she said -- dave zirin?one thing about these games, which is, in a bizarre way,putin has fulfilled the greatest mandate of the olympics which is to unite the world and that it has united people in disgust over the many different issues that people care about that are being expressed at these games. no matter what your issue, your passion, your desire for social justice is, there is a part of these olympics that will inflame you. the olympics, it is happening at the150th anniversary of genocide of 1864. this is a way of erasing that history. it led to her terminus movement. there's going to be a demonstration in new york in times square to coincide with the start of the games. >> to explain what happened 150 years ago? czar nicholas the second engaged in what most scholars call the genocide of the period. they were forced to flee and diasporahem lived in communities around the world. we just saw a protest in turkey get a day. there's a huge pocket nearby in new jersey. there's a number of sir cage and in syri

it's just not true. >> wade davis and dave zirin, thank you both very much for joining us tonight.thank you very much. >> thank you so much. >> for leading the way on this. really appreciate it. thank you. >>> coming up in "the rewrite," more on the nfl. the name of the nfl football team in washington, d.c. and why the commissioner of the nfl defends the name but is actually afraid to use that word in a sentence himself. >>> and later, a huge political demonstration this weekend that most of the media didn't notice. [ female announcer ] you get sick, you can't breathe through your nose... suddenly you're a mouthbreather. well, put on a breathe right strip and instantly open your nose up to 38% more than cold medicines alone. so you can breathe and sleep. shut your mouth and sleep right. breathe right. they don't know it yet, but they're gonna fall in love, get married, have a couple of kids, [ children laughing ] move to the country, and live a long, happy life together where they almost never fight about money. [ dog barks ] because right after they get married, they'll find some

the nation's sports editor dave zirin joins me now. be continued conversation that we had yesterday. first off, does this rule, if it were to be implemented, would it apply to all players, or was this simply about african-american players and the exchange between those players? >> well, of course, it would apply to all players, but the impetus of it was the fritz pollard institute, an organization that tries to work to increase minority hiring in the nfl front offices and their concern it was used in between african-american players, as both terms of affection and derision on the field, but let's take a step back for a second. how is it even possible, though, that the nfl can talk about this and not talk about the fact there is a team in washington, d.c. that's named after a racial slur? a dictionary-defined slur. will they get a penalty every time they take the field? and if the nfl cared about hate, why aren't they threatening to move the super bowl out of arizona if jan brewer signs the law you were talking about in the previous seg

. >> dave zirin joins me now. dave, why can't you just see him as a player that has game and not just a gay player, what's going on? >> because this is history writ large in front of us. we look forward to the day that it is the case. as mike dantonio said, that's just a fact. mike dantonio also said i understand why it's a story today. this is history in front of us and is inspiring, it should be inspiring, as adam silver said, sports has lagged behind the rest of society when it comes to this issue. >> well, listen, in reality, though, hollywood, for example, which is seen as a liberal bastian, when you talk about a actor, you hear people say, ellen, who is gay, i'll know having played sports my entire life, people like to think of people in sports as neanderthal, in hollywood, they still do the same thing. >> that's certainly true. it's part of popular culture. that's why when an athlete comes out, particularly in male sports, when they come out, it actually forces a lot of people to confront in themselves, do i

dave zirin, host offem of sports radio and author of "game over" before the governor veto this bill, the n.f.l. said it supported tolerance and prohibited any discrimination saying that the league is, quote, following the issue in arizona and will continue to do so should the bill be signed into law. now, of course, we know it won't be signed into law. was the n.f.l. playing it safe position? >> absolutely. the n.f.l. was playing it super duper safe, using the 5-year-oldchise can i seer on the construction paper throughout this week. they should have taken a stronger stand much earlier on and not because it's a moral question and not because it would have necessarily been good public relations but because the culty of sb 1062 would have put n.f.l. employees and in the era of michael sam, n.f.l. players perhaps at risk once they stepped into the state of arizona, the bill would have created a set of circumstances that would have made things very difficult for people cop seed to the lgbt. the n.f.l. had to look after it's constituents. it failed to do so. >> should the n.f.l. be an ent

. >> joining us for more on this is al jazeera america contributor dave zirin, sports editor for the nation, host of edge of sports radio and author of game over. he joins us from silver springs, maryland, dave, as always, good to see you. pussy riot had been arrested and released once. they were getting ready to are perform a song, putin will teach you how to love the motherland. when these cossacks arrived and started to beat them. a desperation attempt from russian security forces to keep a lid on the discontent and keep mouths shut. >> absolutely, those mouths they want shut both inside and outside the olympic village. just to be clear for listeners about a couple of facts about this. cossacks are an extra-judicial military force that have existed in russia going back to the 15th century. and they've disappeared throughout the 20th century but have since reemerged as kind of like the brutal shock troops of vladimir putin, particularly in the south of russia. so their presence in sochi where security is so tight is a symbol in and of itself. the mere fact that they're allowed just

and from las vegas, dave zirin, the sports editor for "the nation" magazine.ut, but then you have the other side of it. you have that espn story, where a lot of people off the record, who work in the nfl in the front office were saying, you know what, we might have really ruined his draft prospects. do you think that michael sam will have a harder time making a team because he's come out? >> well, that's an open question. the nfl is on the clock. and we will find out on draft day how much of this is just rhetoric, because they don't want to look like a retrograde, homophobic league, and how much of it is actually real. it's interesting how much relates to your last hour. if the word of the last hour is the way that things like "thug" become stand-ins for slurs because of the color of their skin, the word on this issue is distraction, that's the code word. will it be a distraction to have an lbgt person in the locker room. it reminds me of that thing wlik how does it feel to be a problem. how does it feel to be a distraction, if who you are is seen as a negativ

. >> wade davis and dave zirin, thank you both very much for joining us tonight. thank you very much. >> thank you so much. >> for leading the way on this. really appreciate it. thank you. >>> coming up in "the rewrite," more on the nfl. the name of the nfl football team in washington, d.c. and why the commissioner of the nfl defends the name but is actually afraid to use that word in a sentence himself. >>> and later, a huge political demonstration this weekend that most of the media didn't notice. vo: once upon a time there was a boy who traveled to a faraway place where villages floated on water and castles were houses dragons lurked, giants stood tall, and the good queen showed the boy it could all be real. avo: whatever you can imagine, all in one place. expedia, find yours. es are acting up. i've got a big date, but my sinuses are acting up. it's time for advil cold and sinus. [ male announcer ] truth is that won't relieve all your symptoms. new alka seltzer plus-d relieves more symptoms than any other behind the counter liquid gel. oh what a relief it is. t