MLB Nerd Jeff Passan Clutches Pearls, Calls DoD A Bunch of 'Ghouls' Over Missing Jackie Robinson Article
They’re erasing history, suggests the angry reporter who apparently loathes the Trump administration.
ESPN MLB insider Jeff Passan put on a show for his social media followers by going on the offensive against Donald Trump’s Department of Defense, which removed an article chronicling baseball legend Jackie Robinson’s time in the Army.
ESPN baseball analyst Jeff Passan. (Photo by Matt Dirksen/Getty Images)
The Department of Defense’s "Sports Heroes Who Served" series highlighted Jackie Robinson’s service during World War II.
Rather than using his incredible access to resolve the issue or first get to the bottom of how the article disappeared, Passan painted a picture of a vindictive DoD keen on taking corrective action against the man who broke baseball’s color barrier in 1947.
But hey, when the bosses at ESPN want you to throw a fit over this non-issue, you gotta go for gold.
"The ghouls who did this should be ashamed. Jackie Robinson was the embodiment of an American hero. Fix this now," Passan demanded on X, making his frustrations known.
ARLINGTON, VIRGINIA - FEBRUARY 24: U.S. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth speaks during a meeting with Saudi Minister of Defense Khalid bin Salman at the Pentagon on February 24, 2025 in Arlington, Virginia. On February 15th, Hegesth conducted an introductory call to reinforce the vital defense partnership between the United States and Saudi Arabia. (Photo by Kayla Bartkowski/Getty Images)
What did Passan assume — that folks interested in learning about Robinson’s military time would never gain access, if not for this DoD URL?
Before common sense kicked in, Passan’s followers were already up in arms about the "ghouls" leading the DoD — namely, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, who’s very much against all the DEI stuff that the previous administration cherished.
"Jackie was too black for this Nazi administration," one of Passan’s followers responded, pulling out the tired trope.
When Passan put on his big-boy pants and demanded an answer, he got one.
Not only that, the "ghouls" restored that URL, knowing how much it meant to lil' Jeff Passan. He received a response from Pentagon press secretary John Ullyot regarding the link’s DEI tag, which inadvertently led to its deletion.
READ IT YOURSELF: Sports Heroes Who Served: Baseball Great Jackie Robinson Was WWII Soldier
"As Secretary Hegseth has said, DEI is dead at the Defense Department," the statement read.
"Discriminatory Equity Ideology is a form of Woke cultural Marxism that has no place in our military. It Divides the force, Erodes unit cohesion and Interferes with the services’ core warfighting mission. We are pleased by the rapid compliance across the Department with the directive removing DEI content from all platforms. In the rare cases that content is removed — either deliberately or by mistake — that is out of the clearly outlined scope of the directive, we instruct the components and they correct the content accordingly."
Rather than some malicious directive passed down by Trump to remove the article, it turns out the removal of the article was a mere mistake.
Seriously Jeff, who doesn't love Jackie Robinson. (Photo by Hulton Archive/Getty Images)
Based on the article’s URL, the previous administration filed it under a "DEI" category, which led to it getting caught up in the great purge of pro-DEI material on the government’s website.
Firstly, why not question the Biden administration’s intent of filing the great Jackie Robinson under "DEI"?
Certainly, those ghouls were more responsible for trying to rewrite sports history (Title IX, anyone?) than this administration.
In the face of real mutiny, like the sabotaging of Title IX under Biden, Passan stayed quiet.
On the first official day of the baseball season, this is the best we’re getting out of ESPN’s premier MLB insider …
The adults are back in the room, Jeff. Get with the program.
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