The Crippled Vision, 57th Day of Childwinter, 526 M.E. (Castor): Of all the Venn diagrams, the overlap that I like the least is that of politics and sports.  

My twin football allegiances are to the New England Patriots (pro) and the Georgia Bulldogs (collegiate). I've been a fan of both teams, through years thick and thin, since the early 1980s. Meanwhile, my politics include a complete and total contempt for the Stable Genius. In my mind, there is no overlap, no Venn diagram, between my football enthusiasms and my politics.

The Stable Genius wanted to buy the Patriots back in 1988, and I was glad back then that his attempt failed, even before I knew anything about his deplorable racism and political views. Back then, he was the guy who lured the Georgia Bulldogs' Herschel Walker away from the NFL, and I hadn't forgiven him for that (still haven't). I didn't want his greedy hands anywhere near my Patriots and was relieved when they were purchased instead by businessman Victor Kian. 

Kian was the owner of the Remington electric shaver company and famous for the tv ads in which he claimed he liked the razor so much that he bought the company. I don't remember if he ever said the same thing about the Patriots, but it feels like he should have. In any event, the subsequent owner fter Kian, Robert Kraft, was a close, personal friend of the Stable Genius. QB Tom Brady and Head Coach Bill Belichick also had ties to the Stable Genius. But those friendships and ties weren't playing on the field and had no relationship with the Patriots' success or my feelings about the team. I don't care that Kraft donated to the Stable Genius' inauguration fund, or that Tom Brady had a MAGA hat in his locker. All that had nothing to do with my cheering for the team. There was zero overlap of sports and politics.

I moved to Atlanta in 1980, the same year the Georgia Bulldogs won the college football national championship, and got caught up in the frenzy and jumped on board the Bulldogs' bandwagon. Georgia is a red state and some associate the team with the conservative values of the fans (it wasn't unusual to see Confederate flags in the stands), but I cheered for them because of their play and the athleticism of their players, not because of the politics of their fans.

Oh, but those were simpler times. Today, it seems like nothing can't be seen through except through a political filter, including sports, including the Georgia Bulldogs. Last week, the Stable Genius, his approval ratings tanking and his unpopularity at an all-time high, held a rally in Rome, Georgia, and had both Herschel and current Georgia QB Gunner Stockton on stage with him. Apparently, he was hoping for some popularity by association. Maybe he was cynically manipulating the star players, but Stockton went on to describe the meeting as "an awesome experience" and didn't object when the Stable Genius said the football star was a big fan of the President.

To be honest, I never gave a lot of thought to Gunner Stockton's politics. He's from a small, rural town in northeast Georgia, one of the reddest areas of a red state, so it's no shocker that he's a conservative. I probably would have guessed that if asked. 

The Stable Genius called Stockton a "big star" and predicted a "big year" for him. He told the crowd that Stockton is a "great quarterback" who is "only going to get better." I totally agree, but since it was the Stable Genius who said it, cheering for Stockton and the Dawgs is now viewed by many as approval or even endorsement of the Stable Genius. He's opportunistically hitched himself to the Bulldogs' bandwagon, hoping some of the Bulldogs' popularity rubs off on him. The Venn circles have shifted, and now sports and politics overlap. 

But you know what? I still like Gunner Stockton as a QB and I'm still going to cheer for the Georgia Bulldogs. I don't care who Gunner supports politically as long as he can still complete passes and scramble for clutch first downs. I'm not going to let the Stable Genius deprive me of my Dawgs, even if he did deprive the nation from getting to see Herschel Walker play in the NFL in his prime.

And you know what? I'm still going to eat those tasty Chick-Fil-A sandwiches despite the regressive views of its owner. If I can get a better deal on something at Home Depot, I'm shopping there. But I'm not shopping at Hobby Lobby. That's where I'm drawing the line because fuck those guys and besides, I've never once in my life found myself in the market for glitter paint, crepe paper, or glue sticks.

Finally, though, I wonder how the Stable Genius' praise of Gunner and the Bulldogs is going down over in Alabama. He previously was a big Crimson Tide fan, attending Crimson Tide home games and predicting last year that the team would "go all the way" in the college football playoffs. Does he know how much mutual animosity there is between the Bulldogs and the Tide? It's like Zohran Mamdani endorsing the Boston Red Sox. And if the Stable Genius tries to play both sides and praises Alabama next year, whatever good will he generated for himself with Stockton will not only disappear, but turn into anger, just as any karma he had accrued in Alabama is probably already gone. 

tl/dr: There's nothing the Stable Genius can't fuck up.