Former ESPN commentator Lou Holtz’s rant at the Republican National Convention Tuesday about an immigrant “invasion” and wanting immigrants to “become us” and “learn and speak English” drew plenty of silence inside Bristol, as Sports Illustrated‘s Richard Deitsch noted Wednesday. On Thursday, that silence was broken on a special all-female edition of First Take that addressed many heavier topics than the usual debatefest, with ESPN’s Marly Rivera taking issue with Holtz’s comments, relating them to other controversies we’ve seen about athletes and English, and sharing her experience as someone whose first language isn’t English:
Molly Qerim recapped Holtz’s comments and then asked Rivera, “When you hear things like this, what goes through…what are your emotions?” Rivera responded, “To bring it back to…I know that a lot of players have struggled in the United States with acceptance and with becoming icons. To bring Big Papi back, with it being his farewell tour, they’ve become so comfortable speaking in English and they try so hard. We saw what happened with Carlos Gomez and the Houston Chronicle, and with him being misquoted, I’m sorry, not misquoted, quoted verbatim without “cleaning up,” but there is a point where…I try. I have an accent. My first language is Spanish. I try, I am trying to help your culture, but I still have my culture. You have to respect it. I am not going to give up everything that makes me me just because you don’t like it. That’s the only reason! It’s not that I’m not enriching America, it’s not that I’m not a contributing member of society, it’s not because I haven’t spoken English, it’s because you don’t like me being here. That’s the bottom line.”
While there are some who will insist that ESPN shouldn’t discuss politics, Rivera not only has a valuable perspective here, but addresses an important current sports issue. The language issue she chooses to focus on is particularly present in many sports at the moment, and situations like the Gomez clash illustrate that. This is more relevant than another debate over Kevin Durant to the Warriors or LeBron James’ legacy, but we’ll surely get those once Stephen A. Smith returns from vacation. Until then, those who prefer his brand of nonsensical screaming to actual nuanced discussions will just have to make do with the highlights from his Facebook Live video session.
[ESPN]
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