Good morning and Happy Wednesday! Thanks for reading this morning.
We’re almost through the first round of World Cup matches, and I am already tired. Why am I tired, you ask? Because I’m about to write the latest version of a column I’ve probably penned 30 times, in one iteration or another, since I started writing about sports in 2006. That’s more than once a year.
I was getting set to watch Argentina take on Algeria when FOX decided to treat me to what was supposed to be a feel-good live shot of NFL quarterback Jameis Winston surrounded by fans.
Winston, for those who don’t know, has enjoyed something of a renaissance as a universally-beloved player because he’s a dummy who says stupid shit all the time, and people think it’s funny. But those of us who remember the olden times know that, before he was everyone’s lovable dum-dum, Jameis Winston was credibly accused of assaulting women twice.
The first story came out when Winston was in college, and led to a major lawsuit and the documentary The Hunting Ground, which documented the rise of sexual assault (SA) on college campuses. The allegations against Winston were horrific, and the lawsuit also exposed the lengths to which the local prosecutor and the school went to keep Winston on the field. By the way, Winston threatened to sue CNN if they aired The Hunting Ground.
From an NYT exposé on the lawsuit against Winston:
As (the victim) gave her account to the police, several bruises began to appear, indicating recent trauma. Tests would later find semen on her underwear.
For nearly a year, the events of that evening remained a well-kept secret until the woman’s allegations burst into the open, roiling the university and threatening a prized asset: Jameis Winston, one of the marquee names of college football.
Three weeks after Mr. Winston was publicly identified as the suspect, the storm had passed. The local prosecutor announced that he lacked the evidence to charge Mr. Winston with rape. The quarterback would go on to win the Heisman Trophy and lead Florida State to the national championship.
***
The police did not follow the obvious leads that would have quickly identified the suspect as well as witnesses, one of whom videotaped part of the sexual encounter. After the accuser identified Mr. Winston as her assailant, the police did not even attempt to interview him for nearly two weeks and never obtained his DNA.
The detective handling the case waited two months to write his first report and then prematurely suspended his inquiry without informing the accuser. By the time the prosecutor got the case, important evidence had disappeared, including the video of the sexual act.
One of the main reasons the prosecution declined to charge Winston, other than his role as star QB of the Seminole football team, was that the victim texted him multiple times after the alleged assault. This is one of those times where I start complaining about how people don’t understand the nature of trauma. I had a very friendly conversation with my rapist the night after my own assault. It didn’t mean it didn’t happen. It was my way of processing what happened. It’s inexcusable that men working in a role involving SA investigations didn’t understand that.
This wasn’t the first time Winston got in trouble at Florida State. He was also busted stealing crab legs from the local Publix (he claims he had an agreement with an employee) and jumping on a table in the student union and yelling “Fuck her right in the pussy!” Winston got a civil citation for the crab legs and was suspended half a game for his very public display of misogyny.
After all that, you’d think Winston would keep his head down and stay out of trouble upon arriving in the NFL, right? Wrong! In 2016, an Uber driver accused Winston of assaulting her while she was driving.
In a copy of the lawsuit provided to ESPN by Clune in September, the woman alleged that in March of 2016, while waiting in a drive-thru at Los Betos restaurant in Scottsdale, Arizona, Winston "leaned toward [her] and placed his fingers between her legs and pressed them firmly against her vagina over her yoga pants."
The suit stated that before Winston withdrew his hand, she said, "What's up with that?" and immediately called her boyfriend, before sending a series of text messages that included, "I just got semi-molested by the Tampa Bay Buc QB," and that she was "pretty shaken up ..."
The NFL found the victim’s allegations credible and suspended Winston for three games. Since then, Winston has enjoyed somewhat of a glow-up in terms of his reputation, mostly, it seems, by not being serial assaulter Deshaun Watson.
I suppose I shouldn’t expect better from FOX, the network that puts long-time harasser and accused assaulter Dave Portnoy on the air every Sunday. Still, it really grinds my gears to see guys like Winston getting FOX to rehab their reputations. There was a brief time, after the Ray Rice assault, when men’s pro sports leagues seemed like they were taking allegations of harm against women seriously. That time ended as quickly as it began.
And it’s not just the NFL that has gone soft on violence against women. Soccer superstar Cristiano Ronaldo has been accused of SA by multiple women, though you’d never know it from the coverage he gets. I wrote about the SA allegations against MMA fighter Conor McGregor for years before he was found liable by an Irish jury. French Open champ Alexander Zverev has been accused of domestic abuse by more than one woman. Kobe Bryant, Trevor Bauer, Wander Franco, Canada’s junior hockey team. No one seems to care.
