Pat McAfee Calls Out The Paris Olympics Opening Ceremony: “We Need People Who Love Sports To Be A Part Of Sports Happenings”

Leave it to Pat McAfee to be the voice of reason in the sports world. I covered the Opening Ceremony pretty extensively, from the moment the rather disrespectful Last Supper scene featuring a half naked, Smurf-looking Dionysus dude and bunch of drag queens (one with his sack hanging out in front of a little girl) happened, to their half-assed non apology, and while there's been a ton of conversation on the internet about it, we haven't really seen anyone in the sports community speak out about it. Because they're afraid... However, since his time at ESPN began, Pat McAfee hasn't been afraid to ruffle feathers, and God bless him for it. The Paris 2024 Opening Ceremony kicked off on Friday afternoon, after Pat and the boys had begun their Friday show, so first thing this morning, he took a moment to address the backlash, particularly as it relates to The Last Supper scene, and ultimately provided some great perspective on why it's important to keep our priorities in order when it comes to the Olympic Games. And that's the athletes, the competition, the actual games.... why we're here in the first place. These athletes pour their blood, sweat and tears into training for years, and in most cases, their whole lives, in order to get a chance to compete every 4 years. Some athletes will only compete one time, some will become recurring Olympic superstars like Michael Phelps or Simone Biles... so, as Pat points out, can we not let these other political agendas and social causes pull the spotlight from where it should be? On the athletes. He said: “There's a lot of people saying they're not going to watch the Olympics because of the Opening Ceremony. I learned a lot about a man named Thomas Jolly [the creative director] over the weekend, and the one thing that I did not read is that he cares at all about sports. So that's the biggest thing. We need people that love sports to be a part of sports happenings.... whenever we have the biggest platform for sports and completion happening ever 4 years, we need some sports people there to say "hey, we think this is a celebration..." I understand the history of France had to be told however it was told, do what you have to do, but you have a blue Statue of Liberty on there, I don't know much about the history of France, I know there is one particular day on beach that led to a lot of things, so I didn't respect and appreciate that. But there's a lot of people saying what Thomas Jolly put together was incredibly disrespectful and I think that is certainly a way to view things... and for good reason. And I have no idea how any of these things are the start of the Olympics or to announce that the Olympics are taking place. It was form of artistic expression that was paying tribute... whatever. We just want it to revolve around sport. And we can’t have the Opening Ceremony be a reason why people won’t watch these athletes who have sacrificed everything about their lives to be great at something and only get to experience and celebrate once every four years.” He went on to wrap it up by saying: "We can't have things that aren't a part of it be the reason that people won't watch it, because when you watch it... it's magic." https://twitter.com/PatMcAfeeShow/status/1817955429424455774 Well said... and that's really the crux of all of this isn't it? And we see political agendas and social causes inserted into just about everything these days, whether it's sporting events, college classrooms, television and movies. Hell, not a single actor or actress can accept an award these days without getting on their soapbox and virtue signal about saving the environment (even though half of them showed up in their private jets two hours ag0). But this is the Olympics. A grand spectacle of sport and competition that only rolls around every 4 years... can we honor the history of the host country, pay tribute to history of the Games, feel freedom and encouragement to host in our own unique and creative way WITHOUT taking the spotlight off the athletes entirely? Or you know... mocking a religion that 2 billion people worldwide practice? Seems easy enough... When asked, Paris 2024 confirmed that it was indeed inspired by Leonardo da Vinci's The Last Supper, however Thomas Jolly has since come out and said that this inspiration was not the Last Supper, but rather the Dionysus and a pagan feast of the Greek gods. https://twitter.com/ValRichardson17/status/1817930698227110092 https://twitter.com/AukeHoekstra/status/1817569151432458399 Perhaps it was both? There are a few instances of rays of light surrounding the heads of mythological characters in Greek art, however that distinct circle halo, much like the DJ was wearing in the Opening Ceremony, originally appeared in the early religions of the Middle East, and has since been a fixture in Christian art since about 300 AD. But the real kicker is that the DJ at the center of the table with the halo (representing Jesus in the Last Supper painting) referred to it as the "Gay New Testament" in an Instagram story so it looks like there was definitely some confusion about what they were depicting, even among the people who were starring in it.

Paris 2024 Apology

In a press conference, Paris 2024 spokesperson Anne Descamps essentially said that the Opening Ceremony didn't intend to offend anybody: "Clearly there was never an intention to show disrespect to any religious group. (The opening ceremony) tried to celebrate community tolerance. We believe this ambition was achieved. If people have taken any offense we are really sorry." Paris 2024 president Tony Estanguet added: “We imagined a ceremony to show our values and our principles so we gave a very committed message. The idea was to really trigger a reflection. We wanted to have a message as strong as possible. Naturally we had to take into account the international community. Having said that - it is a French ceremony for the French games - so we trusted our artistic director. We have freedom of expression in France and we wanted to protect it.” And finally, Thomas Jolly, the artistic director who crafted the controversial opening ceremony, also commented on the backlash. He said they intended to celebrate different gender identities with a Greek-pagan party: "The idea was to do a big pagan party linked to the gods of Olympus. You'll never find in my work any desire to mock or denigrate anyone. I wanted a ceremony that brings people together, that reconciles, but also a ceremony that affirms our Republican values of liberty, equality and fraternity." He also said: "Our idea was inclusion. Naturally when we want to include everyone and not exclude anyone questions are raised. Our subject was not to be subversive. We never wanted to be subversive. We wanted to talk about diversity. Diversity means being together. We wanted to include everybody. In France, we have artistic freedom. We are lucky in France to live in a free country." https://twitter.com/OliLondonTV/status/1817683936182518207