Most people see sports as an escape politics and other issues in the world. People don't turn on ESPN expecting to to hear political talk. They just want to watch football, basketball, baseball and the other sports out there and not have to worry about how the athletes feel about Trump.
Over the past few years, ESPN has pushed their political views, which happen to be to the very far left. Because of this, millions of Americans have turned off their televisions and tuned out the sports world. Instead of hearing more and more liberal ideals they just simply don't watch.
Even the super liberal Disney CEO Bob Iger admits that ESPN has went too far into the political world.
Both ESPN and ABC fall under the umbrella of Disney. While Iger is a bleeding heart liberal, even he is able to realize there is too much political talk on ESPN.
Per TMN:
“There’s been a big debate about whether ESPN should be focused more on what happens on the field of sport than what happens in terms of where sports is societally or politically,” Iger explained, according to Fox News. He went on to explain that ESPN’s new president Jimmy Pitaro is trying to address this and get things back on track.
“Jimmy felt that the pendulum may have swung a little bit too far away from the field. And I happen to believe he was right,” Iger said. “He has brought back some balance.”
Don't forget that Iger oversees ABC, who cancelled "Roseanne" and "Last Man Standing" despite these shows both having great TV ratings. While he is not willing to stand behind a right-leaning show, at least he is able to realize that sports should not be politicized.
Sports should be something that people can enjoy together without having political arguments.
