | Aug 12, 2026 | Congress, Opinion, Sports
Facing daunting poll numbers, President Donald Trump was desperate for conservatives to notch some kind — any kind — of legislative victory before Republican leadership sent lawmakers home for a weekslong recess. And ironically, the anti-transgender hysteria fueled by the president played a key role in derailing that possibility.
Trump failed to get Republicans to pass the voter suppression bill he’s backed, but that wasn’t the only bill he had homed in on. He had also set his sights on a bill to regulate college sports. I wrote a couple weeks back about the Protect College Sports bill that Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, has been trying to push across the finish line. That bill has been broadly backed by college athletic conferences, although it was conceived virtually without the input of college athletes themselves — one major reason advocates who represent those athletes oppose it.
The bill is also opposed by the Congressional Black Caucus and the AFL-CIO.
Cruz spent the past couple weeks making alterations to the bill in hopes of garnering enough support for it to sail through Congress. Herding cats, basically.
But Missouri Sen. Josh Hawley threw a wrench into those plans by suggesting the bill would undermine anti-trans laws in states that restrict trans people’s participation in athletic programs. Hawley, alongside Republican Sens. Jim Banks of Indiana and Tommy Tuberville of Alabama, introduced an amendment they said would “ensure the bill doesn’t overturn any laws” along those lines, but at the same time they did manage to overturn any hopes of the legislation passing before the August recess.
Hawley’s allegations apparently got Trump’s attention, given the president sought to downplay those
by Mike Wise | Aug 12, 2026 | Opinion, Politics, Sports
Culture war dopamine, that euphoric feeling that follows making an outrageous statement on the controversy du jour, is clearly a dangerous drug. Addicts are known to swap logic and reason for Fox News appearances. They become nonsensical, lend credence to the absurd and eventually stage full-blown clown shows.
Take Enes Kanter Freedom and Royce White, two 30-something former NBA players who recently declared themselves eligible for the 2027 Women’s National Basketball Association draft.
Citing the current WNBA guidelines, which state “Only players who are women are eligible to play in the WNBA” (and don’t explicitly exclude transgender women players in their collective bargaining agreement), Freedom and White have capitalized on the recent anti-trans comments made by Indiana Fever role player-provocateur Sophie Cunningham. Her anti-trans statements, which she claims are motivated by her desire to “protect young girls,” have led to small protests on both sides of the issue.
Freedom and White have capitalized on the recent anti-trans comments made by Indiana Fever role player-provocateur Sophie Cunningham.
These aren’t merely political stunts mocking the league and the women who play in it, but malicious attempts to demean a marginalized population in the apparent hope that a NewsNation or Fox News producer will call for an interview so these budding hot-takers can be given some attention on what is a non-issue.
For the record, no openly transgender athlete has ever competed in the WNBA or any of the nation’s other women’s professional sports leagues. State bans on transgender athletes in women’s sports have been held up by the U.S. Supreme Court. The Olympics now clearly forbids transgender athletes in female events. And the number of trans
by Ja'han Jones | Aug 11, 2026 | Opinion, Sports, White House
Donald Trump is 80 years old, and his poll numbers, especially among young people, are as low as they have ever been. So his Patriot Games, an athletic competition that the administration and its MAGA allies have been promoting recently, is a bit of multipurpose propaganda: a ploy by America’s widely disliked president to appear aligned with the youth and invested in their vigor.
One might have thought it wise for Trump to steer clear of teenage competitions given the controversy surrounding his conduct at the teenage beauty pageant he once owned. But more recently the president has been eager to use young people as political props, as he did in July with his civics competition (which has faced allegations of being rigged).
The president is scheduled to be on-hand in Geneva, Ohio, on Tuesday for the final day of his Hunger Games knockoff, to award cash prizes to the competition’s winners. How’s that for a scene? America’s wannabe king descending into middle America to reward a couple of kids after they’ve sweat it out for cash in his corrupt, war-torn economy.
The competition — brought to you by Freedom 250, the corporate-backed organization created by Trump allies to hijack the nation’s 250th anniversary celebration — seems to be largely a vehicle for political propaganda. A Washington Post dispatch on the competition spotlighted children chanting Trump’s political slogans, donning clothes marketing his political movement, and parroting his rhetoric.
The racial makeup of the participants was apparently noteworthy, too:
In an email, a Freedom 250 spokesperson didn’t address questions regarding the selection criteria, stating the organization looked for “America’s next generation of leaders, competitors and champions.” What
