Related to my piece on the subtle de-politicization of America, political sports controversies just aren’t all that controversial these days. Dan Wolken of USA Today went after Auburn basketball coach Bruce Pearl this week for openly disliking Kamala Harris, but the rest of sports media mostly yawned. Five years ago, this might have been a major story, but society has returned to a more reasonable level where “college sports coach votes Republican” gets regarded more like, “college professor votes Democrat.”
Wolken, who’s pretty open about his own political leanings, mused about how Pearl might cost himself recruits. Wolken’s comment: