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Whitlock on Vandy / Sarah Fuller Stunt
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Whitlock on Vandy / Sarah Fuller Stunt


Nov 30, 2020, 12:38 AM

WHITLOCK: SARAH FULLER PUBLICITY STUNT SCORES IN MAKE-A-WISH CULTURE WAR
by JASON WHITLOCK
a day ago updated about 5 hours ago

The people who hate football and the people who spent the whole summer trying to cancel college football over COVID concerns came together to celebrate the game Saturday.

Sarah Fuller briefly made football socially acceptable for America’s most ardent virtue-signalers. That was her primary accomplishment, pleasing Make A Wish America.

At the beginning of the second half of Vanderbilt’s SEC football game against Missouri, Fuller trotted onto the field for the opening kickoff. She knocked the ball to the Missouri 37-yard line and immediately jogged to the sideline out of harm’s way.

The moment was hailed as history. ESPN’s SportsCenter Twitter account claimed Fuller’s kick changed the game. Others said she made history. She’s the first woman to play in a Power 5 football game.

I don’t believe she played football. She scored a point in the culture war. The people who believe the only difference between men and women is in how they choose to identify consider Fuller a poor woman’s Jackie Robinson.

She broke big time football’s gender barrier.

But did she?

Jackie Robinson was Major League Baseball’s rookie of the year in 1947. He finished fifth in MVP voting. In order to break the color barrier, Robinson had to play at a Hall of Fame level on Day 1. And he had to do it while facing a grotesque level of harassment.

Sarah Fuller received a standing ovation for kicking the ball 30 yards or so and high-tailing it to the sidelines to be greeted by the winless head coach using her to save his job.

This wasn’t Jackie Robinson 2.0. It was Make A Wish.

I don’t blame Sarah Fuller. She’s an accomplished, high-level Division 1 athlete. She’s a soccer goalie for the Vanderbilt women’s soccer team. She’s been baited into believing competing against men is her North star. Maybe it is. It shouldn’t be.

Vanderbilt doesn’t have a men’s soccer team. Positive COVID tests created the need for Vanderbilt to find a kicker this week.

Credit coach Derek Mason for dampening a finger and recognizing the biggest wish among football haters is that women play with and coach men. In the NFL, Tampa Bay coach Bruce Arians felt the same wind blowing and is one of the league’s most popular coaches because he’s named a couple of women to his staff.

Two years ago, Toyota paid broadcaster Jim Nantz to voice a commercial that created the legend that a young girl, Toni Harris, earned a football scholarship. Harris was on a high school team in Detroit, but only took the field a couple of times during her “career.” She didn’t earn a football scholarship.

The culture warriors gave Harris one as a part of their Make A Wish program. They put her in a national TV commercial, too. There’s a lot of money being spent to create the illusion that women can and should be playing football against men.

The people spending the money hate football. It epitomizes “toxic masculinity”… except when women are on the field. Football should also be shuttered because of the head trauma dangers… unless women are playing. Oh, and during this COVID pandemic, it’s irresponsible for these Power 5 schools to exploit these college athletes… unless there’s a woman playing.

My critics will argue I’m threatened by women playing football. No. Not at all. If they’re good enough, who cares?

My gripe is that it diminishes these female athletes. Sarah Fuller is an elite soccer player. She’s a terrible football player, arguably the worst to ever take the field in the SEC. The announcers during the game said Mason wasn’t comfortable using her kick field goals unless they were inside the 15-yard line. There were pictures of her warming up in pregame kicking 14-yard field goals.

Her athleticism does not need to be validated by competing against men in any capacity, let alone in a sport that is not her specialty. Treating Sarah Fuller like she’s a special-needs kid does not uplift the cause of equality.

The overwhelming majority of people know this. The American media has been hijacked by activists and social media apps designed to amplify the voices of the illogical.

Saturday morning via Twitter I asked a couple of harmless questions: 1) Does Vanderbilt have a men’s soccer team? 2) Did Vanderbilt choose the best candidate or the most publicity?

My mentions were overrun with negativity. You would have thought I’d spoken poorly of a religious figure. You would’ve thought most of America disagreed with my skepticism.

When I published a poll asking what was the driving force powering Vanderbilt’s decision to use Fuller as a kicker, 15,000 people responded within an hour. Forty-two percent of the respondents said Vanderbilt was virtue signaling. Another 39 percent said it was a publicity stunt.

