It is increasingly common for professional sportsmen and women to express political opinions, particularly in the age of Twitter. Most are trite, orchestrated clickbait bites aimed at achieving headlines in mainstream media and stoking the fires of the trendy culture wars. This phenomenon, usually played out by those who chase balls and endorse footwear for a living, sometimes involves athletes uttering something that proverbially touches the third rail and causes at least one-half of the political spectrum to experience seizures.