Speaker 1: Steve Almond has been a guest on my program multiple times, and I don't like calling
Steve a sports writer because he writes about so many things. But Steve does sometimes write
about sports. Laura Ingraham on Fox News thought it would be a good idea to bring Steve Almond
on last night to talk about what's going on with DeMar Hamlin, who suffered a cardiac arrest during
the game on Monday night. We've talked about it already to some degree, but this was a very, very
bad idea for Laura Ingraham. He brings up that Fox News has thrown money to settle sexual assault
claims in sort of making an analogy to how the NFL will settle brain injury stuff without actually
changing the underlying circumstances of football that allow the brain injuries to become common.
Everything about this interview is absolutely fantastic and eventually Laura Ingraham just cuts
it off when he tries to bring up Laura Ingram's past misdeeds when she taunted Parkland shooting
survivors, leading advertisers to flee her show. This is really good. Let's go to the first clip.
Speaker 2: Putting monitors in helmets to try to make sure that people aren't suffering too many
concussive or subconcussive events. These are things the NFL could do tomorrow, but they're
not going to do it until there's an economic incentive. The reason they settled that lawsuit
is because they had a PR problem. It's like at Fox News when you have, you know, hosts who are
allegedly sexually harassing people. Fox News throws money at that. That PR problem go away.
That's what happened. So do you know operations or right people? Well, nobody nobody has done
more. I mean, you know that, right? You know that. Yeah. That's a cute little. No, but I'm.
Speaker 1: I love it. Every time guests call out Fox on Fox, these hosts have some line like, Oh,
that's cute. That's a cute move. Now he's showing up and he's pointing out. That that
which you are criticizing someone else for, your employer also does. It's not
about being cute. It's that they don't know how to handle it when guests actually point these
things out. Let's go to another clip here. Speaker 2: They have an enormous defense of
what happened during George Floyd. They had enormous amount of influence on corporate
America. The actions of corporate America, the actions of the NFL.
I mean, they changed the whole corporate approach to race and equity and all the
things that happened two and a half years ago. So you say the players don't have all that much
influence? I would say the players have an enormous amount of influence, maybe not as
much as they want, but there's there's huge economic upside for everyone here, correct?
Well, I know you're focused on the players. I'm focused on the fans.
And what I essentially believe is not that any government ban is going to make football safer
and certainly not some mythic woke mob that you mentioned to try to scare your viewers. I think
it's going to happen in the future. Football is not about politics. It's not about politics.
You know, I think that's your entire economic model, your entire economic models just for
what? Others. I mean, Steve, you really why where you really want change your behavior? Yeah. You
want football to be banned? I don't. This is what you game. Oh, come on. You what? You want football
essentially changed into? I don't know what? Like, I don't know. We have a sensor in the helmet,
I guess. Okay, propose one. You know, it was that. Is that technology troubling to you? No, not if
you're concerned about the Niners in this league. I would not want this lightly in a way that is
safer. You're not concerned about the player. Speaker 1: The thing about people like Laura
Ingram is Steve Almond accurately points out it's it is about scaring viewers. It's all
about scaring viewers. And when it comes to football, the way they the really scary thing
about football and I now have friends who have kids who are sort of starting to get curious
about football and they're like, oh, my goodness, the last thing I want is my kid to play football.
So they're trying to find a balance between straight up saying you are not allowed to play
because then that can cause this kind of reaction where the kid goes, Well, I really want to play if
I'm not allowed to play. Just kind of finding the right way to dissuade softly dissuade their kids
from wanting to play football. The thing about football is it is fundamentally dangerous. The
brain injury stuff is completely off the charts. It's shocking to me that football even still sort
of exists at the college level. And I think it's possible that if and when the lawsuits start at
the college level, it will really, really damage the prospects of football. I find it, you know,
mildly entertaining. There's other sports I like better, but it just seems crazy that it's still
a thing. Laura Ingram and her model in the Model of Foxes, We've got to scare the audience. We have
to scare the audience. And ideally about what the left or someone external to our movement is doing.
So with football, it's they want to have a nanny state where they ban a sport
or they want to overregulate football by saying, Oh, you've got to do this, you've got to do that,
you've got to force players out. Concussion protocols are too strict or censors in the
helmet. It's all crazy or. It all has to be fear, fear, fear. They're going to take it away. And
with football, there's also the patriotism angle, which they love, which is there's
something patriotic and manly. It's both patriotic and manly. And so any skepticism about football
and football's viability is not only sissy, it's also anti-American. This is the whole sort
of narrative. But when it comes right down to it, Laura Ingram kind of has no choice but to say no.
I mean, I guess I'd be fine with a censor. With a censor in the helmet that indicates, you know,
what were the what were the G-forces? Was there a possible concussion or whatever the case may be?
Because these are these are perfectly logical things as half measures to really dealing with
football. Big picture. Now, this is not the hill I'm going to die on. I'm not going around looking
to end football. It's shocking to me that anybody lets their kids play football at this point. And
I know let them you know, what is that? That's a whole difficult premise premise as well. But this
is how these folks operate. Make everybody afraid. Steve Almond is completely right when it comes
down to it. You go, Well, it's not so much that I'm opposed to thing number one or two or three,
but we should be very afraid of what they are trying to do. Here's the last segment during
which Steve Almond points out she had a problem with advertisers fleeing for things she said,
and then she just ends the interview. Speaker 2: So thrilling. The reason that
people change their behavior is because there's an economic incentive. Couple of years ago when you
tie a survivor of Parkland, Mass. Shooting. All right, we got your shiny and you're.
Nice try, buddy. I appreciate it. Speaker 1: It's cut. It is Cut, cut,
cut. Yeah. So other guests have done this stuff before. And the reaction from the Fox
hosts is is very similar. It's cut it, laugh it off and say it's an ambush or it's cute or it's
funny or whatever the case may be. Standard M.O. They all seem to know how to do it,
but very nicely done. By Steve Almond. And I mean, listen, this is Steve Almond's bailiwick
right there to invite him and think he's not going to do this is really the thing that shows
you don't really know who who he is. Really nice job. We should have him back on the show soon.