Bidwill went to prep school with Kavanaugh and was among the classmates who sent a letter to U.S. senatorsGETTY IMAGES
A tweet from the NFL Cardinals official page last night that linked to a story announcing team President Michael Bidwill's support of Judge Brett Kavanaugh's nomination to the Supreme Court "drew backlash from fans who said it was inappropriate for the team to weigh in on a divisive, political issue," according to Sanchez & Cole of the ARIZONA REPUBLIC. Bidwill went to prep school with Kavanaugh and was among the classmates who "sent a letter to ranking U.S. senators to vouch for his character." The Cardinals' tweeted out a story about an hour after President Trump's announcement that carried the headline, "Michael Bidwill Backs Classmate For Supreme Court." The story recounted Bidwill's "decades-long friendship with Kavanaugh, and quoted from a letter he and other Georgetown Prep alumni emailed to Senate leaders to vouch for Kavanaugh's professional talent and personal character." The tweet from the Cardinals' account "drew swift condemnation by dozens of followers, who said the team should keep politics out of football." The tweet has been liked more than 1,000 times (ARIZONA REPUBLIC, 7/10).
BEING HYPOCRITICAL? USA TODAY's Nancy Armour writes, "So much for sticking to sports." Bidwill has every right to be "enthusiastic about a longtime friend’s new career opportunity, and even to stump for him." However, Bidwill was "not promoting Kavanaugh’s nomination as Mike Bidwill, anonymous rich white guy from Phoenix." He was "doing it as the owner" of an NFL team. Armour: "Did he not stop to recognize the bald hypocrisy of an NFL owner dragging his team into a charged political debate less than two months after the league muzzled player protests during the national anthem." Some will feel that the team's promotion of Bidwill’s support for Kavanaugh is "different than the player protests because it didn’t occur on a game day." But if the league "wants to declare the game a politics-free zone, it has to apply to everything and everyone associated with it, and that line of separation has to be blindingly bright" (USA TODAY, 7/10).
TIME & PLACE: PRO FOOTBALL TALK's Mike Florio wrote regardless of political views, the point here is that the NFL and its fans "shouldn’t be able to have it both aways." If it is "OK for owners to advocate political causes, it should be OK for players to do the same, without consequence." If it is "regarded as 'bad for business' when players push their political interests on company time, it should be regarded as 'bad for business' for an owner to use his team’s official online media platform to do the same" (PROFOOTBALLTALK.com, 7/9).
TWITTER REAX: Former NFLer Geoff Schwartz tweeted, "Vouching for a SCOTUS justice is more politically aggressive than kneeling, considering what could be at stake with this new justice." He added Bidwill "should be allowed to endorse anything and anyone he wants. It shouldn’t be tweeted from the team account tho." USA Today's Armour: "Bidwill might have missed the hypocrisy of using @AZCardinals social media channels to promote new SCOTUS nominees. Folks in the team’s mentions most certainly did not. Oof." Bleacher Report's Ian Kenyon: "If we don’t have a problem with Kap or other players expressing political opinions, we really shouldn’t be bothered by this either." Phoenix-based KNXV-ABC Shane Dale: "I’m not sure it’s fair to say the Cardinals have endorsed Kavanaugh based on this tweet. I think they’re simply noting that their team president has decided to do so." Yankees Exec VP & GM Brian Cashman also signed the letter supporting Kavanaugh, and N.Y. Daily News Sports tweeted, "Brian Cashman's endorsement is far from out of left field. The #Yankees GM told The News last February he was a big fan of Donald Trump's pick of Neil Gorsuch." NBC Sports' Craig Calcaterra: "If Brian Cashman doesn't have to stick to sports neither do I."
