USA Today's Dan Wolken Goes After Bruce Pearl For Sharing Conservative Political Views, Defends Steve Kerr

Double standards in political commentary from sports personalities are alive and well.

It was obvious with the recent controversy around ESPN's Mina Kimes and Sarah Spain, both of whom have openly shared left-wing political views in direct contradiction to their employer's policy. Kimes and Spain have remained employed and unpunished, while Sage Steele was unceremoniously removed for having different public political views.

READ: Election Season Is Already A Migraine For ESPN | Bobby Burack

It's obvious why ESPN continues to get away with those types of intellectually inconsistent decisions; because most other sportswriters are fine with double standards too. Case in point: USA Today's Dan Wolken. 

Wolken is, stop the presses, another outspoken liberal in sports media. Unsurprisingly, he disapproves when prominent figures within the sports world share opinions that differ from his own. And doesn't care when other prominent sports figures confirm his views. 

Sure enough, Wolken was at it again in a series of recent posts on X, displaying how not to apply standards when it comes to political discussions.

CHICAGO - Steve Kerr, Team USA Men’s Basketball coach and Golden State Warriors coach, speaks onstage during the first day of the Democratic National Convention at the United Center on August 19, 2024. (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

Dan Wolken Defends Steve Kerr, Criticizes Bruce Pearl

Auburn Tigers men's basketball coach Bruce Pearl is an outspoken Republican, and a highly successful coach. He led the Tigers to a tie for second in the tough SEC in the 2023-2024 season, after finishing with the best regular season SEC conference record in 2021-2022. Auburn in January 2022 even reached No. 1 in the AP Poll for the first time in the program's history.

While recent NCAA tournament results have been disappointing, Pearl also led the Tigers to a surprising Final Four berth in 2018-2019. For an athletic department known for football over basketball, his tenure has been an overwhelming success. And Wolken is really mad about it.

Pearl posted recently on X in response to Senator Tom Cotton calling out Kamala Harris' policy proposal several years ago to end private health insurance. "Thank you for pointing this out Senator Cotton," Pearl posted. "Except my guess is that like many of her socialist, woke progressive beliefs she's now changing them or hiding them to get elected! We won't get fooled again!"

It's a view shared by many conservatives, amazed at the about-face Harris has done on virtually all of her previous far-left positions. Wolken doesn't like it.

"Serious question: Has NIL changed the game to such an extent that a college coach can say stuff like this on social media and not fear any negative recruiting impact in households where the VP is likely quite popular?" Wolken said in response.

Casual racism of assuming that Harris must be popular among the families of young black men in the South aside, Auburn's recruiting rankings consistently show that no, it does not hurt Auburn that Bruce Pearl is a Republican. Because, unlike Wolken, it's possible that many young players and their families don't care about his views, only how good of a coach he is. Pearl's had a top-10 class, a few in the teens, one in the 20's, and had top transfer portal classes too. Sorry Dan.

Someone rightfully brought up how outspoken Steve Kerr is about his far left views, even speaking at the DNC in ranting support of Harris and Walz. Wolken doesn't get the connection.

"I guess you've missed the point," he said. "Steve Kerr doesn't have to convince families to send their teenage kids to a college campus for personal and professional development in a highly competitive recruiting environment." 

That's true. But he does have to convince fans to buy tickets to support his employer. He does have to convince free agents, who may or may not agree with his views, to join his team. 

Kerr has obviously been hugely successful for the Warriors, both in terms of selling tickets and recruiting players. Many of them might agree with his views. Most fans in the Bay Area probably agree with them too. But Kerr clearly wouldn't change his views or willingness to speak about them if he coached in say, Utah. And Wolken would have no problem with that. He only has a concern about the impact of political views if they're right-leaning ones.

Cause that's how double standards work.