By Andrew Bucholtz on

There’s often been a lot of discussion of a supposed peak of social media for sports purposes. And there certainly have been eras where social media has been less fragmented and more focused on sports.

But moments like Thursday’s election of Cardinal Robert Prevost of Chicago as Pope Leo XIV proved, across X and Bluesky, that there’s still an incredible market for referencing sports around notable current events. Let’s start with Ben Heisler’s repurposing of The Alan Parsons Project’s “Sirius” (the Bulls’ introduction since 1984) as papal entrance music:

That was far from the only Chicago reference here. San Antonio Spurs’ broadcaster Dan Weiss previously made a similar reference:

The idea of a pope from Chicago prompted a lot of further discussion, across both X and Bluesky. Here’s some of that:

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Conclave Selects First Chicago-Style Pope

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— The Onion (@theonion.com) May 8, 2025 at 3:41 PM

A Chicago Pope implies the existence of an MLA Pope and APA Pope

— Hector Diaz (@iamhectordiaz.com) May 8, 2025 at 12:36 PM

However, this quickly devolved into discussion of the Pope’s particular brand of Chicago baseball fandom. While the Cubs quickly embraced him on their Wrigley Field marquee (not their Marquee), an interview with his brother suggests potential White Sox loyalties:

We’ll have to wait and see where the Pope-Chicago sports discussion goes from here. However, there does not appear to be any questioning of his Villanova loyalties yet, and that’s led to its own sports talk.

The sports world remains undefeated at finding ways to reference current news. And that’s still seen even in our current age of social media fragmentation.

About Andrew Bucholtz

Andrew Bucholtz has been covering sports media for Awful Announcing since 2012. He is also a staff writer for The Comeback. His previous work includes time at Yahoo! Sports Canada and Black Press.

View all posts by Andrew Bucholtz