NFL Teams That Skipped Charlie Kirk Tribute Get Right-Wing Blowback

The far-right political influencer Charlie Kirk, shot dead in an assassination at a university campus event last Wednesday, has proven as polarizing in death as he was in life. On the one hand are the MAGA faithful, mourning their preeminent youth-movement leader as a martyr. On the other are detractors who call Kirk’s ideology hateful and extreme, criticism that has cost many their jobs as his supporters accuse them of trying to incite further political violence.

Not even the vaunted American pastime of , it seems, is safe from this partisan vitriol. After a Thursday Night Football showdown between the Washington Commanders and the Green Bay Packers on Sept. 11, the day after Kirk’s death, featured a moment of silence for the activist — a league decision, according to an NFL statement — teams hosting games on Sunday were left to decide for themselves whether to honor him in similar fashion. The Titans, Chiefs, Cowboys, Cardinals, Dolphins, Saints, and Jets all did so. The Vikings, Steelers, Colts, Bengals, Lions, and Ravens did not. The Steelers did hold their American flags at half-mast, observing a Trump order about flags on public grounds (which some state and local officials meanwhile ignored). On Monday night, the Houston Texans marked a moment of silence for victims of violence without naming Kirk by name, while the Las Vegas Raiders made no reference, veiled or otherwise, to the assassination.

The quiet schism in sports over whether to acknowledge Kirk as an important figure cut down in a senseless murder may reflect today’s uneasy balance between conservative power and the norms of what are often regarded as apolitical spaces, particularly by conservatives themselves. After all, the American right famously raged at former quarterback Colin Kaepernick and other players for taking a knee during the National Anthem, beginning in 2016, in protest of police brutality against people of color. They have also continuously freaked out over NFL teams’ nods to Pride Month events and the appearance of social justice slogans such as “End Racism” on fields and uniforms. MAGA world’s typically dismissive response to players who dare to speak up on contentious political topics has for many years been, “Stick to sports.”

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Yet the lack of an observance on Kirk’s death from about half the host clubs in week two of the NFL season incurred hostile coverage from right-wing media including The New York Post, Breitbart, and Fox News, which dutifully covered these programming choices as an insult to a great patriot. Conservative influencers including Chaya Raichik, author of the anti-trans hate account LibsOfTikTok, trashed those teams while commending those that asked their crowds to pause and reflect on the late provocateur. Many also seethed over the fact that some of these same teams had memorialized George Floyd, the Black man murdered on video by Derek Chauvin, then a Minneapolis police officer, in 2020, whose death set off a nationwide wave of street demonstrations.

In the past, Kaepernick’s protest and countless other incidents have prompted reactionary vows to boycott the league, along with the ritualistic burning of team jerseys and other merchandise. The perceived snubs of Kirk at various games on Sunday and Monday — though seemingly in accordance with the right-wing belief that potentially divisive political messaging be kept outside the stadium — have likewise drawn spiteful responses from Kirk’s many admirers around the country.

“I am a lifelong, diehard, Ravens fan, but team ownership’s decision not to do the right and decent thing to honor Charlie. Kirk means that the ravens have seen their last dime from me absolutely shameful, pathetic, and disgusting,” a one-time Baltimore supporter posted on X. A Vikings fan griped on the platform that “80% of us that attend are conservative and you turned your back on us by not honoring Charlie Kirk,” while another said that the decision “just goes with the Trans cheerleaders,” an apparent complaint about Carolina Panthers cheerleader Justine Lindsay, who is openly trans. A third avowed Vikings fan declared that “after seeing the Packers honor Charlie Kirk, I am actually ready to switch over teams,” a nearly unthinkable defection in NFL loyalties.

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An individual identifying themselves as a former Lions season ticketholder meanwhile posted on X that they were “ashamed” of the organization. A fellow Detroit fan wrote: “They allegedly take a stand on trans shit and make no mention of a public figure assassination.” (It was not clear what specific trans issue they were referring to, but the NFL as a league maintains various LGBTQ inclusion initiatives, and the Lions, like most teams, sell Pride gear.) Colts fans lashed out at the Indianapolis team, as well, and The Cincinnati Enquirer ran an indignant letter to the editor demanding an apology from the Bengals owner for failing to recognize Kirk and pledging to boycott until then. “I personally did not watch, as I turned the TV off when I saw the Bengals were not going to recognize the nationwide hurt, sadness and trauma that so many Christians like myself felt, especially on the Sabbath,” the writer claimed.

This shame campaign, of course, is unlikely to put a dent in the NFL’s bottom line, just as previous outrages have failed to rattle this juggernaut, still the largest professional athletic league in the world by revenue. But it does point to a curious double standard.

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Kirk may have been a widely known figure, but he never held elected office, had no meaningful link to the sport of football, and was mainly famous within a specific media ecosystem. He was also a frequently incendiary podcaster who suggested that Black people were unqualified for certain jobs, argued that the Second Amendment was “worth” the price of gun deaths, and heavily promoted the lie that the 2020 presidential election was stolen, helping to pave the way to the deadly Jan. 6 Capitol riot. Honoring him at a football game, regardless of how he died, signals a measure of alignment with his political project, just as the Floyd tributes functioned as a call to hold law enforcement accountable for the unnecessary deaths they cause. If teams shouldn’t have been allowed to air the latter, why should they now be compelled to memorialize Kirk?

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