We get it. Pigeon there’s your hole. Scoring people who make up the sports industrial complex along a liberal and conservative spectrum is a pretty general way to be narrow—to be “mathematically eliminated” from being a player on both sides, from being an athlete, coach, or owner who plays for both teams on some issues. Or these identifications just don’t fit exactly.

We certainly don’t know everything about an athlete. And we hope we don’t make “a lot of un-forced errors” and we understand we are gonna have to make some adjustments as we learn more and sports representatives reveal more. And, trust us, “the statistics don’t speak for themselves.” We speak them, so to speak. 

And the scores, well, you can’t really compare them. They’re like comparing Eli Apples to Syracuse Oranges. I mean how do you differentially score a Instagram post supporting abortion rights to a donation to Planned Parenthood? Is one a three-pointer and the other a two? Or how would one score a retweet supporting the big lie against a campaign appearance? It’s the nature of the game when you’re tongue in cheek about points and scoring like a type of sport that it will be ridiculous to set up a rigid point system. Soooooooooo….

***Think about the scores as a kind of “Around the Horn” type of scoring, fuzzy, fun, and not to be taken too seriously. They’re meant to be taken seriously enough to see where people fall and ask you to read:) the rest of the card and, maybe, investigate a little on your own .***

Our system is outta 6ix points based on what we’ve found researching the sportsperson (i.e., people involved in sports like athletes, coaches, and owners). Remember, the points can change as sportspeople grow/change/evolve and reveal more about themselves in the media. At any rate, here’s an ambiguous breakdown of our scoring:

• 6-0 = The sportsperson is consistently communicating liberal or conservative views.
• 5-1 = The sportsperson is consistent in communicating liberal or conservative views; however, there is a view slightly contrasts with their main views.
• 4-2 = The sportsperson is fairly consistent in communicating liberal or conservative views; however, there seems to be a lean towards one position rather than a hard stance.
• 3-3 = The sportsperson is communicates both liberal and conservative views pretty evenly.

To get serious, seriously, get the gist with the score and take a deeper dive with the evidence and consider how knowing how your athlete, coach, owner affects how you cheer and root and support the team.

But our purpose is to give fans the gist of where an athlete, coach, owner scores on a political spectrum based on what we’ve found, on what we located in the media. The scores are hooks for that kinda understanding. And at the same time, we hope they are hooks to dig deeper and learn more about where the athlete, coach, or owner is coming from.

It’s fuzzy. It’s fun. And we certainly try to be fair in assessments though we can’t claim to be free from bias (no one can). Here’re some sources that help us navigate the liberal/conservative spectrum:

• Beyond Red vs. Blue: The Political Typology (Pew Research Center)
• How the Political Typology Groups Compare (Pew Research Center)
• Above All Issues, Abortion Divides Liberals, Conservatives (Gallup)