Stephen A. Smith gets ‘Thumbs Down’ award — then the black media turns on Jason Whitlock



Stephen A. Smith isn’t happy with the National Association of Black Journalists after the group presented him with the “Thumbs Down” award.

“The reality of the situation is that you don’t have facts. You have feelings. And this is where it gets a bit deep. What a few board members decided to do, no doubt egged on by a couple of people on the board who will remain nameless, but put their names up,” Smith said in response to the award.

“You can see the names there for yourself. Figure it out, along with some others. The reality is that it was a personal hit job. That’s what it was,” he added.

In the aftermath, Jemele Hill and Don Lemon commented on his award as well — but ended up calling out BlazeTV host Jason Whitlock instead of Smith.


“I have never once called Stephen A. a sellout. I’ve never called him that, and I’ve never called him a c**n or any of these other things because I don’t actually think he is one,” Hill told Lemon.

“I don’t do that, and I don’t want to do this black litmus test anyway. And so, I mean, there are some people who do fully deserve and they also embrace the title, Jason Whitlock, but that’s OK.”

“So obviously I was like, hold on, I embrace the title of sellout and c**n? What? You know, that’s just her taking a cheap shot,” Whitlock comments.

Dre Baldwin agrees, calling it the “high school lunchroom.”

“I get disappointed when I see black people talking like this. I'm sure maybe it happens in the Asian, Latin, and white communities as well, but I see it mostly in the black community that when there’s a person who is not going along with the group, you get the bandwagon effect,” he says.

“All of us are over here and you’re over there with the quote-unquote wrong opinion,” he adds.

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Sophie Cunningham supporters speak out: WNBA is just passing the blame



A series of recent displays from Sophie Cunningham supporters has put the WNBA's biggest problem right at their doorstep.

Even as the league admits to some missteps, actually addressing the issue has been left to female supporters at league games.

'Women should not be responsible for validating men's trans identities.'

When a mother and daughter recently went to a high-profile game between the Atlanta Dream and Indiana Fever on Sunday, they silently supported Cunningham's pro-woman stance by wearing pro-women apparel. The result was the pair being asked by WNBA security officials to cover up their clothing.

The Dream subsequently put the onus on the WNBA for the incident, saying, "WNBA security took actions that fell short" of their standard.

"At no point was Dream personnel involved in the decisions made by WNBA security," the team added.

This forced the WNBA to acknowledge the "interactions" and say, "This should not have happened."

By not addressing the actual issue, the league's statements are meaningless, says Kasey Thomason, the mother who dared to wear "XX-XY" clothing at the Dream-Fever game.

Thomason told Blaze News, "The statements just pass the blame so they mean nothing."

The mother added, "No one has reached out to us about the incident," despite the high-profile nature of the event.

RELATED: WNBA team co-owner FINED and SUSPENDED for cursing out teen fans of Sophie Cunningham at Seattle game

When Cunningham and the Fever went on the road to Canada to face the Toronto Tempo on Tuesday, supporters again came out, this time in droves.

Jennifer Arnold showed up with her group, Women & Girls Alberta, with a poster of Cunningham and a message that men do not belong in women's sports.

Arnold relayed to Blaze News that about 200 people took photos with the poster, and overall it garnered a "very positive reception."

Detractors allegedly totaled about six "young" protesters, and Arnold says that conversations with them revealed a general misconception about what her group actually believes.

"They falsely stated that people in favor of female-only sporting categories want to ban all people who identify as trans from sports altogether," Arnold recalled. "We explained that is not true, and there are already biological women who identify as trans in women's sports, and no one has an issue as they are female and therefore do not have a male performance advantage."

The organizer also revealed that one of the counter-demonstrators, who was holding a "protect trans kids" sign, became agitated and appeared to grab a reporter's phone.

RELATED: Cover up or 'leave'? Mother and daughter say they were confronted at WNBA game over pro-women shirts

Kasey Thomason

Arnold concluded, "Women should not be responsible for validating men's trans identities by giving up fairness on the court and privacy in the locker room."

