Former MLB player Aubrey Huff hit quite the nerve with a Twitter post Tuesday, saying he was “Getting my boys trained up on how to use a gun in the unlikely event @BernieSanders beats @realDonaldTrump in 2020. In which case knowing how to effectively use a gun under socialism will be a must.”
That post (which followed a series of other posts complaining about his divorce and alimony) prompted criticism from a whole lot of people, including Patricia Arquette, Tom Arnold and Kathy Griffin. ESPN’s Kenny Mayne jumped in as well with a tweet Wednesday afternoon, even referencing the network’s politics policy by saying this was a fair subject to comment on given its sports connection. Mayne didn’t specifically name or tag Huff, but Huff has been sniping back at many of the people who criticized him, and Thursday, he took a shot not just at Mayne, but also at ESPN and Disney. Here’s the back and forth:
Getting my boys trained up on how to use a gun in the unlikely event @BernieSanders beats @realDonaldTrump in 2020. In which case knowing how to effectively use a gun under socialism will be a must. By the way most the head shots were theirs. @NRA @WatchChad #2ndAmendment pic.twitter.com/6xUsS7ciX3
— Aubrey Huff (@aubrey_huff) November 26, 2019
Ummmm crazy people rioting and trying to break into my house for food or shelter. And yes that includes Americans. And they aren’t fellow Americans if they are breaking into my house and trying to harm my family dumbass.
— Aubrey Huff (@aubrey_huff) November 26, 2019
To be silent about a former MLB player posting a threat of political violence is to normalize it. It is not normal. It is unacceptable. (Politics & sports intersected here-so we are good)
And now….imagine a non white player posting what he posted…& what would come.
BeAlert#
— Kenny Mayne (@Kenny_Mayne) November 27, 2019
I was teaching my kids how 2 shoot guns responsibly. I did make a political opinion but at no time did I threaten anyone’s life. You & ur colleagues @espn @Disney create more political & racial divide everyday. See how you played the race & politics card here to fit ur narrative? https://t.co/6uoExntisW
— Aubrey Huff (@aubrey_huff) November 28, 2019
The “ESPN is too political” narrative has largely died down over the last few years, with new president Jimmy Pitaro emphasizing lines like “I do not believe we are a political organization” and Disney CEO Bob Iger saying he thought ESPN coverage “swung a little bit too far away from the field” to societal and political issues.
Some figures who had been involved in “political” controversies have left the network, including Jemele Hill, and other figures like Michael Smith who had been adjacent in some political controversies left as well. News/politics site FiveThirtyEight, which has a large sports component, was even moved from the ESPN umbrella to the ABC News one, giving one less reason for anyone to tie ESPN to being “too political.”
And while there have still been some “political” flare-ups around ESPN, those haven’t been as big news. And some of them haven’t been from one clear side of the spectrum, giving right-wing critics less ammunition. In fact, the main political criticism of ESPN recently has been for the ways they’ve actively dodged political elements of stories, or aired explicitly political graphics and then declined to comment on that. So it’s interesting to see accusations of ESPN “creat[ing] more political and racial divide everyday” pop up again. We’ll see if anything comes from Huff’s rant against Mayne and ESPN here.