In a country where a man found liable by a jury for SAing a woman in a department store dressing room can be elected President, it’s not surprising to watch how quickly people are willing to forget allegations of violence against popular men. Except for the women. We are the keepers of the misdeeds. We’re the buzzkills who always remind people which sports stars have a history of harming women. We’re the ones who care.
It would be different if these men took any active role in becoming better people. I don’t know, maybe do some PSAs about domestic abuse or sexual assault. Bring violence against women up on podcasts and talk to young men about treating women with respect. That’s apparently too much to ask, because it never happens. And anyway, why should these guys do anything to grow and learn when their fans will eventually erase all memory of their crimes? Just look at Kobe Bryant. He’s been all but elevated to saint status, despite a SA case so strong that he was prosecuted for it. A rarity in pro sports!
I’m sick to death of seeing these men on my TV every time I turn it on. What’s more, I’m sick of the collective amnesia sports fans have when it comes to violence against women. And look, it’s nearly time for Neymar to get back on the pitch. Gawd.
In other news: The women willing to give up the vote; Markwayne Mullin’s incredible conflict of interest; the Reflecting Pool isn’t looking so hot; and The High Note.
Let’s do this thing.
Conservative women are willing to give up the right to vote
I’ve been watching the growing number of women on the right talk about their willingness to give up the right to vote in order to “submit” to their husbands and to have a more conservative country. I assume this is a by-product of drinking raw milk and pounding Ivermectin, but still.
Those women were at the Turning Point USA Women’s Leadership Summit, and I don’t really even know what to say. This kind of unabashed worship of men (and their husbands) is bizarre. It’s easy to laugh at these women, but if you watched the video, one says this is being talked about a lot in churches. That is extremely worrying to me.
It’s also worth pointing out that most of these women appear to be extremely young, and probably don’t remember/were never told what life was like for women in the US in, say, 1964, before women had the right to birth control, credit cards, and employment without discrimination. It feels like they’re living in some sort of tradwife fever dream — all the glamour of June Cleaver vacuuming in pearls and nylons, without any of the misery women were subjected to.
Just like no one is forcing these women to have abortions, no one is forcing them to vote. In fact, it’s probably better if they don’t. “Submit” to your husband all you want, Serena Joy; just keep your nose out of my right to participate in democracy.
Markwayne Mullin is all good with kratom
Kratom is an “energy supplement” that’s being marketed to teens, largely in gas stations and convenience stores. It’s also highly problematic, and is known as “gas station heroin” in some areas.
Lawmakers in Iowa and other states have decided that kratom can be dangerous and started pushing for bans on the substance despite opposition from some users and people in the kratom industry who claim that only the synthetic versions of the drug are unsafe.
“It is increasing the prevalence of opioid use disorder,” said Dr Andrew Kolodny, director of the Opioid Policy Research Collaborative at Brandeis University. “Being able to buy an opioid at a convenience store is going to make the opioid crisis worse.”
For example, kratom was implicated in the deaths of 47 people in Idaho between 2021 and 2023. TL;DR: Don’t let your kids use this stuff.
None of that, though, is a problem for DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin, who owns stock in a company that produces kratom products and used his position in Congress to push back against regulations of the drug.
Mr. Mullin, until recently a Republican senator from Oklahoma, played a key role in a sprawling influence campaign spearheaded by the kratom industry that courted Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Vice President JD Vance, among others in the Trump administration, an investigation by The New York Times found.
Only when he was nominated by Mr. Trump in March to lead the Homeland Security Department did it become clear that Mr. Mullin had a financial connection to the supplement. In a disclosure statement, he listed an investment worth as much as $1 million in a kratom company, Botanic Tonics, that could benefit from the changes he has sought.
Here’s a solution: Ban members of Congress from owning stock.
The Reflecting Pool is looking rough
Now that the Reflecting Pool in the National Mall has been renovated (painted) at a cost to taxpayers of $16 million, I bet it’s looking great in time for America’s 250th birthday, right?
Oh.
It turns out that painting the pool a darker color (like “American flag blue”) means that it absorbs heat faster, thus creating the perfect breeding ground for algae. I feel like we would have known this ahead of time if the Orange Menace hadn’t given a no-bid contract to a pool renovator. Reportedly, Trump is “obsessed” with getting the Pool clean before July 4th. This entertains me greatly.
Yesterday, the National Park Service started dumping hydrogen peroxide in the water to try to clear it.
This meritocracy of all white men is working out great.
The High Note
Each Day, I do my best to leave you with a smile on your face, a song in your heart, and the will to fight another day.
I regret to inform you that Scottish fans are drinking all the beer in Boston. They literally ran out of Sam Adams.
Hey, survive and advance out there today, kids. Don’t let the bastards get you down.
