💬 The Rubin Recap: The Sunday return to normalcy ...

Sports showing signs of becoming just sports again

For years now, sports have become infected by politics, particularly leftist politics. Maybe it’s happened to your favorite sport — you've heard me complain on the show about the NBA becoming over-run by left-wing politics during the last decade or so, to the point that I can't even watch it anymore.

It happened to a certain degree at the Winter Olympics this year, particularly early in the games. Some American athletes made asses of themselves criticizing the U.S. on the world stage. Ya know, it wasn’t so long ago that the instead of making an ass of themselves, athletes would just show you their ass. Simpler times, I guess.

Now, that wisecrack and visual above was hopefully good for a laugh, but you can’t really blame the athletes. They’re put in those impossible positions by the media reporters, who show up at the Olympics asking questions about ICE instead of what makes a speed skater so fast on the ice.

And that sort of stuff doesn’t just happen at the Olympics. It's one of the ways the media have really turned sports, something that naturally brings people together, into something politically divisive over about the last decade or so.

But by the end of the Olympics, it felt like we were starting to turn a corner with sports returning to a normal place in American society — a place to escape the topic of politics rather than to discuss it ad nauseam.

Jack Hughes, the 24-year-old player who scored the game-winning goal in overtime that catapulted Team USA to its first hockey gold medal in 46 years, gave a rousing post-game interview that brimmed with American pride — rather than the American guilt we heard in remarks from some other athletes.

Then there was the phone call from Trump to congratulate the team. It reminded me of when presidents used to call the winning Super Bowl or World Series team in the locker room to congratulate the coach or manager. The occasion was always broadcast on TV, a fleeting moment of national pride. Does that even happen anymore? I know that the first president to do it was Nixon in 1970.

Then, there was the invitation to visit Trump in the Oval Office and attend the State of the Union address. Of course, there were naysayers who thought the hockey heroes should reject Trump’s offer. But they didn't. Instead, the recognized they were being given the opportunity of a lifetime, and they showed up.

There was Trump’s joke about making Connor Hellebuyck, the Team USA goalie, his next Secretary of Defense. Trump also awarded Hellebuyck the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

I played this on the show this week, and I want you to watch it because I think it was a realtime example of how sports are starting to get back to normal. Listen to these young guys.

Who cares what their politics are? And I’m sure they don’t care whether they agree with Trump on every issue or not. It's an honor when the President of the United States calls to recognize your achievement. Sports are a metaphor for the American Dream. Hard work. Perseverance. Will power. Sports are an easy shorthand for many other types of achievement in American history.

So visiting Trump at the White House and attending the State of the Union is about much more than the sporting victory itself. And it transcends politics. It's a celebration of all the big and small achievements by all of the Americans who have come before in this great country’s 250 years.

These are moments to be savored by all Americans regardless of political affiliation. Don't be one of the doommaxxers. It’s the only way we can make sports be just about sports again, and complete the return to normalcy.

Stephen A. Smith says ‘I am in no way identifying myself with today's Democratic Party’

Stephen A. Smith may still think of himself as a Democrat and told me that if he were to run for president in 2028, he would run as a Democrat. But as for today's Democrat Party, it’s become way too bonkers for him. When I interviewed him the other day, he said, “I am in no way identifying myself with today's Democratic Party.”

Why then run for president as a Democrat? I pressed him on that, and while he said a 2028 run is unlikely, he explained why he'd run as a Dem rather than a Republican or independent. I also asked him about number of other topics including AOC's disastrous answer at a security conference in Munich earlier this month, the moment at Trump's State of the Union when Democrats refused to stand in agreement with the "first duty" of American government officials, the snowball attack on NYPD officers during the blizzard, and much more. This was Stephen A’s second visit to The Rubin Report -- and, like last time, we made a little time to play some basketball after the interview.