gotchanewsdaily.com 
Compared to past election cycles, itโs safe to say that legacy sports media channels ESPN and FS1 have, on the whole, been reluctant to talk politics on-air. Thatโs in stark contrast to both the 2016 and 2020 presidential elections when the melding of sports and politics on those networks seemed unavoidable.
Now, in 2024, those conversations are largely kept to digital platforms like podcasts, rather than on morning sports debate shows. Inevitably, there will be an overlap between the two topics, which becomes particularly interesting in the case of FS1, which sits under the same corporate umbrella as the conservative cable channel Fox News.
Itโs ironic then for Washington Post sports and media reporter Ben Strauss that some of FS1โs most prominent personalities come off as left-leaning by his estimation, while ESPN โ which has been given a left-leaning reputation in the past โ has elevated personalities that donโt fit neatly into that description.
In an appearance on John Ourandโs The Varsity podcast, Strauss explained his theory.
โThe one true woke sports network in November of 2024 is not ESPN but itโs Fox Sports 1,โ Strauss began. โWho are the faces of Fox Sports 1? They are Colin Cowherd and Nick Wright, correct?
โColin Cowherd has spent the summer undressing Donald Trump as this charlatan and terrible leader, and he did it a few times. Sort of notably dipping into that territory for Colin Cowherd, as sort of this anti-Trump bandwagon, and did it a few times. And Nick Wright has spoken pretty personally and deeply about gun control in the wake of the shooting in Kansas City, heโs from Kansas City, has spent a lot of time talking about that. More recently [he] has put the Deshaun Watson injury, you know coverage of that, very starkly as how we talk about women, how we think about women in sports but societally, you know pretty progressive stuff.โ
Ourand then cut in to ask Strauss whether this is happening on-air rather than on social media, to which Strauss replied, โI think so yeah, or on their podcasts. Either one.โ
โAnd on the flip side who are the two faces of ESPN,โ Strauss questioned to continue his theory. Ourand provided the names Stephen A. Smith and Pat McAfee quipping, โI can see where youโre going with this.โ
โSo Pat McAfee, not known for his progressive politics. I think not but a few days before Tony Hinchcliffe became the most famous comedian in America, he was on College GameDay yucking it up with Pat McAfee.
โPat McAfee has done segments with Aaron Rodgers about vaccine efficacy. And did some stuff on the Algerian boxers during the Olympics. I mean like, very much like, sort of in this anti-woke box, backlash to identity politics, backlash to the trans movement, backlash to affirmative action, that kind of stuff.
โAnd Stephen A. Smith is a regular on [Fox News host] Sean Hannityโs show. And I guess he espouses this like very, very aggressive centrism where if he says one thing about Republicans heโll say something else about Democrats that he doesnโt like. Itโs like a very much scaled, you know an algorithmic centrism almost, that he delivers.
โSo the most famous people at Fox Sports 1 are out here delivering anti-Trump, progressively themed discourse, commentary, and not- sort of the opposite from the biggest names at ESPN. And I find that amusing โ or I donโt know if amusing is the right word โ I find that notable in this political moment after how many news cycles we did about ESPN and sort of where they stood with politics.โ
Strauss certainly brings up an interesting point. As he later mentions, noted left-leaning personalities like Dan LeBatard, Bomani Jones, and Pablo Torre have either left ESPN or seen their presence on the network diminish to appearances on the Happy Hour shows.
But it should also be noted that most of Cowherdโs and Wrightโs political commentary happens on their podcasts, not on FS1 airwaves. And Fox Sports still employs noted right-wing commentators like Clay Travis on prominent shows like Big Noon Kickoff.
Still, itโs notable that ESPN has seemingly taken steps to moderate โ at least in the eyes of some viewers โ its political slant. The Pat McAfee Show does occasionally address topics discussed primarily in conservative media circles (Ethan Strauss recently referred to McAfee as โred codedโ). Stephen A. Smith has many outwardly left-leaning opinions, particularly on race, but can reach across the aisle on certain issues as well.
So itโs not like FS1 has turned into a bastion of left-leaning sports commentary while ESPN has turned into some โanti-wokeโ (whatever that means) sports network. And Strauss probably wouldnโt argue that either. But Strauss is right to point out that there has been a noted shift at ESPN away from talent that discusses left-coded talking points.
Fox, for its credit, has never had a reputation for censoring its sports personalities, regardless of where they fall on the left-right continuum. Though to be fair, most of Foxโs high-profile talents like Cowherd and Wright donโt regularly delve into political commentary on-air anyway.
Perhaps these discrepancies are only noticeable because sports and politics have largely separated themselves from one another on these platforms. Itโs safe to say most fans prefer it like that. And in a declining linear television environment where programmers are highly in tune with what viewers want to maintain whatever remaining audience they have left, it shouldnโt come as a surprise that networks are highlighting talent that would likely describe themselves as centrist or apolitical.
Viewers tune into ESPN or FS1 for sports and cable news for politics. There are plenty of digital outfits that meld both, but linear television is no longer the place to do so. And for that reason, the lines have blurred, and neither ESPN nor FS1 should lay claim to the โwokeโ or โanti-wokeโ labels that have essentially lost all meaning.