The hope from these fans turned activists is that the WNBA issues a female-only policy, akin to other women's leagues. The WNBA already does, in theory, prohibit men. Article XIII, Section 1 of the WNBA's 2026 collective-bargaining agreement says that "only players who are women are eligible to play in the WNBA."

However, the league has refused to provide a definition for what they consider a woman to be, despite meeting to discuss the very issue earlier in August.

The league's conclusion was: "There are no immediate eligibility matters affecting the WNBA."

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How to be a college football star without going to class



The stereotype of the academically challenged athlete who gets away with skipping class is so overused it's almost expected.

That's why when a college football player recently revealed he was working at a golf course and not going to class, it seemed almost too ridiculous to be real.

'Nine Houston student-athletes entered the season having already earned an undergraduate degree.'

This isn't a trope, however. It's a real-life scenario.

South Carolina quarterback LaNorris Sellers has no school this semester, unless he counts preparing for football games.

Sellers instead goes to a local golf course, where he is practicing "facility management" by "cutting grass and picking up balls," Fox News reported.

Another example is recent NFL Draft pick Carson Beck from the University of Miami, who had six years of NCAA eligibility due to COVID-19, but he was blasted online back in January for saying he had "no class" and had actually graduated two years earlier.

As easy as it is to believe that colleges are giving students who can barely read a passing grade — like Hank of "King of the Hill" — the class-less college football star of today is more likely to be an athlete who previously put in the work, at least in the more popularized stories.

Sellers is living lavishly on the greens because that is the final internship work he needs to graduate with a degree in sports and entertainment in December. Beck had "no class" in the lead-up to the National Championship game in January because he graduated from Georgia in 2024 and then transferred to Miami as a graduate student.

In fact, college teams having a sizable chunk of their roster earning their degrees ahead of time is nothing new.

In 2017, the University of Houston had nine.

RELATED: Former NFL player deported after allegedly threatening an Uber driver with hatchet

David Jensen/Getty Images

"Nine Houston student-athletes entered the season having already earned an undergraduate degree," a 2017 Hawaii Bowl guide touted. And Houston ranked only No. 17 nationally that year in terms of players having earned degrees prior to the start of the season.

For 2025, the leading schools, Northwestern and Virginia, both had 34 players enter the season having already earned their degrees. Tennessee Tech had 32.

This is part of a growing trend that has nearly quadrupled in volume since 2017, according to the National Football Foundation. The same year, Houston had what appeared to be shocking numbers; 971 students from 213 schools were playing college football after having graduated.

That number exploded to 3,695 students in 304 schools in 2025.

RELATED: Arkansas football player discovers would-be assassin hiding in the unlikeliest of places

Tim Warner/Getty Images

Still, the precedent was set decades ago.

Mississippi State's Justin Senior won an award for Mississippi's most outstanding collegiate offensive lineman in 2016 after earning his degree ahead of time.

Going back to 2007, ASU's Zach Krula earned his degree before his senior year, while in 2003 Georgia Tech punter Hal Higgins was noted for having earned his degree ahead of time after battling Hodgkin’s disease. He then pursued an MBA while still playing college football.

This all means that the next time a story comes around about an athlete who isn't going to class, it is more likely a circumstance that is not just condoned by the school, but rather championed and promoted.

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Sophie Cunningham gets relentlessly booed in Canada — and shuts the haters down in the classiest way possible



Sophie Cunningham responded with style, grace, and domination after fans in Canada booed her relentlessly during the Indiana Fever game against the Toronto Temper Tuesday.

The star guard has come under fire after she made a powerful statement in support of women's sports and against biological males competing against females.

'I think that’s what sports is all about. You’re going to get boos. You’re going to get cheers.'

That may have been the impetus for the Canadian fans booing passionately whenever Cunningham got the ball during the WNBA matchup. Several viewers posted videos of the booing on social media.

