Many thanks to long-time SU subscriber, S. Brett, who passed along this “interview” with Jets QB Ryan Fitzpatrick.  Although conducted in Spanish, the subtitles will help you follow along.

I don’t know if you saw these remarks from San Antonio Spurs Coach Greg Popovich about the recent election results.  SU makes a point of avoiding any political content in the blog as you can always go to other sources for that type of conversation (see Mike Francesa on WFAN who is a long-time strident Donald Trump supporter).  But in an era where most sports figures and especially coaches are generally neutral on these topics, SU was struck by Popovich’s remarks.  See below from http://www.espn.com:

“Spurs coach Gregg Popovich spoke openly Friday about his frustration with Tuesday’s election of Donald Trump as the country’s 45th president.

“I’m still sick to my stomach, and not basically because the Republicans won or anything, but the disgusting tenor, tone and all the comments that have been xenophobic, homophobic, racist, misogynistic,” he said before the Spurs’ home game against the Detroit Pistons. “And I live in that country where half the people ignored all that to elect someone. That’s the scariest part of [the] whole thing to me.

“It’s got nothing to do with the environment, Obamacare and all the other stuff. We live in a country that ignored all those values that we would hold our kids accountable for.”

“Everybody wants him to be successful. It’s our country; we don’t want it to go down the drain,” he said. “Any reasonable person would come to that conclusion, but it does not take away the fact that he used that fear-mongering and all the comments from day one. The race-baiting with trying to make Barack Obama, our first black president, illegitimate. It leaves me to wonder where I’ve been living and with whom I’m living.”

Popovich also expressed empathy for minority groups that might be adversely affected by Trump’s remarks during his campaign.

“What gets lost in the process are African-Americans, Hispanics, women and the gay population, not to mention the eighth-grade developmental stage exhibited by him when he made fun of the handicapped person,” he said. “I mean, come on. That’s what an eighth-grade bully does, and he was elected president of the United States. We would have scolded our kids. We would have had discussions and talked until we were blue in the face trying to get them to understand these things. And he is in charge of our country. That’s disgusting.”

Popovich emphasized that his problem with Trump has nothing to do with politics.

“Values to me are more important than anybody’s skill in business or anything else because it tells who we are, how we want to live and what kind of people we are,” he said. “That’s why I have great respect for people like Lindsey Graham, John McCain, John Kasich, who I disagree with on a lot of political things. But they had enough fiber and respect for humanity and tolerance for all groups to say what they said about the man.”

When a reporter interrupted to start a new line of questioning, Popovich cut him off.

“I’m not done,” he said. “One could go on and on. We didn’t make this stuff up. He’s angry at the media because they reported what he said and how he acted. It’s ironic to me. It just makes no sense. So that’s my real fear. And that’s what gives me so much pause and makes me feel so badly, that the country is willing to be that intolerant and not understand the empathy that’s necessary to understand other groups’ situations.

“I’m a rich, white guy. And I’m sick to my stomach thinking about it. I couldn’t imagine being a Muslim right now or a woman or an African-American, a Hispanic, a handicapped person, and how disenfranchised they might feel. And for anyone in those groups that voted for him, it’s just beyond my comprehension how they ignored all that.”

As his remarks ended, Popovich said he was concerned that the U.S. is on the same path as the Roman Empire.

“My final conclusion is, my big fear is, we are Rome,” he said.”

To be clear, SU is not looking to cover the political landscape (note: we will not be providing equal space for Curt Schilling who is one scary dude).  But this was quite noteworthy coming from someone who hates talking at all with the media.