Sam Newman, a former AFL player, has launched an unprecedented attack on “woke” players who “have low IQs” and turn down million-dollar sponsorship deals because of “ethical issues.”
He blasted the “patronizing, pretentious, arrogant individuals” running the globe, saying they are fostering a “ridiculous, woke civilization of nonsense.”
Newman’s remarks come after a number of issues in recent days involving Netball Australia, cricketer Pat Cummins, and famous Fremantle Dockers fans.
Speaking on Sky News, Newman stated that the Australian Diamonds women’s netball team’s decision to turn down $15 million from billionaire miner Gina Rinehart “looks absurd.”
But because hypocrisy is the price of virtue, it is just a matter of evaluating each situation on its own merits.
With three significant clashes in the last week, the confluence between sport and politics has gained attention.
The horrifically racist remarks made by owner Gina Rinehart’s late father Lang Hancock over 40 years ago were the cause of a conflict between Netball Australia and several of its best players over a $15 million sponsorship arrangement with Hancock Prospecting. Netball Australia is in severe need of money.
The Diamonds, especially Indigenous teammate Donnell Wallam, are very concerned about Mr. Hancock’s 1984 remedies to “the Aboriginal problem.”
In the 1984 documentary film Couldn’t Be Fairer, Mr. Hancock said that “the ones who are no good to themselves and can’t accept things, the half-castes – and this is where most of the difficulty arises.”
I would poison the water so they would breed themselves out in the future and the issue would be solved.
Pat Cummins, the captain of Australia’s cricket team, has been criticized for being a hypocrite for appearing in an Alinta Energy advertisement a year before he protested Cricket Australia’s $40 million sponsorship arrangement with the business on the grounds of “ethical issues.”
Climate activists have also shown interest in the AFL.
For over 13 years, the principal Fremantle Dockers sponsor has been the natural gas exporter Woodside Energy. However, several well-known supporters, such as the novelist Tim Winton and the former premier of Western Australia Carmen Lawrence, have pushed the team to withdraw the sponsorship.
For Newman, who is never afraid to voice his beliefs, all of these activities are fodder for his arguments.
In spite of his claim that he “wouldn’t wear a specific sports jersey if I didn’t agree with what was on the front of it,” he added on Wednesday that the netball players’ objection to accepting sponsorship money from Gina Rinehart “looks absurd.”
He said that Ms. Rinehart’s rejection of the money was “guilt by association” from her father, who, in his opinion, uttered those remarks, whatever they may have been, 40 years before.
People with low IQs are telling Netball Australia, which is financially in dire straits, that they won’t accept sponsorship offers from a corporation whose goods they “consume on a daily basis,” according to Newman.
This folly is absolutely rife with peril, he said.
In addition, Newman didn’t pass up the opportunity to criticize Cummins for his “ethical issues” over Cricket Australia’s partnership with Alinta Energy.
No matter what you believe of the climate or global warming, Newman added, “if you think fossil fuels are going to vanish in the very near future you’re incorrect because that’s the end of the civilised world as we know it.”
He continued, observing that “one of the netball players indicated they weren’t satisfied with Hancock industries because of their record on climate.”
“Seriously, the pretentious, conceited, and arrogant individuals that rule the world we live in have no actual understanding what they’re talking about.
Although we all attempt to be responsible, “(they) make life a misery for the rest of the individuals who appreciate life as it is.”
Newman was told by Sky News anchor Chris Kenny that the best course of action is for athletes to simply choose not to compete if they disagree with the sponsors of their sport.
While stating that he “wouldn’t put a political message on my sweater if I didn’t agree with it,” Newman didn’t exactly concur with this.
But it’s just such a simple thing, he said, “the passive, innocent business logo of something that generates iron ore, or creates electricity that you mightn’t agree with.”
According to Newman, persons in charge of athletic teams and codes have a “duty of care” to ask the general public if they have any concerns before signing them up by saying, “We’re going to have Alinta Energy or Hancock Mining sponsor us. Do you have any issues with it?”
And if they have, you may really resolve the issue prior to the transaction, he said.
However, Newman concluded by saying that if he were Gina Rinehart, he would “take my 15 million dollars and say “stick it.”
Kenny questioned Newman about Tim Winton and Carmen Lawrence’s desire for the Fremantle Dockers to cease their sponsorship by the energy company Woodside, which he said would result in financial anxiety for the team they profess to love.
Instead of explicitly responding, Newman attacked the AFL as a whole.
If I may just add one more thing about the AFL’s pretended outrage and their insistence that we are the moral arbiters of what we believe in.
I’ve already said this. There were three allusions to Indigenous Australians at the AFL championship game.
No one could be more in agreement with one of them, according to Newman.
But they had three distinct allusions, lest we need to be reminded to appreciate everything going on in the nation.
Haneen Zreika of the Giants, who was chosen to represent the AFLW as its face, rejected to wear the LGBT pride jumper, he said.
“If you enter the political sphere in a sports organization, you end up creating a hornet’s nest for the folks who want nothing more than to attend the football game or athletic event simply to observe it for what it is,” said one person.
However, they persist in imposing this moral code on us, maybe in an effort to allay their own societal biases, and as a result, we have become a ludicrous, woke society of nonsense.