Most people agreed with me.

The purpose of Twitter is to program the mainstream media into promoting lunacy. Mission accomplished. Sarah Fuller is Jackie Robinson.

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Why


Nov 30, 2020, 6:20 AM

Why do people listen to Whitlock? Of course a poll he puts out to his followers will come back his way. No she didn’t receive the spot on merit but of course he doesn’t address at all why she had to kick. No other kickers on roster, no men’s soccer team, and no chance of open tryout on campus because semester was over. She should be commended for helping her university. She knows this isn’t a long term position. Everyone knows women aren’t going to be a superior athletic to men in sports but this wasn’t that. Sure it got them some good PR but people do that all the time. The blind snapper at USC was let on field and no one made a stink of that when the opponents didn’t rush him. It’s a good story. This was a young women coming in to help her school even though she’d get trashed by people like Whitlock who id venture to say can’t even jog 30 yards. Much less kick a ball that far.

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I Can't Wait For....


Nov 30, 2020, 6:40 AM

The male who identifies as a female makes their way onto her soccer field .

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Re: Why


Nov 30, 2020, 7:01 AM [ in reply to Why ]

Your blind-snapper analogy doesn't work. No one suggested the blind snapper had "changed football" or "opened doors" for other blind athletes. They were heart-felt gestures. Fuller was inserted into the game to squib kicked the ball ensuring there was no return. Mason couldn't risk having her get blownup trying to make a tackle, that destroys the narrative that she's fully capable and qualifiied to be on the field.

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Hahaha SEC Football at its finest


Nov 30, 2020, 9:44 AM

It was a stunt and any true athlete would have stayed on the field and not left her team short a player

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Re: Hahaha SEC Football at its finest


Nov 30, 2020, 10:05 AM

Are you 12 or just already drunk this morning?

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Re: Why


Nov 30, 2020, 7:11 AM [ in reply to Why ]

I’m seeing why your pulse is where it is.

Let on the field? Have you tried long snapping? It’s a great bit more difficult than punching a ball 30 yards and running off the field before the ball hits the ground. She could have made extra points for sure, but that would involve Vanderbilt actually scoring a touchdown. Coach Mason could have found someone on the team to kick off if he had tried. Accuracy isn’t really required. This probably gives him a one year extension from the hot seat.

And who cares if Whitlock could do this? He made his point very well. Much better than any of us. And good gosh if one more ESPN commentator said he had chills I was going to vomit.

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Re: Why


Nov 30, 2020, 7:35 AM

It did not buy him any time. He was fired this morning.

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Re: Why


Nov 30, 2020, 7:45 AM [ in reply to Why ]

They had a punter right? He could have kicked off as well.

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"Smelley, Garcia, and Beecher are going to lead you to 4-8." - york_tiger


they couldn't risk their punter on a KO, he's their MVP***


Nov 30, 2020, 9:59 AM



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Re: Why


Nov 30, 2020, 7:47 AM [ in reply to Why ]

The thing is there was a kicker on the roster. Their punter who punted several times in the game. Most college punters have also done kickoffs at some point in their lives. If you think this scholarship punter would have been a worse choice than someone who had never set foot on a football field then you're just the kind of person Whitlock's talking about.

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Re: Why


Nov 30, 2020, 7:52 AM

Absolutely. No doubt it was a publicity stunt. No doubt some guy on that team could kick extra points. I was a friggin baseball player and I could kick extra points all day long. Don’t tell me the nonkickers on that team didn’t play around with kicking on occasion just like we did!!

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Hell is still frozen!***


Nov 30, 2020, 8:22 AM



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There's something in these hills.


Re: Hell is still frozen!***


Nov 30, 2020, 8:53 AM

Lol. This is getting scary tiger drumner!!!

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If a male kicked a ball like that, he would have never made


Nov 30, 2020, 8:20 AM [ in reply to Why ]

the team. Why was that individual given a spot?

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There's something in these hills.


I'm 61 with an artificial heart valve and a pacemaker and


Nov 30, 2020, 8:25 AM [ in reply to Why ]

an implanted defibrilator, and I could have easily done what she did. It would be a nice, feelgood story I guess, but nothing beyond that. It wouldn't prove anything.

