John Steigerwald: Columnist's arrogance astounding in regards to Jack Nicklaus' endorsement

The arrogance only is surpassed by the ignorance.

The perpetrator in this case is USA Today sports columnist Christine Brennan. She ambushed Jack Nicklaus at the Masters on Thursday. In her Thursday column, she wrote, “Two weeks ago, Jack Nicklaus shocked many in the sports world with a full-throated public endorsement of Donald Trump, calling the controversial president ‘more diverse than any president I have seen,’ and warning about a ‘socialist America’ if Trump was not re-elected.”

Of course, it’s Brennan who was shocked. She likes Nicklaus (who doesn’t?), and she couldn’t believe a nice guy like him could vote for a president whom she despises so much.

After Nicklaus had made his endorsement, Brennan said she contacted Nicklaus’ manager, Scott Tolley, before “Writing a column about his endorsement of a president who has consistently and reprehensibly denigrated women and people of color, including Vice President-elect Kamala Harris; who has been accused of sexually harassing at least 26 women; who has waged war on Black athletes who speak out about injustice; and who has called white nationalists ‘very fine people,’ among many other awful comments.”

Tolley said Jack had no comment.

So Brennan decided to use the news conference with Nicklaus and his fellow honorary starter Gary Player to ambush him with this: “As you know, I wanted to speak with you before I wrote my column about your very public support of President Trump. I’d love to ask this now if I may. You are known as the ultimate gracious sportsman in the game of golf and really throughout sports, certainly with your career, with Ryder Cups, the way you’ve handled victory and defeat and the like. I’m just curious: what is your advice to President Trump on how to accept defeat?”

Maybe she was expecting Nicklaus to say, “You know what, Christine, you’re right. I don’t know what I was thinking. As soon as I get some lunch, I’m going to call the President and tell him to do the right thing and concede.”

What she got was, “I think I’ve said enough about that. I don’t think this is the place for politics.”

Should Nicklaus have challenged her to a debate? How about the arrogance of her believing he needs to explain or justify his endorsement to her?

You might have noticed politics and sports have been intersecting a lot lately. Is it me or does the media tend to become outraged and challenge only those who reside on one side of the political spectrum?

Imagine a reporter challenging the late Dan Rooney in a news conference about his endorsement of Barack Obama in 2008 and asking how a devout Catholic could support one of the strongest defenders of abortion in American politics.

The reporter would have been scorned by everybody in the room and rightly so.

Imagine the reaction if Nicklaus had taken the opportunity during his Masters news conference to endorse President Trump.

Brennan and just about everybody else in the sports media, after they took a few shots of their own at the President, would have said it’s not the time or the place.

Nicklaus could have said he wanted to see the results of the lawsuits and investigations into possible voter fraud before he was willing to concede his candidate had lost, and he could have shot down many of her claims about Trump.

Brennan would have been apoplectic.

She finished her USA Today column with this: “Nicklaus was given the opportunity Thursday morning to publicly send a message to Trump about how to lose with grace and dignity. Unfortunately, he didn’t take it.”

How about having the arrogance to assume he wanted to?