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Watching veteran broadcaster Boomer Esiason call out the media’s baiting of Olympic athletes was refreshing and overdue; he didn’t mince words when he told Americans that our athletes should be allowed to compete without being dragged through partisan rumor mills. Too many reporters seem more interested in provoking headlines than covering sport, and Esiason rightly said he feels bad for athletes who are forced into answering political traps. This is a moment when common sense and decency should prevail.
The backdrop to this mess is real: several Team USA members in Milan have expressed complicated feelings about representing a country roiled by domestic controversies, and those comments promptly became political tinder. One freestyle skier said he had “mixed emotions” about competing for the U.S., a sentiment that was seized on by both the media and partisan voices back home — including a hostile reaction from the president on social platforms. The games should be about excellence and national pride, not a play-by-play of culture-war talking points.
Esiason’s blunt advice — that athletes should “pipe down and just do their sport” — hits the mark because athletes are chosen for talent, not political punditry, and the press has no business turning clinics and medal runs into ideological battlegrounds. When networks lead questions that push competitors into fraught territory, they’re not informing viewers, they’re manufacturing conflict. The American people deserve reporters who focus on performance, training, and sportsmanship instead of orchestrating outrage.
It’s telling that public officials from both state and federal levels have pushed back against this media circus, urging athletes to focus on representing the nation rather than amplifying partisan division while wearing the flag. Leaders like Governor Spencer Cox and Vice President JD Vance have publicly said athletes should stick to sport and let politics be handled elsewhere, a sensible approach that restores dignity to the international stage. Conservatives who love this country should applaud anyone — pundit or politician — who defends the right of athletes to compete in peace.
Patriotic Americans know the Olympics should unite us, not deepen the fissures the coastal media profits from, and Boomer Esiason’s defense of competitors is the kind of plainspoken, blue-collar common sense our country needs more of. We should stand with Team USA, demand that reporters stop weaponizing interviews, and remind our athletes that when they wear the stars and stripes they carry the respect of hardworking Americans across the political spectrum. Let the games be about glory, grit, and country — not the latest manufactured controversy.
