Megan Rapinoe, WNBA players attack veteran sportswriter over her Caitlin Clark coverage, claiming it fuels racism, homophobia

USA Today's Christine Brennan — a respected veteran sports columnist — is feeling the wrath not only from the WNBA players union but also from outspoken former women's soccer star Megan Rapinoe.

Brennan's sin? Asking questions they don't like about Indiana Fever sensation — and nearly unanimous WNBA rookie of the year — Caitlin Clark.

'Hearing it initially, my visceral reaction was, "That’s not good, that doesn't feel good, that feels racist, to be honest."'

See, Rapinoe and the union are vexed by a particular set of questions Brennan recently directed to another player who gave Clark a black eye. Rapinoe called Brennan's line of questioning "racist"; the players union said Brennan's questions "fuel racist, homophobic, and misogynistic vitriol on social media."

Believe it or not, the players union wants Brennan's press credentials revoked over her questions.

What were the questions?

DiJonai Carrington, a guard for the Connecticut Sun, hit Clark in the eye during a recent playoff game, leaving Clark with a black eye. Brennan asked Carrington if she hit Clark in the eye on purpose; Carrington said no.

Brennan then asked Carrington if she was laughing about it later in the game, the Washington Post reported. Carrington replied, “I just told you I didn’t even know I hit her."

Soon the Sun’s DeWanna Bonner called out Brennan in person and asked her to treat her teammates like humans, the paper added.

More from the Post:

Brennan, who is working on a book about Clark and routinely appears on TV, approached the other reporters and remarked that something like that wouldn’t happen in the NFL. She asked why the WNBA was so sensitive and told multiple reporters that if anyone had questions about her awareness of the racial dynamics at play, they should read her coverage of former NFL quarterback and activist Colin Kaepernick, among other work stretching back decades. (Brennan is White; Carrington is Black.)

Three days later, the Women’s National Basketball Players Association issued a statement calling for the league to revoke the credential of Brennan, one of the most recognizable sports journalists in the country.

The statement reads: “To unprofessional members of the media like Christine Brennan: You are not fooling anyone. That so-called interview in the name of journalism was a blatant attempt to bait a professional athlete into participating into a narrative that is false and designed to fuel racist, homophobic, and misogynistic vitriol on social media. You cannot hide behind your tenure. You have abused your privileges and do not deserve the credentials issued to you.”

Megan Rapinoe rips Brennan, too

During a Wednesday episode of her podcast "A Touch More with Sue Bird and Megan Rapinoe," the former soccer star said Brennan's line of questioning with Carrington was "loaded" and "feels racist," Fox News reported.

"Hearing it initially, my visceral reaction was, ‘That’s not good, that doesn't feel good, that feels racist, to be honest. That feels like you're putting DiJonai in an impossible situation,'" Rapinoe said, according to the cable network.

She added, "I think it is so disingenuous for Christine Brennan and other media members to say, ‘I’m just asking the question,' but really what's happening is your natural instinct to protect and narrate white players versus go after and narrate black players. That to me is really the issue."

Rapinoe dismissed the notion that Carrington could have intentionally hit Clark in the eye: "The premise of the question relies on the belief that DiJonai is targeting, that DiJonai specifically swatted or swiped into Caitlin's eyeball. First of all, the square-footage of her eyeball is very small. Do you know how hard it is to poke someone in the eye?"

'The WNBA and its players keep fumbling their golden opportunity with a string of ill-advised decisions and PR gaffes exposing them as not being ready for prime time.'

Bird and Rapinoe also said it's "disingenuous" to claim opposing players have been targeting Clark this season.

More from Fox News:

Many of Clark's fans have expressed outrage in her rookie year over instances in which she was physically handled by opposing players.

Clark took an illegal hip check from Chicago Sky forward Chennedy Carter on June 1 when the Sky player charged right into the Fever rookie and knocked her down during a stoppage in play. Clark said after the game that Carter's hit 'was not a basketball play.'

Sky rookie and Clark's longtime rival, Angel Reese, slammed her arm onto Clark's head while trying to block a layup in a game between the two teams on June 16. Then in August, Sky player Diamond DeShields sent Clark flying and then sliding across the hardwood on a play that was later upgraded to a flagrant-1 foul.

Anything else?

Brennan in an interview called her questions “journalism 101," the Post reported.

“It’s something that I have done in the entirety of my career,” she said, “and I think every other journalist has done the entirety of his or her career.”

USA Today executive sports editor Roxanna Scott said in a statement regarding Brennan's questions, “We reject the notion that the interview perpetuated any narrative other than to get the player’s perspective directly."

Boston Globe columnist Tara Sullivan wrote that "the WNBA and its players keep fumbling their golden opportunity with a string of ill-advised decisions and PR gaffes exposing them as not being ready for prime time,” the Post said.

The paper added that Michael Rosenberg — a Sports Illustrated columnist who has covered the WNBA — said in an interview, “Decline to answer someone’s questions, complain to them privately, or rip them publicly. That’s all fair. But I think credentials should only be pulled for clear violations of professional ethics.”

The Post also said anger over Brennan’s questions is mostly rooted in the climate in which they were asked.

More from the paper:

Carrington has been the subject of intense social media harassment. She posted a screenshot of an email she received in which she was called a racial slur and threatened with sexual violence. Someone else posted a picture of a police officer kneeling on George Floyd’s neck with a picture of Carrington superimposed over Floyd’s face and Clark’s superimposed on the officer’s.

According to a report in Andscape, the crowd in Connecticut during the playoff series was trafficking in racially coded trash talk, too. One fan’s shirt read 'Ban Nails,' and one fan shouted at Carrington when she fell, 'What, did you trip on your eyelashes?'

“In my 11-year career I never experienced the racial comments like from the Indiana Fever fan base,” Sun forward Alyssa Thomas said after the series, according to the Post.

“We certainly know that there are many people who are racist who attack black people on Twitter,” Brennan said, according to the paper. “That is a fact. It is horrible. ... In the case of asking the follow-up I did, it was giving ... DiJonai Carrington the chance to address an issue that was already on Twitter and being discussed by, what? Tens of thousands of people? Hundreds of thousands? Millions of people?”

Brennan said USA Today is planning to request a credential so she can cover the WNBA Finals, the Post added.

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