Cunningham hit all three of her three-point attempts and helped the Fever defeat the Tempo, 101 to 95.

After the game, she was gracious in a postgame press conference and complimented the fans in the arena.

"I want to shout out the Tempo crowd and the city. I think we've had so much fun. It's my first time being in Canada. It's a lot of our first times being in Canada," Cunningham said unprompted.

"But the crowd was absolutely amazing, and, you know, I think that’s what sports is all about. You’re going to get boos. You’re going to get cheers," she added. "But just the fact that they're so passionate, they're loud, and they're putting on for the city, I think it's amazing."

In an on-court interview after the game, she also appeared to reference the controversy over transgender-identifying athletes.

"What a great environment for women's basketball. It was a hell of a crowd. It was a lot of fun to play in front of," she said.

When asked about her role among the "big three" scorers, she referenced girls playing sports again.

"I'm just here. I'm just here. Whatever the team needs of me, I'm going to do," she insisted.

"Like I said, I'm just going to come, have some fun. Maybe inspire some young girls to come beat me one day!"

RELATED: Black WNBA player blames 'white privilege' after ejection for hitting Sophie Cunningham

Cunningham's support for women athletes has led to some fans appearing at her games with signs thanking her for standing up against unfair competition.

This in turn has led to some angry responses from many, including the co-owner of the Seattle Storm, who cursed out two teenage girls at a game. She was later suspended and fined by the league.

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High school seniors can't read. Jason Whitlock calls it ‘a funeral for the mind.’



In a viral social media video, teacher Darius Williams described breaking down in class after discovering that some of his high school seniors could not complete an exercise requiring them to fill in just four missing words.

“These kids are leaving high school and going to college, hopefully, and they couldn’t fill in four words. Four words. I literally broke down in the middle of class. This is only day two, and I have seniors who simply cannot read and seniors who cannot write,” the teacher, Darius Williams, said in a reel on Instagram.

“They can reason. They have the ability to defend their reasoning if it’s talking to their homeboy, but applying that to a written text, two paragraphs, and they couldn’t do it,” he added.

BlazeTV host Jason Whitlock is disturbed, but not surprised.



“High school seniors could not fill in four words,” Whitlock says. “Not calculus, not philosophy, four words. A grown man wept on camera because the next generation cannot read. That is not a school story. That is a funeral for the mind.”

Whitlock points out that "enslaved black men and women once risked the whip, the auction block, and death for the ability to read.”

“Literacy was contraband. Freedom. A free mind started with a page you were not supposed to touch,” he says.

What slaves understood back then is something “this generation pretends not to know.”

“The man who controls your access to words controls your access to God, to law, to contracts, to your own name on a document,” Whitlock says.

“Now, too many black Americans treat reading like optional equipment. Something you outsource to a phone, a caption, a clip, or a machine that summarizes so you never sweat through a hard paragraph,” he says. “That is not progress. That is a people walking backward into dependence and calling it culture.”

“We used to bleed for the page. Now we scroll past it and get offended when a teacher cries about the wreckage,” he adds.

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MAGA-haters mock Giants quarterback for getting laid out by massive hit



While many fans are enjoying the return of NFL preseason, others are watching strictly in hopes of seeing some athletes injured over their political preferences.

One unfortunate scene unfolded at MetLife Stadium in New Jersey on Saturday when the first-string quarterback for the New York Giants got blasted by a Minnesota Vikings defensive player.

'The Trump-loving piece of s**t better get used to this kind of treatment.'

Jaxson Dart was preparing to launch the football when safety Jay Ward crashed into the quarterback and laid him out on the field.

Dart was ordered to be assessed for a possible concussion after the big hit but later returned to his position. He responded by scoring a touchdown soon afterward.

Many online, however, took glee in Dart taking the massive hit after the Utah native introduced President Donald Trump at a rally in May.

