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Brian Urlacher backs WNBA’s Sophie Cunningham over biological men in women’s sports
NFL Hall of Famer Brian Urlacher joins ‘Satuday in America’ to defend WNBA star Sophie Cunningham after she faced backlash for supporting the exclusion of biological men from women’s sports
If you thought DiJonai Carrington clotheslining Sophie Cunningham, then posting “White privilege” from the locker room after her ejection, would cause the sports media to acknowledge the actual racism in the WNBA, you thought wrong
To neutral observers, the story on Saturday is hardly difficult to analyze. Carrington committed a dirty, flagrant worthy play that could have seriously injured Cunningham, leaving her bloodied in the mouth from the contact. The officials rightfully ejected Carrington. She responded by accusing league officials of racism, an accusation that, while baseless, is nevertheless serious
And yet, the race ladies of Threads and Bluesky have rushed to Carrington’s defense
It appears the group chat settled on the talking point that Cunningham committed a similar foul last year and became famous for it, thus proving a racial double standard
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“DiJonai Carrington receiving a Flagrant 2 and an ejection was the right call, but let’s go back to the play that made Sophie Cunningham famous,” Jemele Hill posted. “SC gained a million followers overnight. She is affectionately known as an enforcer. Nobody suggested she should be brought up on assault charges despite her play being clear retaliation.”
“Meanwhile DiJonai Carrington was actually going for the ball but she’s being called racial slurs, a thug, and some suggested a suspension for multiple games.”
Hill’s sidekick, the always bitter Cari Champion, posted essentially the same response while sharing Cunningham’s foul from over a year ago
“The question is a fair ask- will @dijonai be applauded? Will she gain millions of followers and marketing opportunities?” Champion said
“League has a race problem,” she added in a since-deleted post
Indeed, it does
Chicago Sky guard DiJonai Carrington commits a flagrant 2 foul against Indiana Fever guard Sophie Cunningham.(Kamil Krzaczynski/Imagn Images)
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The comparison between Carrington’s and Cunningham’s hard fouls is not nearly as clever as the duo think. For one, Cunningham acknowledged that she deserved to be ejected. Carrington claimed she didn’t and invoked the race card
Now, let’s revisit the foul Hill and Champion reference
Last June, Connecticut’s Marina Mabrey shoved Caitlin Clark to the floor during a game. Jacy Sheldon then slapped Clark across the face. While the officials showed little interest in restoring order, Cunningham responded by shoving Sheldon onto the hardwood
The moment was significant because Cunningham was the first player in the WNBA to stand up for Clark, the league’s biggest star, who is perpetually fouled hard
Cunningham delivered a receipt for a dirty foul on her teammate. Carrington, by contrast, committed a dirty play, as she has done throughout her career. Two seasons ago, she jammed her fingernail into Clark’s eye
Reporters asked Cunningham after the game about the comparisons between her foul and Carrington’s
“I think the league is taking care of that,” she responded. “This has nothing to do with race. Last year, I did the same thing and I got kicked out. And I deserved to be kicked out. There’s no reason even to play that card.”
They are not the same
Sophie Cunningham confronts DiJonai Carrington after the latter committed a hard foul that led to her being ejected in the first quarter of Saturday’s game between the Indiana Fever and the Chicago Sky.(Kamil Krzaczynski/Imagn Images)
THE LEFT WANTS CAITLIN CLARK, SOPHIE CUNNINGHAM TO SHUT UP AND DRIBBLE WHEN IT COMES TO TRANS SPORTS
Of course, Jemele Hill and Cari Champion are not the only usual suspects in sports media trying to divert attention away from Carrington
On Sunday, NBC host Maria Taylor anchored a discussion about the play and accused those criticizing Carrington of using it as “ammunition for a culture war.”
You might wonder how Taylor could make that argument, considering Carrington injected herself into the “culture war” by posting “White privilege” from the locker room during the game
It would be fair to wonder
We can explain: Taylor and NBC neglected to mention Carrington’s social media post during the segment, as if it weren’t part of the story
ESPN took the same approach. Its WNBA halftime show – featuring the not-so-diverse cast of Monica McNutt, Andraya Carter, Chiney Ogwumike, and Malika Andrews – also downplayed Carrington’s hard foul as “accidental” while ignoring her social media post
Back on Threads, former ESPN anchor Cindy Brunson is spiraling
She claims that DiJonai Carrington did not deserve a Flagrant 2, that Sophie Cunningham is the one who should have been ejected, and that white players in the WNBA are benefiting from “reverse DEI.”
You read all of that correctly. Brunson looked at the play above and Cunningham’s bloodied mouth and determined she was the “aggressor” who deserved to be removed from the game, not Carrington
It’s also worth underscoring that we are publishing this piece early Monday morning. By, say, 3 p.m. ET, we suspect plenty of other racial idolaters in the media will have echoed similar commentary. Perhaps USA Today’s Nancy Armour will explain how Cunningham refusing to defend Carrington for clotheslining her could re-empower the Ku Klux Klan or such
Put simply, many members of the sports media cannot bring themselves to cede an inch of ground in the culture war. That means never, under any circumstance, criticizing a Black woman in the WNBA in defense of a straight white woman
The likes of Jemele Hill and Maria Taylor do not see a player committing a hard foul and then falsely blaming racism. They see a Black lesbian woman, with a history of hard-fouling Caitlin Clark, involved in a scuffle with the pretty white girl who recently voiced her support for keeping biological males out of female athletics
That is enough for them, no matter the facts or context, to side with the Black lesbian woman and vilify the straight white one
Sophie Cunningham #8 of the Indiana Fever reacts to DiJonai Carrington #7 of the Chicago Sky foul during the first half on August 8, 2026 at the United Center in Chicago, Illinois. (Photo by Melissa Tamez/Icon Sportswire(Melissa Tamez/Icon Sportswire
Facts be damned
Likewise, Cunningham’s former teammate, Sydney Colson, endorsed the violent play, mocking Cunningham with the caption, “I love a trans foul,” on her Threads account on Saturday evening. Colson is also a Black lesbian, which seems relevant
In sum, we are not sure there is anything a Black lesbian woman could do to Cunningham or Clark that this group would not defend. This is the definition of “racial idolatry” that sports columnist Jason Whitlock discusses
To the women of the WNBA, analysts at ESPN, and hosts at NBC, race and identity define one’s absolute value. To them, little else matters. They will excuse virtually any aggression or wrongdoing if the person committing it has the right skin color or sexuality
These dynamics make the WNBA difficult to support. The league is clearly consumed by athletes with bigoted, demeaning views of white women. They do not think white women belong unless they bend the knee, as many white women have done to fit in
It’s hard to imagine this ending well. The Black women assaulting Clark and Cunningham feel no remorse. The media has convinced them they shouldn’t, that they are actually the victims
At this rate, one of these players will seriously injure Cunningham and/or Clark. That’s obvious
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And yet, the usual suspects in sports media will downplay it as “part of basketball” and denounce those appalled by the injury as vile racists
No one paying attention would dispute that’s where this is heading
