- La Lutte pour les Droits des Athlètes

Welcome once again to the Bill Bradley Collective, where the topic de la semaine concerns the rights of athletes, specifically their rights as laborers, performers and/or contractors and how they are acknowledged and treated as such across sports by different leagues and institutions. Among the angles explored include the franchise/athlete dynamic in today’s NBA era of player empowerment; the racial overtones that exist there in contrast to the current self-inflicted situation a discontented present and all-time NFL great finds himself in; the power of player unions in affording their members their rights; and the circumstances behind a star female tennis player’s forced withdrawal from a Grand Slam event following her refusal to adhere to arbitrary media obligations in the name of mental health awareness. But first nous fulminons, as Zak highlights the repugnant convenience behind a social media behemoth’s decision to censure the disgraced 45’s presence for a mere *2* years; Andrew recounts some social media grenades, an all-time great (albeit scrubbed) post-round Q&A and a newfound macro-brew promotional effort in telling the tale of golf’s latest petty war; and Ed circles back to Zak’s Trump touchback, with an evisceration of our mainstream print news media’s legitimization of falsehoods and fallacies from the desk of the shift manager at Mar-a-Lago. Thanks as always for joining us, and vive la Bill Bradley Collective!