‘Republicans Buy Sneakers Too’ Is Dead — Pat McAfee and Sophie Cunningham Prove It | Ep 1203

**Jason Whitlock** (0:02)
The most dangerous thing you can be in sports isn't a bust. It's a can't miss prospect who's scared. The Bible's got a name for that guy. His name was Saul, tallest man in Israel, handpicked, anointed king, could not miss.
And he lost the entire kingdom for one reason. He was afraid of what people thought. Today, I'm going to tell you about three people from the same city. Two of them are David. One of them is Saul. Her name is Caitlin Clark.
Three people, one city. My city, Indianapolis. And if you know Indiana the way I know Indiana, this is home. You know it does one beautiful thing to a person. It hands you the freedom to be exactly who you are. Common sense country, God-fearing, flag-flying, MAGA country. Indiana doesn't ask you to perform, it asks you to be real. Look what that soil grows.
It took a punter, Pat McAfee, a punter for the Colts, the least important man on the field, and built him into a media empire so big, ESPN went all in and told his critics to kick rocks. It's taking Sophie Cunningham, a woman who comes off the bench in a league that barely matters most nights, and it's making her a star. A bench player getting famous because she's real, out at UFC events, shaking hands with Dana White, saying only biological women belong in women's sports and daring you to argue. Indiana didn't punish her for that. Indiana rewarded her. Then there's the third one, our Saul, the can't miss prospect, Caitlin Clark. Same city, she plays right there for the fever, same fans, the exact people who made McAfee the most gifted player her sport has ever produced. Handed everything.
Let me show you the problem.

**Dre** (2:30)
This is that fire. Grab your popcorn.

**Jason Whitlock** (2:36)
Wednesday night, Caitlin Clark went off. 27 points, 11 assists, five three-pointers, a blowout over the Connecticut sun, a bottom feeder, but still she was dazzling. The kind of night that makes you marvel at the God-given skill. And when it was over, I felt empty, nothing. And I sat with that because I couldn't figure out why the best player in the sport can drop 27 and 11 and leave me cold. Then it hit me. Her dominance isn't connected to anything. It's Saul putting up numbers with a kingdom already slipping through his fingers.
She's not squandering the jump shot. The jump shot is a gift from God. She's squandering it with her cowardice. In a city that hands you the freedom to be somebody, Caitlin Clark has chosen to be nobody. Two Davids, one Saul. Let's go. Let's go back to that stat line because it's the whole story. 27-11, five threes. On paper, transcendent. And it meant nothing because a great performance only matters when it's attached to a narrative bigger than the game. And Caitlin Clark has been scrubbed of her significance. Steph Curry didn't just score. He changed the sport. He made every kid on every blacktop in America launch from 30 feet. His dominance meant something. Last night, Caitlin Clark was Kyle Culver, a shooter on a hot street, and White Chocolate, Jason Williams, a high-risk dribbler and passer.
She's popular, but she's not a populist. She's a woman with no country, a savior to the YouTube content creators who monetize her highlights and perceive victimization into no one else. How does that happen to the biggest star in the sport? Same way it happens to everybody who runs the play, she's running. She thinks she's running the Michael Jordan playbook. Jordan wouldn't pick a side, wouldn't back a candidate, wouldn't touch a cause. Republicans buy sneakers too. Stay neutral, sell to everybody, offend nobody.
In 1991, that's genius. Three channels, everyone watching the same thing. Neutral was the widest net.
But this is 2026
The social media era. And in this era, the only asset that can't be faked is authenticity. Picking a side and standing on it, the audience smells a coward through the screen. Neutral doesn't read as classy anymore. It reads as hiding. That's why 2711 left me empty. There was no one important behind it. She's no different from the rest of the WNBA. An emotional wreck. Late in the third quarter, the game already well out of reach. Clark picked up her league leading seventh technical foul, bickering with a no name WNBA player after trying to foul bait the referees.
Childish and small. The antithesis of Pat McAfee. McAfee gets it in his bones. He stood by Aaron Rodgers during the COVID mania when standing by Rodgers was a fireable offense and every coward in the media spread it the other way. He didn't calculate it. He wouldn't abandon his guy and it bought him enemies. Dan Lebatard's crew is calling him a fraud. Suits at ESPN who can't stand McAfee. And here's the thing you have to understand. That is the win. McAfee is good because Lebatard hates him. McAfee is good because people at ESPN hate him. The right enemies are the proof you're real.