"Every defense in the NFL knows Jaxson Dart is MAGA. The Trump-loving piece of s**t better get used to this kind of treatment — because he can expect it ALL SEASON LONG," responded social justice musician Bill Madden.

"Damn MAGA QB Jaxson Dart just got popped," replied liberal activist Harry Sisson.

"Donald Trump's favorite quarterback was knocked out the 1st preseason game since he attended a rally. Add Jaxon [sic] Dart to the [Everything Trump Touches Dies] list," laughed another user.

"Jaxson Dart just had the MAGA knocked out of him," joked another account.

"He may have actually gotten more MAGA knocked into him seeing as every mashed potato brained CTE ridden retired athlete becomes outspokenly MAGA," read one reply.

RELATED: Christian NFL star apologizes for reference to kids' game that likely left LGBTQ crowd seething

Giants head coach John Harbaugh blamed the breakdown in offensive protection for the hit on his star quarterback and also questioned the rationale for putting Dart in concussion protocol.

Some players seemed upset that Dart had shown support for the president, but others on the team quickly came to his defense and rejected suspicion that he had divided the locker room.

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Cover up or 'leave'? Mother and daughter say they were confronted at WNBA game over pro-women shirts



Another WNBA game is in the spotlight for the wrong reasons over an issue that just won't go away.

The Atlanta Dream hosted the Indiana Fever on Sunday, with the cloud of inclusiveness and trans-identifying athletes in the league still following the WNBA around. The Fever beat the Dream 95-91 in overtime.

'I didn't make signs. I wanted to make signs, but I didn't.'

Fever star Sophie Cunningham has been instrumental in bringing to light the conversation of women needing their own sports, but now the focus has shifted to the league as a whole.

WNBA personnel met to discuss league eligibility rules last week, but still made no definitive rule changes about restricting men from their league.

For the second time in a few weeks, women showing their support for Cunningham caused a stir at a WNBA game. This time it was at the Gateway Center Arena in Atlanta, where a mother and daughter say they were told to cover up their pro-women shirts or leave.

Georgia mother Casey and her daughter Annie said arena security approached them at their floor seats over the shirts, which read "XX XY athletics." The daughter's shirt also read "for the girls" on the back.

The ladies claimed that during overtime, a security member told them their shirts were "offensive" before asking them to put on a "Wellness Night" Atlanta Dream shirt instead. If not, they would be removed from the arena.

RELATED: WNBA team co-owner FINED and SUSPENDED for cursing out teen fans of Sophie Cunningham at Seattle game

The women obliged and wore the alternate shirts, as they wanted to see the end of the game.

"We did nothing. We were just sitting there. I didn't make signs. I wanted to make signs, but I didn't. I did nothing," the mother told reporter Adam Francisco after the game. The women said they were in the third row of their section, in seats they estimated cost roughly $1,000 each.

Francisco, who also attended the game, told the women, "I did notice during the game on the Jumbotron, they put up a woman wearing a shirt that said 'protect trans rights' or something."

A fan wearing a shirt that said, "Trans kids belong in sports," was seen on the broadcast for the same game, though it is unclear if it is the same person Francisco referred to.

"She was the one that told on us," the mother and daughter claimed. "She was made to zip up her jacket."

The women said the person with opposing views should not have been silenced either.

RELATED: 'She didn't wait until it was easy': Victim of brutal injury from male athlete praises Sophie Cunningham

Rich von Biberstein/Icon Sportswire/Getty Images

When asked why they wore their shirts, the mother and daughter stated, "To support Sophie Cunningham and to support women and women's sports because it's just common sense."

This wasn't the first time the XX-XY apparel caused problems at a WNBA game. In late July, Seattle Storm co-owner Celeste Keaton confronted a pair of teen girls over their clothing, as well.

Due to allegedly cussing at the young women, Keaton was suspended for five games and assessed a fine.

Majority owner Ginny Gilder apologized for the incident and said the team remained committed to "creating an inclusive environment."

The WNBA did not respond to Blaze News' request for comment.

