While discussing San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick’s controversial refusal to stand for the National Anthem, former Boston Red Sox pitcher Curt Schilling recalled the very different treatment given by sports and political media to another football player who demonstrated his deeply-held beliefs on the field — Tim Tebow.
“This is the same sport whose media couldn’t wait, on a weekly basis, to vilify Tim Tebow for lowering his head in prayer to God as a Christian. The media had a field day. You go back and look at that, and they just went nuts and berated this guy,” Schilling told Breitbart’s Washington Political Editor Matthew Boyle on Tuesday’s edition of Breitbart News Daily on SiriusXM.
Schilling said the same media that mocked Tebow every week are now praising Kaepernick for demonstrating his beliefs.
“The media has become entranced with being the story,” he observed. “That’s one of the reasons why we are where we are. They’ve given up all pretense of objectivity. They’ve made it very clear that they, as a whole, are left-leaning, liberal, progressive, socialist, envying people who want Hillary Clinton to be the President. That’s no longer a mystery. So who and how you turn to to get information, I think, is something that needs to be adjusted now.”
“As an athlete, this is the kind of publicity and attention that gets you kicked off a team or cut from a team, especially if you’re not – you have to be in a special place as a player in order to do and say things like that, unfortunately,” Schilling said, in response to a caller who asked if Kaepernick should be fired as a consequence of his actions. “Because the NFL is all about the advertising dollar and the TV revenue, and I gotta believe the 49ers are going to get some blowback.”
“The challenge is that they’re in San Francisco, which is one of the most liberal cities on the planet. They may give him a standing ovation the first game instead of a boo,” he added. “But I think as they travel, if he stays on the team, things will change.”
“I’ve been someone who is on that frying pan, as far as saying things that I believe and think, and people saying it’s to get attention,” Schilling said earlier in the show. “I think sometimes we underestimate the impact of the things we say and do, which is easy to do, given the environment you live in, in that clubhouse, that life.”
Schilling is currently engaged in raising money for the Jimmy Fund, “the enormously successful charity that handles pediatric cancer at Dana-Farber.”
“It’s full of amazing people and patients and survivors,” he said. “I count myself among the survivors of cancer. I get to go in there and talk and be a part of it. It’s an honor, and it’s a privilege.”
Breitbart News Daily airs on SiriusXM Patriot 125 weekdays from 6:00 a.m. to 9:00 a.m. Eastern.
LISTEN:
COMMENTS
Please let us know if you're having issues with commenting.