Whitlock is NOT trashing her, he's trashing all of the idiots gushing over what she did, which isn't shat. She was used for a publicity stunt. It's no giant leap for women's rights or gender equality or any of that.

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"Democracy is the theory that the common people know what they want, and deserve to get it good and hard."
- H. L. Mencken


When she kicks a 40 yard field goal it might be worth


Nov 30, 2020, 9:44 AM

a headline. A squib to the 35 yardline is nothing. Isn't that where you place the ball if the kick goes out of bounds?

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Re: Why


Nov 30, 2020, 10:17 AM [ in reply to Why ]

Honest question...Do you really think this was the ONLY option for Derek Mason?

If the answer is no (and it is), then this was a publicity stunt. Plain and simple.

There were plenty of other possible scenarios he could have exercised, and he chose to “make history.” Weak attempt at saving your job, and it was right that he got fired, regardless of his record.

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Re: Why


Nov 30, 2020, 11:32 AM [ in reply to Why ]

So we should listen to you instead? i was looking for your insightful post on the matter, could not find it. Until Whitlock's article was reposted here you likely did not have a thought about it. You obviously don't have any comprehension of what he was saying do you? He wasn't criticizing Sarah Fuller at all, he's criticizing the media for trying to make this a sentinel moment in society and history, when in reality it's not. He called them out on it. He called them out for exploiting the situation. Did you listen to her interview? She gushed on about girl power and follow your dreams... never heard she dreamed of playing D-1 football... never heard she was just trying to help out.

As far as football, Vandy is not a good program but it's in the vaunted SEC so that must be why they are so bad, they would be really good in the ACC...

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Re: Whitlock on Vandy / Sarah Fuller Stunt


Nov 30, 2020, 7:03 AM

Spot on Jason Whitlock.

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Whatever choice(s) you make makes you. Choose wisely.


Re: Whitlock on Vandy / Sarah Fuller Stunt


Nov 30, 2020, 7:17 AM

Outstanding take on what this was all about. Yes, I agree with one poster in that she kicked and ran to the sidelines like there was a rattle snake on the field.

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IMO no disdain, no accolades, hardly even newsworthy.***


Nov 30, 2020, 7:26 AM



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Re: IMO no disdain, no accolades, hardly even newsworthy.***


Nov 30, 2020, 7:45 AM

I'm giving her KO a pass not the celebrations though. They were over the top. I watched a game, maybe the Coots, this week or last and there were at least 2 KOs out of bounds. The ball comes out to the 35. She was out there to kick extra points and maybe a short FG. Too bad Vandy is so awful and didn't give her a chance. A couple of X pts and a FG and then they could have celebrated a female playing P5 football.

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No issues with Sarah. Media filling white space & air time.***


Nov 30, 2020, 7:59 AM



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But it gave the announcer chills. lol***


Nov 30, 2020, 8:23 AM [ in reply to IMO no disdain, no accolades, hardly even newsworthy.*** ]



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There's something in these hills.


Agree 100%. Men and women are not equal, and they are


Nov 30, 2020, 8:12 AM

not the same. Men do some things better than women ever can or ever will, and women do some things better than men ever can or ever will. There are exceptions, of course, and no one should be limited or discriminated against because of their sex or gender, but to pretend that it doesn't matter is sheer lunacy.

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"Democracy is the theory that the common people know what they want, and deserve to get it good and hard."
- H. L. Mencken


Why does it care either way? Why is he making such a big


Nov 30, 2020, 8:17 AM

deal about it.

why comment at all - he is not proving anything. In fact he is making the event and her participation even bigger.


She kicked a ball, first woman, NCAA record, footnote.




Next

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null


Re: Why does it care either way? Why is he making such a big


Nov 30, 2020, 9:45 AM

Why comment at all? Is this the same standard you have for the hosts of people who are discussing how great and historic this was?

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Re: Why does it care either way? Why is he making such a big


Nov 30, 2020, 9:47 AM

yes - It is noted as a first - and the whole email player in football is special as is. just saying he is making way more important than it is by piling on.


everyone knows she just kicked it shallow because the coach is a pu### and didn't want it to have any chance of getting it returned.

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null


Re: Why does it care either way? Why is he making such a big


Nov 30, 2020, 11:38 AM [ in reply to Why does it care either way? Why is he making such a big ]

record? It's an event not a record. She won't even letter.

"Why does it car anyway" ????

