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Australian Open storylines: Carlos Alcaraz’s serve motion and late finishes in Melbourne

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Australian Open storylines: Carlos Alcaraz’s serve motion and late finishes in Melbourne

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Are 5g of lead and a few bends of the knees going to win Carlos Alcaraz a career Grand Slam?

Is Iga Swiatek going to make a move on Melbourne?

Will the clock tick past midnight (and 1 a.m., and 2 a.m., and 3 a.m….) in Australia once again?

The 2025 Australian Open promises to be a cracker. Here, The Athletic’s tennis writers, Matt Futterman and Charlie Eccleshare, chart some of the key storylines to follow over the next fortnight.

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Will Alcaraz serve up a career Grand Slam?

Alcaraz doesn’t have many weaknesses. He does have something that he does less well than everything else.

Serve.

It’s better than average, but not elite. It’s the one place that his nearest rival, Jannik Sinner, has a big advantage over him. But it’s also the reason that smart people think Alcaraz could dominate tennis for a long time. He’s won four Grand Slams with an average serve, the thinking goes. Imagine how good he will be with a great one.

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Whether he has done that with a slightly tweaked service motion will go a long way toward determining whether he can complete the career Grand Slam at just 21 by winning the Australian Open.

He said in a news conference Saturday that the serve didn’t feel natural yet. He still had to thinking about it, remind himself what to do and what not to do.

“There are some times that I think or I feel like it is a problem,” he said. “Sometimes in the match that I’ve played or during the practice, there are some games that I’m not doing the right thing.”

He has no doubt that he and his Babolat Pure Aero racket, newly weighted with 5g of lead in the neck, will get there eventually.

The change has to do with how and when he coils his body during the service motion. He used to do it later in the motion and more quickly. Now he’s easing his way into it, adding more fluidity to the most important of tennis shots.

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What does he want from it? “Good rhythm,” he said, and more precision. At a little over six feet tall, he will likely never have a dominating bullet serve. But at Wimbledon he was serving at 130mph and hitting the lines on command, blowing Novak Djokovic off the court in the final and leading the seven-time SW19 champion to remark that he had never seen Alcaraz serve better.

Anytime a player makes even a slight change in a stroke, it can be dramatic: tennis takes a clear head and Alcaraz thinking about how to serve could make things cloudy if a match gets tight.

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Is this Swiatek’s Australian opportunity?

After not going beyond the quarters of a major outside of Roland Garros for the past two seasons, Swiatek has a big opportunity in Melbourne. She’s in an inviting quarter and if she can get through that would be a big favorite in the semifinal against her slated opponent there Jasmine Paolini.

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With new coach Wim Fissette in tow, and potentially a feeling of liberation after playing under the cloud of a doping ban during the last couple of months of the 2024 season, she looks well-placed for a deep run. Her performance at the United Cup, where she won three matches against top-10 players and was a break up in both sets against Coco Gauff before losing 6-4, 6-4, made her look ready.


Iga Swiatek has never been past the fourth round in Melbourne. (Phil Walter / Getty Images)

After losing the No. 1 ranking to Aryna Sabalenka while serving 22 days of that one-month ban in September and October, Swiatek wants it back as soon as possible. She also wants to disabuse the persistent notion that she can only achieve success on clay courts, despite her remarkable collection of wins and titles off the surface. It is only in majors where she has had more difficulty; even then, she is a U.S. Open champion.

The way the ranking system works means that Swiatek could reclaim the world No. 1 ranking without an especially deep run if Sabalenka, the defending champion and Gauff, a semifinalist last year, go out early. But only by taking advantage of her presentable draw and reaching the latter stages will Swiatek properly reestablish herself after a difficult few months.

Charlie Eccleshare

Can Tiafoe and Shelton take their next steps?

Frances Tiafoe kind of got caught telling the truth last year when he said the only tournaments he cared about were Wimbledon, his hometown Citi Open in Washington, D.C., and the U.S. Open.

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Perhaps that explains his near upset of Alcaraz on Centre Court at Wimbledon, his second run to the U.S. Open semifinals, and the reasonably mediocre results everywhere else. He tried to walk back that comment Friday at Melbourne Park, but a few moments later landed back on the theme of needing to be more motivated throughout the season.

“Ideally I would like to play less and do better,” Tiafoe said. “I’m 27 next week. I’ve been around and I’m super excited, super motivated, to be present and try to get my best stuff week in, week out.”

In the summer, he said, he’s willing to die to win every match. The rest of the year, he sees opponents who are more willing than he is. He knows that has to change.

