Disclaimer: This IS a political post. Not a partisan one, but political nonetheless. After Donald Trump’s election win, I thought it would be worthwhile to take an honest look at the current sports and politics intersection in Philadelphia, and America at large.

Why? Well, if you remember 2016 to 2020 on social media, it was a toxic dumpster fire. The first Trump administration really threw a wrench into the sports world, with journalists who normally talk about balls and sticks crossing into the world of immigration and abortion. And it wasn’t just political; social and cultural topics took center stage during a half-decade highlighted by Colin Kaepernick’s kneeling demonstration and here, as one example, Malcolm Jenkins and Eric Reid butting heads over the best way to use their NFL platforms for social justice.

So I had the idea to bring on Chris Stigall from 990AM, to discuss all of these things as January’s inauguration approaches. Will sports writers jump into the political fray again? Is “stick to sports” a viable strategy in 2025? And why is it that Philadelphia sports fans seem to quickly move on when there’s a social/political issue involving the local teams?

Here’s a portion of the conversation from Crossing Broadcast:

Chris Stigall: Is Crossing Broad politically agnostic? Are you comfortable with you guys showing your stripes, whatever they may be? Where do you come down on that?


Crossing Broad: Every time we write about politics I put a disclaimer in the story, and I say, ‘this is not a political post, this is us just kind of commenting on it.‘ But nobody believes you. We had Governor Shapiro on the show last year. I get three emails saying that I’m a liberal. Then I write another story about Malcolm Jenkins and the social justice thing and three more emails come in, now I’m a MAGA.

To answer the question, you can’t win, so it really doesn’t matter. The philosophy has always been a stick to sports thing. People come to us all the time and say, ‘we go to you to get away from this shit.’ We’ll talk about it, like during the Colin Kaepernick thing and Jenkins, Eric Reid, J.T. Realmuto and COVID, of course we’d write about those things because the intersection of sport and politics is a big one. To ignore that and act like there’s nothing there is naive, but we don’t offer partisan opinions on that. We’ll try to analyze it and talk about it and be fair about it. It’s tough because you get hate from both sides, but all you can really do is tell people that you’re trying to be honest and look the entire scope of something. People are gonna believe what they want to believe.

Stigall: Interesting you bring up the shot and Realmuto. What I remember specifically about that, and I wouldn’t mind saying this to his face, I’ve had him on the show since he retired – Angelo Cataldi. I remember Angelo going off on people like Realmuto and saying they were the most selfish people ever for refusing that shot. And I think he would have to be honest today, in hindsight, that that was an incorrect take, I think. And that’s my question. Everybody can jump in the pool and talk politics. But this is a problem on my side as well, conservatives and talk shows hosts, (if you get it wrong), are you man enough to come back and say, “I got that wrong, that was the wrong take?” I try to do that and I’m not sure everybody does.

CB: And even then you have to ask yourself if that was a net positive for Angelo and for WIP, for him to step out like that. I think in that case, he was so entrenched, and he had been here for so long, that even though it pissed off some of WIP’s conservative listeners, that it was such a strong brand. You’re never going to damage the WIP morning show. But for us, a site like ours, I go back to 2016 during the first Trump administration when a lot of sports writers crossed the line and decided to jump into the political fray, for whatever reason. Maybe some people were offended by the “Enemy of the People” thing, or felt like they had to take a stand for whatever issue was important to them. I always thought, “what’s the net benefit for me and for Crossing Broad?”

For example, let’s say I’m a liberal sports writer. I come out and say “Trump is the worst.” All of our liberal readers might say, “hey that’s great, thank you for taking a stand, thank you for using your platform.” And our conservative readers stop reading entirely. It’s a roundabout way of me saying it’s bad for business. You’re alienating people. I don’t think the benefit of coming out and crossing that line outweighed the negative of audience loss.

Stigall: Couldn’t agree with you more. Look, I’m a conservative, I don’t hide that. But over the last four years, for instance, I’ve been on the air talking about a Democrat administration. For me, I get exhausted. So exhausted with it that I’ve said on my show that I envy sports people. I envy sports talk show hosts, because I would love nothing more than to unplug and talk about the game on Sunday. Xs and Os, unpack that. I was mystified when I started hearing successful sports talk hosts getting into my game of politics. I would have stayed far and fast away from that forever if I was a successful sports talk show host. But politics means so much to people now. It’s what moves them. Families are split. They won’t talk to each other because of this stuff. It’s almost like people can’t help themselves.

CB: The last time I was on your show, we were talking about political crossover into Philly sports. There honestly hasn’t been a ton of it. The Eagles didn’t go to Donald Trump’s White House, the Malcolm Jenkins thing, Kamala Harris Eagles ads on the SEPTA bus shelters…

Stigall: You’re right about that. In all of the years I’ve been in Philadelphia and talking to Philadelphians about politics, Philadelphia sports has remained remarkably apolitical for a very political city that leans left. I was always amazed at how that happened because the politics of ownership, with the exception of the Phillies, are all to the left. Hard left. But somehow conservatives were able to get past that. That’s not the case culturally in other cities…

I love it, I think it’s one of the most refreshing things about Philadelphia, really. It makes so happy that sports conversation is so passionate and so singularly focused on sports, that nothing will get in its way. No side culture stuff. I sound like I’m pandering, but that speaks really, when people ask me what Philadelphia is like, I say I have never seen a more hardcore fan base ever. I’m convinced there’s not one like it. They won’t be distracted by anything other than the game. It’s remarkable.

CB: And here’s the key takeaway in all of this, which mirrors our philosophy. Just because people say “stick to sports” and believe in that philosophy doesn’t mean that they think political and cultural issues are unimportant. We choose to do what we’re good at and stay on brand, vs. diving into a world where we’re not experts. I can’t give you a better political explanation than a political expert. By us not using our platform to talk about these things, it doesn’t mean we find them unimportant. We’re just deferring to people who know more than we do.

Stigall: It’s funny because I’ll have guys like you and Ray Didinger on my show because I welcome the break. I love watching football. During the regular season, you guys come on to talk about the Eagles. Inevitably, I’ll get notes or reader emails saying “can you guys stick to the issues? stop talking about that stupid football, there are more important issues to talk about.” And I’m like, people, we have lives, we can go smile and have fun and enjoy football. The world’s not on fire seven days a week. We can take a break.

CB: There needs to be some levity in your world as well. And the thing that has created peace for me is realizing that you’re never going to please all of your readers or all of your listeners. You’re always going to piss somebody off. You have to identify a brand and philosophy and stick to it.