It’s time for another round of Sports Media Beef.
In Friday’s edition, former NBC Sports sideline reporter Michele Tafoya called out ESPN’s Mina Kimes over her praise of Democratic vice presidential candidate Tim Walz for “modeling a different kind of masculinity.”
“I am sincerely embarrassed for @minakimes,” Tafoya wrote on X. “And how pathetic that her kind of ‘masculinity’ means more than the candidate’s record, which is abysmal. Sincerely, A Minnesotan.”
Kimes responded with a two-second video of LeBron James pretending to be afraid during a Lakers game.
Tafoya, who split with NBC after the 2022 Super Bowl due to a “palpable pull at my gut” to discuss politics, was responding to coverage of Kimes’ Aug. 9 appearance on the “Pablo Torres Find Out” podcast, in which she compared Walz’s approach to that of the Kelce brothers.
“There’s something, to me, really important about seeing someone like this modeling a different kind of masculinity,” the ESPN NFL analyst said on “Pablo Torre Finds Out,” though she stopped short of endorsing Walz. “We’re kind of seeing it in the NFL with the Kelces, and Dan Campbell — this idea that ‘big, tough football guy’ isn’t separate from showing emotion and empathy.
“Yes, they’re calling him ‘coach’ and what not, but in the same breath, they are emphasizing, ‘this man, the year he was a football coach, also ran the gay-straight alliance at the high school.’ That’s really powerful in a way that goes far beyond politics and electability, which is the discussion we’re having. There are very few models like that in American public life.”
That Tafoya would disagree with Kimes’ take isn’t surprising — she co-chaired the campaign of Army veteran Kendall Qualls, who ran as a Republican candidate for governor in Minnesota opposite Walz.
She became one of the most visible figures to trade talking ball for the political gauntlet.
ESPN and Sage Steele engaged in a famously protracted divorce after the “SportsCenter” host was suspended for speaking out on the Worldwide Leader’s vaccine mandates, while Thursday’s firing of Sam Ponder has led some to believe she was let go due to her political leanings.
This week, ESPN college football analyst Kirk Herbstreit revealed he’s done “biting his tongue” about the topic of transgender athletes in sports, while NFL analyst Dan Orlovsky came under fire for posting — then deleting — “Protect our daughters” in the early stages of the Imane Khelif Olympic boxing controversy.
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