My Response to Those Trying to Deplatform Tony Dungy

Someone by the name of Dave Zirin of “The Nation” is trying to get the great Tony Dungy fired and he is willing to completely misrepresent facts to accomplish it. While I am not a big fan of Dungy's sports commentary, the left-wing’s “cancel” campaigns need to be refuted and stopped, which is why I am writing this piece. 

The annual March for Life occurred in Washington last week. Even though it was post-Roe v Wade there were more than 100,000 people in attendance. Zirin begins his article with this libel:

I’ve covered the March for Life in Washington, D.C., for years. It is a madhouse of right-wing gadflies, disinformation addicts, Qanon adherents, and, most disturbingly, class after class of teenage and tween-age children dragged there by teachers who abuse their authority in ways that would make Ron DeSantis smirk. (He only outlaws the speech of some teachers.)

My children have participated in the March and his comments are false. The participants – who have to pay their own way -- are hardly “dragged.” One of my children wanted to go so much, but didn’t have the funds, he requested it be his Christmas gift. Santa complied. 

 

The people who attend to the March for Life are almost entirely serious, prayerful people from across the entire nation. They face harassment for their beliefs. Yet, year after year, they come to bear witness to the awful toll abortion brings to our society: In 2020 (most recent year for which I can find figures) more than 635,000 babies were killed. Statistically, 626,000 of those abortions were elective: i.e., not due to rape or incest or health of the mother or issues with the development of the baby in the womb. 

 

Of course, Tony is black. He and his wife Lauren have eleven children: three biological and eight adopted. He was, for the first time, a keynote speaker at the March. As with Clarence Thomas, the left-wing is unhappy that a prominent black man has different political views than they. So, Tony must be neutralized. 

 

While Zirin is willing to slander the participants in the March for Life, it appears his primary beef with Dungy is that he does not buy into the radical gay agenda. And, he wants Dungy fired. Get ready for this vomit:

 

[Dungy continuing to be employed by NBC] is a staggering indictment of the politics the NFL and the network’s partners allow and the kind that they condemn. When someone like, gee, I don’t know, Colin Kaepernick steps up and kneels down to end police violence and racial inequity, he becomes a pariah. Meanwhile, Dungy is held up as a deeply religious man and nearly a patron saint of the league. Dungy has used his devoutness as a cover for his anti-gay rhetoric and sharing platforms with unapologetic bigots. But what in the world is “religious” about bearing false witness against teachers and children with a lie that has had real-life repercussions? Every bomb threat leveled against children’s hospitals, every physical assault, bears the fingerprints of these lies. Dungy should feel shame. Instead, he is emboldened, ready to take the stage at a rally that’s been a blunt instrument for robbing people of their rights to privacy and the rights to their own bodies.

 

Wow. Just, wow. Talk about ‘tolerance.’ Talk about respect for ‘diversity' of opinion. (in case you couldn’t tell, that was extreme sarcasm) Per my Google and DuckDuckGo searches, no children's hospital has been "bombed" and the only bomb threat was anonymous and no perpetrator has been found. Zirin blames the right wing but -- for all we know -- it might have been a false flag. 

 

Could it be that Dungy is sincere about his religious beliefs pertaining to abortion especially because, on a per capita basis, black babies are aborted (err, provided ‘reproductive rights’) at a rate 4 times greater than white babies? Or, that Planned Parenthood targets black neighborhoods? Or, that politicians like Hillary Clinton praise the racist founder of this genocide against blacks? And, that liberals and the politically correct are on board with all of this?

I’ll say it: those supporting this genocide of black babies are the actual racists.

 

If you were to personally speak with Zirin and his ilk, I'm sure they would tell you how “tolerant” and respectful of “diversity” they are -- when nothing could be farther from the truth. They have a parochial view of the world. People like Tony Dungy threaten that view and, maybe, prick their consciences. That is always uncomfortable.

While I condemn the hyperbole throughout and the falsehoods in Zirin’s descriptions of the participants in the March for Life, you’ll notice I am not calling for “The Nation” to fire him or for him to be de-platformed. Why? Like everyone else, he has Freedom of Speech. Freedom of Speech is meaningless unless you are willing to defend the speech of those who disagree with you. So, I defend Zirin’s right to say and write about Tony Dungy. 

 

But Zirin’s position is as unAmerican as they come. Don’t like Dungy? Easy! Don’t associate with him. Don’t like what he says? Don’t watch him on NBC. His ratings will go down. Want to refute something Dungy says? Fine, but do it truthfully. 

 

What I have just written was completely uncontroversial 30 years ago. Everyone understood Free Speech and the other God-given rights we were possess simply because we are human beings. I hope this piece serves as a reminder that the American dream can only survive when we respect the rights of others, no matter how much we disagree with them.