Clay Travis: “This Simone Biles story to me is about making quitting not only acceptable but ‘heroic’, ‘praiseworthy’ and evident of how ‘brave’ she is. Simone Biles can quit and never compete again if she doesn’t want to, but she quit on her team in the middle of the biggest event that they will have in five years. Her performance and/or failure to perform may well have cost her team the gold medal, and she brought this pressure onto herself by labeling herself as the GOAT, the ‘greatest of all time’ on her leotard. She literally put a goat on it, and then she quit on her team. And in the process, taking away an opportunity from another athlete that would have loved to represent the United States in Tokyo. I don’t like the idea that we are holding Simone Biles to a different standard than we would Scottie Pippen 30 years ago, Michael Jordan, LeBron James, or Tom Brady. If you think you’re the GOAT, then as a team player you should have to perform as the GOAT. If you fail that’s fine, none of us are perfect, but quitting is unacceptable. I am stunned by the number of people out there I see saying ‘THIS IS SO BRAVE OF HER!’ to quit in the middle of the most important competition of most of her teammates' lives. That is not brave and that is not courageous, and the exact opposite of those adjectives… The vast majority of sports fans agree with me right now, the vast majority of sportswriters agree with me right now, and the vast majority of sports media agree with me right now, but so many of them are so terrified to say anything like what I am saying right now because they are afraid of the ‘blue checkmark brigade’ coming after them… If we are going to praise Tom Brady and Michael Jordan as the two greatest team sport American athletes of all time, then we would hold them to a high standard of performance, and we should be doing the same thing to Simone Biles. Think about what the media would have said if Tom Brady had not come out at halftime of a Super Bowl because the pressure had gotten too big for him. Think about what would have happened if Michael Jordan wouldn’t have shown up to one of his Game 7’s? Think about how the media would have reacted? What has changed that now quitting is considered heroic? We have totally devalued what true heroism is in this country… I think Simone Biles made a poor decision, and I think she should apologize to her teammates for quitting on them at the moment they needed her the most. When they needed her the most as teammates, she wasn’t there for them, and that represents a fundamental breach of the most important aspect of team sports.” (Full Video Above)
Listen to Clay Travis of Outkick the Coverage discuss the shocking news of Simone Biles pulling out of a women's gymnastics team event on Tuesday at the Tokyo Olympics because of ‘mental stress’, as Clay says he doesn’t understand why so many have flocked to social media to praise Biles as some sort of hero when all she did was quit on her teammates on the world’s biggest stage.
Check out the video above as Clay details the double-standard between men’s and women’s athletes when it comes to media coverage, as Clay says a star male athlete would be eviscerated if they left a game in the middle of a Game 7 or a Super Bowl because of mental stress or anxiety.
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