With grammar like that maybe you should be the one concerned with commenting at all...

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Re: Whitlock on Vandy / Sarah Fuller Stunt


Nov 30, 2020, 9:02 AM

They had to do something. I mean, who wants to spend 3 hours watching Missouri and Vandy?

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Re: Whitlock on Vandy / Sarah Fuller Stunt


Nov 30, 2020, 9:24 AM

I have a very low opinion of Jason Whitlock but he nailed this one.

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He is exactly right.***


Nov 30, 2020, 9:38 AM



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JW is just an idiot looking for clicks.


Nov 30, 2020, 9:53 AM

Let's examine some facts.....

Vandy had no kickers. NONE.
Vandy has no men's soccer team. NONE.
Vandy's best option for a kicker happened to be a female soccer player.
Vandy chose the best available option.
Vandy sucks so bad they couldn't get into FG range, nor be awarded a kickoff except when it was their turn after the half.
Sarah Fuller can routinely ping a soccer ball 70 yards. There ain't a male on that team that can do that.
The short directional kickoff was by design and called by the coach.
If you think that's as far as she can kick it you too are an idiot.
Media reports on it, because it's like not a normal occurance. Well, first time ever actually.
Had a DL or LB or WR been chosen for the duty, the outcome would have been the same.

Not a publicity stunt, just a coach choosing the best available option.

Kudos to her for having the bawls to put herself in a challenging situation.

How many tackles do kickers collectively make during a season? All of them combined? Not many. Very few can tackle, and I can assure you they don't even practice tackling....so who cares?

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Re: JW is just an idiot looking for clicks.


Nov 30, 2020, 10:04 AM

You've framed this as the football coach having no better option than to put in a female soccer player and have her kick the ball 20 yards. That may be true but it isn't how the media plays this. She's made history, and inspiration, and demonstrates to girls everywhere they too can play college football. She didn't go out and earn a spot on the roster. How is that inspirational?

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I'd say it's inspirational to some.


Nov 30, 2020, 10:13 AM

And it should be. She's done something that was never done before. She did make history. She did demonstrate to girls that it is a possibility.

I'd argue that she DID earn a spot. At least at the time and over the other options out there.

You'd have to ask the coach why he chose to have her execute a short directional kick BTW. And she executed it perfectly. I can assure you it's not because that's the only distance she can kick.

While you are at it, ALL of their crappy players were put in because there were no better options. Does that mean THEY didn't earn a spot either?

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Re: I'd say it's inspirational to some.


Nov 30, 2020, 10:22 AM

Of course she can kick the ball farther than she did. It's pretty clear why Mason had her squib it. He had to ensure she wouldn't get hurt and that was the best way to do that. The narrative that women can play at this level doesn't work if she gets run over trying to make a tackle or blown up by a blocker.

She didn't earn it anymore than a tuba player would have "earned" it if Mason had asked him to come in and kick the ball off a tee.

Are you suggesting there is no difference between Vandy's "crappy" scholarship players and this female soccer player?

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No not at all. I'm suggesting there IS a difference.


Nov 30, 2020, 10:44 AM

She can kick the ball more consistently than all of them. That's why she was put in there.

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Re: JW is just an idiot looking for clicks.


Nov 30, 2020, 10:11 AM [ in reply to JW is just an idiot looking for clicks. ]

Here’s some more facts for you to examine:
- If you think there wasn’t a single division 1 athlete on that team who could do exactly what she did, then you’re the idiot or you’ve never played sports in your life
- Vandy DID NOT choose the best available option. There is no rule requiring an extra point has to be kicked. Vanderbilt could have gone for 2 every time...the best option.
- This was a publicity stunt. Period.
- Derek Mason sucks as a head coach and he should have been fired for this stunt regardless of his record

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Re: JW is just an idiot looking for clicks.


Nov 30, 2020, 10:15 AM

My WIFE said almost word for word what you just said. She said the girl was exploited for publicity.

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Let me get this straight:


Nov 30, 2020, 10:16 AM [ in reply to Re: JW is just an idiot looking for clicks. ]

You honestly think there is a player on that team that was available that would have been a better option as a kicker on that day? A better option to kick off, kick extra points, or to try a field goal?

Boss, there aren't 10 guys on that team that can make an extra point even half of the time.

