Adam Baranovsky @abloading

Aaron Rodgers went on McAfee today and said he'd plead the fifth, "like that absolute coward Tony Fauci." Kyrie Irving lost around $11.4 million. Stephen A. Smith said on air he hoped Kyrie got cut, and last week he apologized. Smith is still at ESPN. Kyrie is still out $11.4 million. Nobody who was wrong about this paid anything. That's the part worth sitting with. Run the actual ledger from 2021. Irving refused the vaccine. New York's mandate made him ineligible for home games. He forfeited about 1 percent of his salary for every game missed, roughly $381,000 a night, around $11.4 million total. He was called selfish, a distraction, a bad teammate, a fraud. Analysts on national television openly discussed whether the Nets should get rid of him. Smith said he hoped Irving got cut. Rodgers got it worse and longer. He was hammered on every network for weeks. He lost his deal with Prevea Health, a partnership he'd had for nine years. He was fined by the league. He became the sport's designated villain, and he stayed the villain for five straight years, through the Jets, through the Achilles, through everything. Every studio show in America had a segment on him. Now go find one person who took a professional hit for how they covered it. There isn't one. Not a firing, not a demotion, not a lost contract. The loudest voices in 2021 are the loudest voices in 2026, on the same shows, in the same chairs, with more money. Smith just turned his apology into a 20-minute monologue. The reversal is content. The original take was content. Both paid. That's the asymmetry nobody names. Taking a position costs the person who takes it. Attacking a position costs the attacker nothing, ever. Kyrie put $11.4 million behind what he believed. Rodgers put his entire public reputation behind what he believed. The people who spent years mocking them put nothing behind anything, because commentary has no downside built into it. I'll say where I land. I thought at the time that a man giving up eight figures for a position he actually held deserved more respect than he got, and I think the last week reads a lot better for Irving and Rodgers than it does for anyone who spent 2021 shouting them down. I'll also be precise, because the strong version of that case doesn't need to overstate it. Pleading the Fifth is not an admission of guilt. It's a constitutional right, and no inference of guilt can be drawn from invoking it. Fauci denies wrongdoing and nothing has been established. Smith's own stated reasoning was that the silence leaves doubt and suspicion alone justifies the skepticism. That isn't proof. It's the same standard he used to attack Kyrie in the first place, pointed the other way. Which is the whole point. The machine never got more careful. It just turned around, because consensus moved and consensus is what it actually runs on. So Rodgers gets his victory lap today. He's earned it. He's just the only guy in this story who ever had to pay for a seat.

Underdog NFL @UnderdogNFL

a day ago

Aaron Rodgers when asked about his mindset coming into his last season, via @PatMcAfeeShow: "I'm gonna plead the fifth. Like that absolute coward Tony Fauci. Absolute coward."

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RODGERS FIRING SHOTS AT ESPN FOR THE DIANA RUSSINI SCANDAL: “What are we doing? You have an individual that used to work at ESPN, that covers our league at the highest level… it’s a major scandal and NOBODY can talk about it? Like what are we doing?”

Aaron Rodgers when asked about his mindset coming into his last season, via @PatMcAfeeShow: "I'm gonna plead the fifth. Like that absolute coward Tony Fauci. Absolute coward."

The FINAL Chapter in the story of The Shield 🛡️ #SummerSlam

The Dodgers are hiding Hamas in their clubhouse @Israel

We said no more foreign wars and we meant it and supported Donald Trump because he made that promise. But he’s betrayed us all. Our commitment is America First for all Americans, right, left, and center. The movement has begun.

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@FmrRepMTG squad

@KyrieIrving yeah the christians being slaughtered in huge numbers in nigeria really is upsetting

Thomas Massie is truly the best of Congress. I still can’t believe what they did to him. Forever unforgivable.

Thomas Massie @RepThomasMassie

a week ago

I’ll soon be sponsoring a bill to withhold federal money from municipalities and police departments that deploy Flock (and other style) cameras to surveil law abiding citizens.

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#8 locked in for season 9 @Lj_era8

Sacrifice?? What the fuck are you talking about?? They did not willingly sacrifice themselves. They were killed because of the war you, Trump, and the admin, are waging on behalf of a FOREIGN COUNTRY, Israel. You mean their deaths fuel your bloodlust for a senseless war.

Pete Hegseth @PeteHegseth

2 weeks ago

Godspeed, heroes. Their sacrifice only stiffens our resolve.

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“He has no accolades” got ended in 7 months

SITE NYK 🏆 @SITENYK

3 weeks ago

The Brunson 9

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Every Republican Senator voted to merge our military with Israel’s military. The most America LAST thing they could possibly do, selling our military out to a foreign country. It’s absolute treason and betrayal.

First Round U! #RollTide

BELIEVE IT. THE USMNT HAVE WON THEIR SECOND-EVER KNOCKOUT STAGE MATCH 🇺🇸

Not a single Christian in the Bible prayed to Mary or with beads.

Cameron Riecker @riecker

a month ago

The Rosary is more biblical than Protestantism.

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@_Ambish @joshhart luckily jesus didn’t come for religion

🔥🔥🔥 Whoever has ears let them hear

ABC News @ABC

a month ago

BREAKING: The Texas State Board of Education has voted to make Bible passages required reading in public schools. abcnews.link/kgCyNtB

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@nfldraftscout we’re with you matt 🙏🙏