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'Jesus is still Lord': Little League World Series coach delivers unforgettable mound visit speech



A coach in the Little League World Series delivered a speech on the mound on Wednesday that is being labeled the greatest of all time.

During a West Region tournament game between Arizona and Hawaii, Arizona had a 2-1 lead in the top of the fourth inning. That's when Coach Drew Breivogel visited his pitcher on the mound.

'This is a baseball game, right?'

Little League teams from across the globe compete every year to become world champions, and the pressure can be overwhelming for many of the young players, who are all ages 10 to 13 years old.

Pitcher Camden Burke of Chandler National Little League in Arizona seemed to be feeling the heat when Breivogel came to speak to him. What happened next was unexpected.

"I'm so proud of you. I've known you since you were 8," Breivogel said, as ESPN microphones picked up his comments. "Not a lot of people get to see the fruit of the labor that you put in, right?"

The coach went on, "Remember Zacchaeus in the Bible? Someone planted that tree 30, 40 years prior so he could climb up into it. Salvation — we're talking salvation. This is a baseball game, right?"

In an effort to help the young player relax, the coach seemed to be letting Burke know there are more important things in life than the outcome of the game.

"If you walk the next five guys, Jesus is still Lord," Breivogel continued.

"If you strike out the next five guys, guess what: Jesus is still Lord. Okay? I love you. Have some fun," he concluded.

A post that showed the exchanged labeled the coach's speech "the greatest [Little League] mound visit of all time," and had already been viewed more than 10 million times at the time of this writing.

RELATED: Texas pastor issues two challenges for men today: 'Putting it into action bears fruit'

Although Burke had the lead, he was already 82 pitches into his night, a lot for even a major league hurler. This no doubt had an effect as Kawaihau Community Little League of Hawaii scored four runs in the inning.

Neither team scored in the remaining innings, and Hawaii took home the victory, 5-2, eliminating Arizona from the tournament.

The speech was not without controversy, however. Several responses criticized the coach for not talking strategy or offering the boy pitching advice.

"How about a scouting report?" Tim Earle replied, suggesting the coach should have given "some advice about mechanics."

RELATED: 'She didn't wait until it was easy': Victim of brutal injury from male athlete praises Sophie Cunningham

Dylan Buell/Getty Images

Another widely viewed remark accused the coach of "using TV to make himself look good [.] He knew he was Mic’d up, that was his BIG moment."

Although the coach received a lot of support, detractors of his speech were split between those who found it to be inappropriate for the situation and those who preferred the coach to dish out strategy during his time at the mound.

Neither the coach nor the player has addressed the memorable moment.

Hawaii will play Southern California in the West Region championship Friday at 9 p.m. ET. The winner will advance to the elimination tournament.

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WNBA coach quotes Michelle Obama — then tells ‘online community’ to ‘go to hell’



After Indiana Fever coach Stephanie White preached love, grace, and integrity at a press conference following DiJonai Carrington’s flagrant foul on Sophie Cunningham — she quickly reflected the opposite.

“Love will win. Grace will win. Humility will win. Kindness will win. Then the mask drops,” BlazeTV host Jason Whitlock comments, before playing a video of the press conference where White addressed the “online community that’s trying to create narratives that simply don’t exist.”

She accused this “community” of “trying to create a fabrication” and “distortion” of who she is and what she’s “about.”

“For those who have anything to say about the play in the last game, I didn’t see the play in real time. I went straight to a press conference,” she explained.


“I thought the play got called right. Thankfully Sophie’s okay. Was it egregious? Absolutely,” she added.

White went on to explain that she takes any suggestions that she doesn’t always have her players' backs “personally” and “ride[s] with them 10 toes down all the time.”

“The hate, the fearmongering, the divisiveness, the stuff that’s trying to hijack our league will not win,” she said, before reciting an old Michelle Obama quote, “When they go low, we go high.”

“Love will win. Grace will win. Humility will win. And kindness will win. I stand by them. I will always stand by them. Everybody else can go to hell,” she added.