You've never kicked a football have you? You have, however, told a woman to get back into the kitchen though I'd guess.

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Oh, and according to the FB coach she hit a 38 yarder


Nov 30, 2020, 10:18 AM

in practice.

Ever try that? From the 28 yard line you couldn't kick one out of the end zone let alone through the uprights.

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Re: Let me get this straight:


Nov 30, 2020, 10:24 AM [ in reply to Let me get this straight: ]

If you’re talking to me , I mentioned earlier I was a college baseball player, not football, and yes I guarantee I could kick extra points all day long! There’s guys on that team that could do the same. Those guys fool around after practice kicking the ball. We did! I’m not telling her to get back in the kitchen but my wife is telling her to get off the football field.

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Nah was replying to southeastern tiger


Nov 30, 2020, 10:29 AM

and sure, there are some guys that can make extra points now and again I'm sure. I think the idea (at least if I was coach) would be to put someone in there that would give them the best chance at consistently making xps, fgs, and doing what I asked on kickoffs.

FB players without soccer backgrounds are probably not the best fit there.

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Re: Nah was replying to southeastern tiger


Nov 30, 2020, 10:36 AM

If she could kick field goals at a good percentage and offer a reasonable chance at hitting a 40 plus yarder them I would give her a spot. As for kickoffs no way. Squib kick to the 35 equals kick out of bounds and ball placed at the 35. I’m sure I could find a guy on the team to kick out of bounds consistently.

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Re: Let me get this straight:


Nov 30, 2020, 10:33 AM [ in reply to Let me get this straight: ]

You’re obviously another social justice warrior who can’t even comprehend the possibility of another option because of your agenda.

YES there were better options. If you can’t see it, maybe you should turn off Sabado Gigante and watch football on Saturdays instead.

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Solid take.


Nov 30, 2020, 10:43 AM

social justice warrior, lol.

You keep your daughter in the kitchen or on that chair sewing. Smack the old lady around next time she tries yard work. Just keep doing you.

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Re: Solid take.


Nov 30, 2020, 10:52 AM

My 85 year old Mom does yard work (because SHE wants to) and nobody better say a word about it or she'll tell you to go mind your own darn business!

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Awesome stuff. Don't tell southeastern that


Nov 30, 2020, 10:56 AM

He'll tell her to get back into the kitchen!

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Re: JW is just an idiot looking for clicks.


Nov 30, 2020, 11:50 AM [ in reply to JW is just an idiot looking for clicks. ]

as I said to the other person on this thread, his commentary wasn't about Sarah Fuller it was about the media frenzy over the event...

We don't know what motivated the coach or the school to use Fuller, so your facts are actually observations. Maybe there was another option and he chose the high profile one... we don't know and he's gone as the coach so we will never know.

She went out and did what they told her, kick the ball and get off the field as fast as you can...

It was the lead on ESPN football nightly.

It was in every "news" feed, it was on every nightly news show...

It was a actually a non-event...

That was his point.

Kinda like Dabo is the boogie man for calling out FSU after they followed all the ACC and Clemson protocols and some nameless unaccountable "medical advisor" could not figure ANY WAY to play the game. Then FSU spikes 5 days later. Karma. FSU lost $2mil per game in athletic department revenue down the drain for FSU, $350k for Clemson and thousands for fans and and family members who traveled to Tallahassee to see the game on both sides of the coin.

But Dabo is the bad guy... media spin.

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Re: Whitlock on Vandy / Sarah Fuller Stunt


Nov 30, 2020, 11:02 AM

That has always been my issue. Women have never been excluded from men's sports by rule. Blacks absolutely were. There is no such thing as "Men's football," "men's soccer" etc. If women are good enough, teams would be glad to have them. Only "Women's" sports discriminate based on gender.

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Re: Whitlock on Vandy / Sarah Fuller Stunt


Nov 30, 2020, 12:24 PM

1) This is amateur athletics and not pro.
2) This is Vanderbilt and not Bama
3) This was an extreme situation and not a PR play
4) WGAF?

If the best person is supposed to play, then what does Whitlock care? What do you care? Let the "snowflakes" crow about the gender barrier, and you can focus on the best person available ... which in Vandy's case happened to be Sarah Fuller. Full stop.

More and more its the Whitlocks and the conservatives of the world that are the snowflakes. Constantly being threatened about non-existent problems, but more afraid of change....

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