What is the purpose of sports in these times? If you're in a panic-a-day state, do sports give you an outlet to get away or fortify your beliefs? If everything is just fine for you, are outspoken coaches an encroachment? Athletes are no longer apolitical, by choice or by happenstance. In the SUPER BOWL, the PATRIOTS are TRUMP's team and the FALCONS have become the hashtag of resistance by no choice of their own. The NBA community has given some of the most enthusiastic Trump criticisms, so does the NFL's silence, for the most part, mean it is fine with the status quo? The WASHINGTON POST's JERRY BREWER wrote an interesting column. He was going to bash those players who eschewed politics MONDAY in HOUSTON but realized that there is virtue in silence sometimes. Still, the message is clear: If you're not talking, you're failing to take a side. So these are the demands on athletes now, to speak or be held in contempt. If that's the case then what is sports now but just more politics?... The Falcons were once worried about their painkiller problem... What's the line between selective credentialing who and censorship? The NFL pulled credentials this week from BARSTOOL SPORTS because their talent once staged a sit-in protesting DEFLATEGATE at the league office. Could the NFL get away with this if Barstool was the NEW YORK TIMES?... The LEBRON JAMES who fears no wars is the best kind of LeBron... Legalized sports betting could hinge on who PRESIDENT TRUMP picks as solicitor general... UNDER ARMOUR had a bad day... The NFL rejected GNC's Super Bowl ad. You can understand why the league and its union wouldn't want to air a commercial for a company that's associated with products its players are banned from using... Is this the most worried a Georgian has been of intellectual theft since Jimmy Carter?