In the last 48 hours, President Donald Trump made “sticking to sports” impossible, because he stuck it to sports.

Or, more specifically, to athletes of color who dared protest police brutality through peaceful demonstration at NFL games, or decided not to be a human political commercial for a president whose words, deeds and actions they find abhorrent by visiting the White House.

Trump said NFL players who “take a knee” during the national anthem are “sons of bitches” who should be fired by some of the rich Caucasian team owners that contributed funds to his inauguration. That unleashed a firestorm of backlash from NFL players, the vast majority of them black.

He rescinded an invitation to the White House to Golden State Warriors star Stephen Curry, which Curry had already declined. This led LeBron James to call the president a “bum” with a tweet that has cleared one million favorites on Twitter. It opened up another firestorm of reaction of predominantly black NBA players, as well Steve Kerr, the white coach of the Warriors, who said, “because of the differences in this country, the president has made it really, really difficult for us to honor that institution.”

The Warriors announced they would not attend a White House ceremony, but would travel to Washington, D.C. for events that “celebrate equality, diversity and inclusion.”

“Inclusion” … great word.

It’s actually included in the last bullet point of the recent “Principles of Hockey” that the National Hockey League unveiled in concert with a dozen other hockey organizations around the world: That hockey should be “a safe, positive and inclusive environment for players and families regardless of race, color, religion, national origin, gender, age, disability, sexual orientation and socio-economic status. Simply put, hockey is for everyone.”

So how does one square the Pittsburgh Penguins’ meek statement on Sunday, formally accepting an invitation to stand with Trump for a White House photo op, with that alleged bedrock philosophy of hockey? How does one look around the current landscape of the sports world and the U.S., and as the current standard-bearer of a lily-white professional sports league (93 percent of the players identify as white) decide this is the best course of action?

From the Penguins:

The Pittsburgh Penguins respect the institution of the Office of the President, and the long tradition of championship teams visiting the White House. We attended White House ceremonies after previous championships – touring the historic building and visiting briefly with Presidents George H.W. Bush and Barack Obama – and have accepted an invitation to attend again this year.

Any agreement or disagreement with a president’s politics, policies or agenda can be expressed in other ways. However, we very much respect the rights of other individuals and groups to express themselves as they see fit.

The most hilarious part of this inane statement has to be that political protests “can be expressed in other ways” by NHL players, as if the Penguins or the League or hockey culture would ever allow a player to take a knee during the anthem or write “Black Lives Matter” on their pristine helmets. What nonsense, and it’s complete nonsense when you consider the political realities of standing with the president for a photo op at the White House. Congrats, you’re a campaign ad. But please shut up.

Two things about personal politics. By and large, NHL players are conservative. Not necessarily socially, but most certainly fiscally.

And the Penguins’ fan base is, by and large, based in crimson-red counties in Western Pennsylvania as well as West Virginia and parts of Ohio. We’re not saying this decision is completely fueled by that, but it’s not like we’re talking about the Golden State Warriors telling the Bay Area they’re not supporting a president that the community rejected with fervor last election.

So it could be said that the Penguins – who, for the record, have only a handful of American players and only one player of color in Ryan Reaves, acquired this offseason – are playing it safe, corporate and pallid in accepting this invitation.

Or it could be said that they’re actually putting their players in front of a speeding “never sticking to sports again until the president stops calling black athletes ‘sons of bitches’ for peaceful protests at sporting events” train.

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