“That was the love and grace she was talking about. That was the whole production,” Whitlock comments.

"Not a game plan, not accountability. A staged crucifixion where the coach nails herself to the wood and demands you applaud the craftsmanship,” he adds.

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'She didn't wait until it was easy': Victim of brutal injury from male athlete praises Sophie Cunningham



A female athlete who knows firsthand what it's like to compete against a male is confused by the WNBA's lack of a female-only policy.

To date, the WNBA has consistently punted on the idea of banning males from its league despite the topic being a focal point in press conferences, interviews, and even during games.

'The WNBA [is] proving every day how unserious the league is.'

Coaches and ownership have been clear: The WNBA is a progressive and inclusive league, even if women have a problem with it.

Payton McNabb is one of those women.

The North Carolina native gained notoriety during her senior year of high school as a volleyball player when she was on the receiving end of a male athlete's brutal spike that caused ongoing concussion symptoms and neck injury.

"It was very clear that we were not up against another high school girl," McNabb told Blaze News.

McNabb has subsequently become a vocal opponent of male inclusion in women's sports, even speaking before the House Oversight Subcommittee on Delivering on Government Efficiency in May 2025.

Nearly four years after her high school injury, McNabb remains flabbergasted as to how a league made for women is still unable to admit obvious differences between the sexes.

"Something so simple as that has turned into this insane explosion of just the WNBA proving every day how unserious the league is," McNabb declared. "It's just been crazy to watch."

At the same time, McNabb praised Indiana Fever player Sophie Cunningham, the first player in the league to outright state that men should not be allowed to play with women and that boys should not share locker rooms with girls.

"I think the way she's handled it has been so admirable," McNabb, who also played basketball, explained. "I really appreciate her not backing down from it, and doubling down on it, and standing up for women and girls in the next generation."

RELATED: Trans athlete changes sports and is dominating women again — this time under a new name

Kayla Bartkowski/Getty Images

McNabb accused other WNBA players and coaches of "pulling up the ladder" and putting young girls in a position where there may be no women's basketball league for them to aspire to.

"I can't think of any other explanation as to why you would want men to infiltrate the very league you made to get away from men. It makes no sense," she said. "You can't complain on one hand that you want more media attention and more opportunities and just as much as the men, and then the next argument be that you would open-arms accept them on your team and, you know, encourage that to happen."

Now a college student, McNabb touched on the WNBA personnel who have performed stunts in response to Cunningham's "completely normal" comments.

Specifically referring to Minnesota Lynx head coach Cheryl Reeve wearing a "Trans Kids Belong" shirt and Seattle Storm co-owner Celeste Keaton accosting two young female fans, McNabb said she believes there is some sort of ongoing effort to get "media relevancy."

"There's no other reason why anyone would be talking about the WNBA," she stressed.

McNabb asserted that the league's constant involvement in these controversies distracts from the actual sport: "It's just taking away from basketball. I mean, no one's even talking about basketball."

RELATED: 'A lot of people say it's not happening!' Blaze News investigates: A definitive list of men who have dominated women's sports

Andrew Harnik/Getty Images

Now in her 20s, McNabb recognizes how difficult it must have been for Cunningham to risk her rise to stardom by speaking out.

"She didn’t wait until it was easy," McNabb said of Cunningham. "She really said it when her career was taking off and, you know, when she has so many eyes on her."

"I know it means a lot to me, but I just know how much it means to a bunch of young girls, young athletes across the country who look up to her so much," she added.

McNabb revealed that the whole conversation around protecting women's sports has resulted in her being called a "TERF, bigoted, transphobic loser," when, in her opinion, all women are asking for is "the bare minimum."

A women-only locker room and an even playing field don't seem like too much to ask, the college student said, adding that even her most fervent detractors are putting forth "a losing argument."

"It's just real life, and it's okay to think that. And the people that disagree with you, I think they, deep down, they've got to know."

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