Dave Zirin, sports editor for The Nation, decided to pen an entire piece dedicated to attacking the character of football Hall of Fame coach Tony Dungy after the legend announced he would be attending and speaking at the March for Life in Washington D.C..
Tony Dungy via EWTN News YouTube
“I’m done with Tony Dungy and the way the NFL and NBC coddle his right wing extremism,” tweeted Zirin. “So I wrote a piece about it.”
In his piece, he rips into Dungy’s almost immediately, starting his tirade by saying that Dungy “has spent years as an anti-gay bigot.”
Source: EdgeOfSports Twitter
Zirin stated Dungy had once said “publicly and proudly that he would not want gay football player Michael Sam on his team. He said over a decade ago that he disagreed with the ‘lifestyle’ of Jason Collins, the first out active male gay player in the main four North American sports. This is a Dungy staple, calling being LGBT a ‘lifestyle,’ even after people have said to him repeatedly how hurtful and outdated such a description is. He simply doesn’t care.”
The editor additionally went after the NFL and NBC for “celebrating” Dungy’s views. While he eludes to this in the article, he followed up with a tweet doubling down on his attack.
“One thing I hint at but don’t say explicitly – and I should have – is that the NFL and many at NBC celebrate Dungy (not tolerate, celebrate0 because they share his politics,” said Zirin
Source: EdgeOfSports Twitter
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In the actual piece, Zirin said “This is a staggering indictment of the politics the NFL and the network’s partners allow and the kind that they condemn. When someone like, gee, I don’t know, Colin Kaepernick steps up and kneels down to end police violence and racial inequity, he becomes a pariah. Meanwhile, Dungy is held up as a deeply religious man and nearly a patron saint of the league. Dungy has used his devoutness as a cover for his anti-gay rhetoric and sharing platforms with unapologetic bigots…
“If Dungy wants a show on ‘The Daily Wire,’ more power to him,” he continues. “But his being center stage on the most watched program in the country makes NBC and the NFL complicit in his disinformation and political posturing. Like Dungy, neither NBC nor the NFL has commented about his latest eruption. But their silence speaks volumes. It’s a silence that’s almost as loud as Dungy’s hateful blather, almost as loud as the thousands of people descending upon Washington—some mandatorily—to celebrate a fascistic, discredited Supreme Court and the loss of our rights. It’s shameful. And we should not be afraid to say so.”
For context, the March for Life is an annual march that occurs in Washington D.C., lawfully and peacefully, where people speak out against the murder of babies. Dungy had announced yesterday, that for the first time, he would be speaking on the main stage for the event.
Source: TonyDungy Twitter
Dungy had announced on Twitter his excitement to attend so that he and others could be there “to support those unborn babies who don’t have a voice.”
Dungy is known for having coached the Indianapolis Colts, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, and currently hosts “Football Night in America.”
You can check out Dungy’s full speech from this year’s March for Life below: