By Alan Snel of LVSportsBiz.com
I saw that Las Vegas sports industry big-wigs Mark Davis and Dana White shared a few thoughts on Twitter this week.
Both Davis, who owns the NFL Las Vegas Raiders and WNBA Las Vegas Aces, and White, the passionate boss man for Las Vegas-based MMA promotion UFC, expressed themselves in ways that reminded us that trying to string together words to communicate a thought can be a slippery and challenging endeavor at times.
Davis, one of the NFL’s most down-to-earth owners who has expressed his support for racial equality in the past, tried to show his support for the headline-making verdict Tuesday when a jury found former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin guilty on all three counts in the death of George Floyd last Memorial Day.
After the verdict, Davis heard Floyd’s brother, Philonise Floyd, say, “Today, we are able to breathe again.” That led Davis to Tweet this:
Well, people didn’t understand that Davis’ Tweet was a take on Floyd’s brother’s quote from earlier in the day. And the reactions poured in and were posted. Even Los Angeles Lakers LeBron James weighed in on the Davis/Raiders Tweet.
The next day, Philonise Floyd went on record saying he thanked the Raiders for their support.
Davis had the right intention and is genuine about addressing racial injustice issues. Unfortunately, Davis’ tweet was confusing because many Twitter readers were unaware that it was a take on Floyd’s brother’s quote from earlier in the day Tuesday.
Perhaps, Davis just should have completely quoted the brother from the start instead of taking a few words from the quote.
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A few days later on Saturday, it was White’s turn to get people’s attention with his Tweet.
He blasted the Las Vegas Review-Journal for doing a story on UFC 261 in Jacksonville, Florida that addressed the COVID-19 liability disclosure for 15,000 fans filling the indoor arena in Jacksonville. It was UFC’s first event that had 100 percent attendance capacity since the COVID-19 pandemic started because White said he would not hold UFC fight shows if they were not 100 percent capacity events.
White criticized local Las Vegas newspaper for reporting on the disclosure about COVID-19, but the Reuters news service did the same story nearly a month ago on that disclosure.
Reuters reported the liability disclosure that said attending UFC 261 at VyStar Veterans Memorial Arena, “may lead to exposure to COVID-19 and that contraction of COVID-19 may result in severe and permanent damage to the health of the Holder and/or others including, but not limited to, death”.
But White didn’t skewer Reuters last month or other MMA outlets that addressed the topic like this one:
White was also not shy about ridiculing the media for questioning UFC’s decision to forge ahead with staging live fight shows during early stages of the the novel coronavirus pandemic in April and May of 2020. You might recall White coming out with an anti-media video before Christmas.
The liability disclosure was hardly breaking news this week when Reuters mentioned it March 26 and news outlets then posted the wire service story the day after on March 27.
But White chose to pound the local newspaper today: “Yet, this is how the Las Vegas Review Journal shows its support for a true local business. Go fuck yourself LVRJ, and don’t bother coming to the fight in July.”
It’s hard to explain to sports leaders that it’s not the reporter’s or newspaper’s job to “show support” for a sports organization. White deserves credit for his unbridled passion that he brings to the job every day and his perseverance to put on fight shows during troubled times like a pandemic. His pal, former President Donald Trump, released a video a year praising White when the UFC president held UFC 249 in Jacksonville a year ago.
The Tweet against the local newspaper was a social media shot from a guy who has never held back his opinion about the media — or about any other subject, for that matter.
“At the end, people can write whatever they want,” White said. “And so can I.”