When New York Giants quarterback Jaxson Dart suffered a season-ending knee injury this week, we knew there'd be two reactions from the overwhelmingly liberal sports media.
asserted
we → suffer → media
First, they'd call for the Giants to sign Colin Kaepernick.
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Giants → call → Kaepernick
They do it whenever an NFL team loses a quarterback, even though Kaepernick has not played professional football in a decade.
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Kaepernick → do → decade
Second, they'd mock Dart’s injury because he made headlines in May by introducing President Donald Trump at a New York City event.
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he → mock → event
Both reactions materialized almost immediately.
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reactions → materialize → ?
Sports blogger Mike Florio was the first to urge the Giants to sign Kaepernick.
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Florio → urge → Kaepernick
Elsewhere, the usual suspects framed Dart's injury as political karma.
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suspects → frame → karma
"Media types say 'Trump Curse' has struck again," wrote HuffPost in an article referring to Dart as a "Trump admirer.
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HuffPost → say → admirer
"
"The f—–g Trump curse strikes again," wrote Tara Setmayer, a former GOP communications director on Capitol Hill and CNN commentator, about Dart’s injury on X.
Film and TV critic John Rocha shared a photo of Trump and Dart’s interaction, writing, "Everything he touches, y'all.
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he → strike → interaction
he touches
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he → touch → ?
Ron Filipkowski, the partisan editor of the anti-Trump outlet MeidasTouch, claimed he had predicted Dart’s injury after the quarterback appeared with Trump.
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quarterback → claim → Trump
"This was the moment I decided not to draft Dart in fantasy football.
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I → decide → football
He had no chance this season after the Trump Curse," he wrote above a clip of Dart and Trump.
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he → have → Dart
Other outlets adopted a similar tone.
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outlets → adopt → tone
"Jaxson Dart's injury reignites Trump sports curse possibility," joked USA Today.
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Today → reignite → possibility
The people making these jokes will insist they are harmless.
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they → make → jokes
Perhaps some of them believe that.
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some → believe → that
But they know exactly what they are doing and how their majority anti-Trump audiences will respond.
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audiences → know → what
The comment section resembles a fringe political message board, with readers celebrating the injury, asking whether Dart is "vaxxed" and claiming that he deserves this because he supported Trump.
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he → resemble → Trump
Interestingly, we do not know whether Dart is a Trump supporter.
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Dart → know → ?
Yes, he introduced Trump at an event.
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he → introduce → event
But introducing the sitting president is not, on its face, a political statement.
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introducing → introduce → face
The event also took place in the city where Dart plays quarterback.
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Dart → take → quarterback
For all we know, Dart would have accepted the same opportunity if a Democrat were in the White House.
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Democrat → know → House
Despite what the legacy media tells you, some Americans would welcome the chance to associate with the president regardless of their political views.
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Americans → tell → views
In fact, we suspect most Americans fall into that category.
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Americans → suspect → category
That said, we can probably deduce that Dart doesn't consider Trump a Nazi.
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Trump → say → ?
And that is enough for some in the media to call him "MAGA" and poke fun at his injury.
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some → call → injury
In 2020, then-ESPN commentator Mark Jones shared posts mocking 49ers defensive end Nick Bosa after Bosa suffered a serious knee injury.
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Bosa → share → injury
The posts referred to Bosa as "MAGA Bosa" and said he deserved to suffer the injury because he stood during the national anthem.
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he → refer → anthem
Three years later, former ESPN host Keith Olbermann celebrated when Aaron Rodgers tore his Achilles in the opening minutes of the Jets’ season.
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Rodgers → celebrate → season
"Another #SuddenLisfranc due to failure to vaccinate," Olbermann posted on X.
When the Jets wrote that Rodgers’ injury was "Not the way any of us wanted it to go," Olbermann responded: "Define 'any.'"
This type of behavior reflects how many Americans suffering from Trump Derangement Syndrome (TDS) react when something awful happens to a Trump voter or someone who does not express open disdain for the president.
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who → vaccinate → president
They genuinely believe that anyone who does not hate Trump as deeply as they do is unworthy and deserves to be punished.
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they → believe → Trump
Sticking to sports commentators, Jemele Hill immediately denounced Charlie Kirk as a racist days after his murder.
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Hill → stick → murder
But they matter.
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they → matter → ?
Professional athletes have short careers.
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athletes → have → careers
Major injuries can derail them, and the consequences are not merely physical.
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consequences → derail → them
Serious injuries can also take a mental toll.
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injuries → take → toll
And yet liberal sports fans and media figures abandon common decency whenever an injury allows them to score cheap political points.
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them → abandon → points
Notice that no such mockery or celebration follows when one of the many athletes who openly promote left-wing politics suffers an injury.
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who → notice → injury
…and 1 more, not listed.
The Aporia
