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Fmr. Yankees pitcher blasts brands like Nike, Bud Light ‘coming into sports and trying to create a woke atmosphere’

October 14, 2023 | | Print Article

Former New York Yankees pitcher David Wells feels some kind of way about “woke” corporations like Nike and their effect on Major League Baseball.

“I don’t believe in all these companies coming into sports and trying to create a woke atmosphere, especially like with Nike, with all the slave labor they’re doing over there in China,” he said in an interview this week with Outkick’s Dan Dakich.

He went on to say that he feels the same about “woke” corporations as NBA player Enes Kanter Freedom does.

“I saw Enes Freedom this weekend up in New York for T2T Foundation at Frank Siller’s golf outing there at Liberty, and it was great. And he says it well. To me, you can’t play this woke stuff and then bring it into sports and then have everybody do it. You know, when [Colin] Kaepernick took the knee, it’s a little disrespect to me because I’m a patriot, I support our military, I come from a military town in San Diego,” he said.

“So, you know, you can’t do things like that. Your beliefs are your beliefs. I don’t have any problem with that. But don’t go out on national TV and take a knee for what that is. Because that doesn’t prove anything in my mind. It proves that you’re an idiot,” he added.

The episode featuring Wells can be accessed below (it was the second one on the list as of Oct. 14th):

Wells’ remarks come a month after he went viral for his initial rant about “woke” corporations.

“We’re in a different world. It sucks. That’s why everyone should carry a gun,” he said at the time, as reported by The Athletic.

What’s even more interesting than what he said was what he was wearing.

“As Wells spoke, he wore a piece of medical tape over the Nike swoosh on the chest of his Yankees jersey. He said that if he were playing today, he would have cut a hole into his jersey and worn it on the field like that rather than display Nike’s logo on his body,” according to The Athletic.

“I hate Nike! They’re woke!” he added.

He also went after Bud Light, which has faced backlash for partnering with “transgender woman” Dylan Mulvaney for a social media promotion last spring.

Asked whether he’ll ever drink Bud Light again, he said, “Nope!”

Appearing on Fox Business Network later last month, Wells attributed his distaste for Nike directly to Kaepernick’s actions, as reported by Outkick.

“When Kaepernick took the knee, and you know, against our national anthem — and I’m a huge, huge military supporter; that’s what my foundation is all about — for Nike to jump on board and reward this guy for that, you know, and the things that are going on. I told myself if I was playing in today’s game, and we had Nike jerseys, I’d tape it up, I’d cut a hole in it,” he said.

Continuing his remarks, he slammed “woke” corporations — particularly “Nike” — that are hellbent on making sports “woke.”

“Now with these companies that are coming out and jumping on board and trying to change the game and put a lot of politics in the game, to me, I think it’s confusing a lot of the players because they’re afraid to speak up,” he said.

He added that these companies’ “woke” antics were “putting a damper” on sports.

Wells later spoke about the phenomenon of biological men competing as “transgender women” against biological women.

“Riley Gaines, I mean, she is so spot on when it comes to transgender (athletes) in sports; men playing women’s sports. It’s just you can’t do that. It’s not right and it’s dangerous,” he said.

Gaines is a former high school athlete whose sports career was derailed because of transgender athletes.

“If I was to say, I’m going to switch over and I’m going to go play women’s sports, I’m gonna hurt somebody, especially if I’m throwing 95 (MPH),” Wells added.

Dovetailing back to his refusal to drink Bud Light, it prompted trash-talking from far-leftist radical Keith Olbermann.

“Bullshit. [Wells] would drink wood alcohol. Another f–king fraud,” he tweeted.

Wells didn’t take kindly to it:

Vivek Saxena
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