About the Project
In four reported essays, Post columnist Jerry Brewer traces how sports, once a unifying American connector, have instead become a platform for grievance, debate and division.
Sports has usually been seen as a place where all Americans, despite their many differences, can find common ground. But with the 2024 campaign ramping up and Donald Trump in position to possibly return to the White House, Brewer set out to explore the splintering of sports in America along ideological lines.
Brewer’s “Grievance Games” series demonstrates the power of strong commentary enriched by rigorous and revealing reporting. This work builds on Brewer’s 30 years of experience covering sports in America in thought-provoking and nuanced ways that go well beyond who won or lost.
Brewer found himself going back to Trump’s first term and a 2017 rally in Alabama where he said NFL players who didn’t stand for the anthem should be fired. The president shouted: “Wouldn’t you love to see one of these NFL owners, when somebody disrespects our flag, to say: ‘Get that son of a bitch off the field right now. Out! He’s fired. He’s fired!'” He observed that while Trump did not create these divisions, he was a master at exploiting them, that night tapping into “the central racial grievance that keeps athletics ensnared in American polarization.”
Brewer’s second piece dives into the myth of Jackie Robinson, exploring the idea that sports was never really free from division. Over the years, the tale of Major League Baseball’s first Black player has been sanitized. But through talking with Robinson’s wife and children and examining how his legacy and struggle live on even today in a Little League in Wichita, Brewer shows why we need to celebrate the whole of Robinson and not just the myth.
His third piece focuses on the battle around transgender participation in sports. He starts at an intimate level, talking to a transgender college runner, then panning out to show that there are no easy answers, especially when the science isn’t clear — and that what’s being lost in the panic is humanity for the athletes.
Finally, Brewer examines the role of the media and how the struggle for financial viability creates a compelling temptation to lean into division, to “foment controversy: about protest, about race, about gender.”
Judges Comments
Sportswriting at its absolute best. This portfolio observes what happens on the tracks and fields, in the lockers and in the media, and connects it to larger societal conflicts. The author writes with empathy, curiosity and the perspective of someone who has been carefully observing the world through the lens of sports for a long time.
Grievance Games
Organization
The Washington Post
Award
Online Commentary, Package of Columns
Program
2025
Entry Links
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About the Project
In four reported essays, Post columnist Jerry Brewer traces how sports, once a unifying American connector, have instead become a platform for grievance, debate and division.
Sports has usually been seen as a place where all Americans, despite their many differences, can find common ground. But with the 2024 campaign ramping up and Donald Trump in position to possibly return to the White House, Brewer set out to explore the splintering of sports in America along ideological lines.
Brewer’s “Grievance Games” series demonstrates the power of strong commentary enriched by rigorous and revealing reporting. This work builds on Brewer’s 30 years of experience covering sports in America in thought-provoking and nuanced ways that go well beyond who won or lost.
Brewer found himself going back to Trump’s first term and a 2017 rally in Alabama where he said NFL players who didn’t stand for the anthem should be fired. The president shouted: “Wouldn’t you love to see one of these NFL owners, when somebody disrespects our flag, to say: ‘Get that son of a bitch off the field right now. Out! He’s fired. He’s fired!'” He observed that while Trump did not create these divisions, he was a master at exploiting them, that night tapping into “the central racial grievance that keeps athletics ensnared in American polarization.”
Brewer’s second piece dives into the myth of Jackie Robinson, exploring the idea that sports was never really free from division. Over the years, the tale of Major League Baseball’s first Black player has been sanitized. But through talking with Robinson’s wife and children and examining how his legacy and struggle live on even today in a Little League in Wichita, Brewer shows why we need to celebrate the whole of Robinson and not just the myth.
His third piece focuses on the battle around transgender participation in sports. He starts at an intimate level, talking to a transgender college runner, then panning out to show that there are no easy answers, especially when the science isn’t clear — and that what’s being lost in the panic is humanity for the athletes.
Finally, Brewer examines the role of the media and how the struggle for financial viability creates a compelling temptation to lean into division, to “foment controversy: about protest, about race, about gender.”
Judges Comments
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