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There is no better place to start than at the Australian Open, which is a kind of carbon copy of the U.S. Open. Fast hard courts and rowdy crowds that absolutely love Tiafoe. What can he do with that?

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Same goes for Ben Shelton, a quarterfinalist here two years ago, and a U.S. Open semifinalist later in his first full season but now No. 21 in the world. Sophomore year didn’t go as he thought it might, especially at the Grand Slams, where he made the second week just once and bowed out in the fourth round of Wimbledon.

Shelton is still fairly early in his tennis life compared with the competition. He didn’t start playing in earnest until he was 12. But on the hard courts here where he is very comfortable, he will harbor ambitions of challenging Taylor Fritz as the American most likely to break that two-decade-plus streak without a men’s Grand Slam.

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Will the late finish’s coolness wear off?

It might be the U.S. Open that introduced a late-finishing match policy in 2024, and the French Open that saw Djokovic and Lorenzo Musetti playing until 3:06 a.m., but nowhere does late-night tennis like the Australian Open. Daniil Medvedev and Emil Ruusuvuori hit 3:40 a.m. in 2024. Andy Murray and Thanasi Kokkinakis went until 4:05 a.m. in 2023. And Lleyton Hewitt and Marcos Baghdatis went later than all of them in 2008, playing until 4:34 a.m.

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Daniil Medvedev signing interviews after a 3:40 a.m. finish at last year’s tournament. He beat Emil Ruusuvuori in five sets. (Anthony Wallace / AFP via Getty Images)

In New York, the late-night-tennis transition from quirky exclusive club to all-too-regular grind formally went through, as players complained about the cascade down from long day session matches into a long day’s journey into night, which can enfeeble performances in the next round. This year’s tournament is sure to bring some furtive glances at the clock and roars of adoring fans into the small hours. Whether they remain an idiosyncratic one-off or a constant will determine how much they define the tournament.

James Hansen

How will Rybakina handle her coaching situation?

Elena Rybakina figured to be starting her Grand Slam season fresh with her new coach Goran Ivanisevic, until she wasn’t.

The Kazakh world No. 6 is locked in a stalemate with the WTA over her former coach and current member of her team — an unnamed role — Stefano Vukov. The WTA is investigating allegations that Vukov behaved abusively toward Rybakina, and has provisionally suspended him from accessing WTA coaching credentials. He is ineligible for an Australian Open credential too, so is in Melbourne without being allowed inside the tournament.

He has denied the allegations, and Rybakina Saturday doubled down on her assertion that Vukov has “never mistreated” her.

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“As I said before, I have never made any complaints or any of these things,” Rybakina said in a news conference. “I always said that he never mistreated me.

“I’m not happy with the whole situation,” she said. “The people who are not so close to the tennis world, they just see the comments and then they’re picking it up.”

The WTA has confirmed the investigation and provisionally suspended Vukov pending its outcome. Sources briefed on the investigation last week told The Athletic that the WTA’s report would be complete in days. It is yet to release any findings.

In a vacuum, Rybakina should be among the favorites for the tournament. The fast hard courts are ideal for her game. Her serve slides away from opponents. The bounces are true, allowing her the rock her groundstrokes. In addition to her coaching issues, she can struggle with insomnia, which weakens her immune system.

She said she just wants to focus on her matches. Is that possible?

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Matt Futterman

Can a British player follow in Murray’s footsteps?

Andy Murray’s presence on Djokovic’s team serves as a reminder of how reliant British tennis has been on him in Melbourne. Since Murray’s fifth Australian Open final nine years ago, Kyle Edmund in 2018 is the only British player to have reached a quarterfinal or better.

Could that change this year? The standout chances look like No. 15 seed Jack Draper or No. 22 seed Katie Boulter, with Emma Raducanu in her usual position of being a big threat — if she’s healthy.

“I’m feeling great about Katie Boulter, given how she played against Swiatek at the United Cup,” said Laura Robson, British former junior Wimbledon champion who reached the fourth round of both Wimbledon and the U.S. Open as a teenager, of a three-hour epic that Swiatek ultimately won 6-7(4) 6-1, 6-4.

“After the first set it was one of those situations where in the past you might have worried that she was going to fade away. For her to still be in it two hours later, it was really a positive sign.”

Unlike Boulter, Draper has experience of going deep at a Grand Slam after his run to the semifinals at the U.S. Open. He’s been nursing a niggle with his hip, but said in a news conference on Saturday that he’s feeling good and wouldn’t be here if he wasn’t feeling 100 percent.

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Raducanu has been managing a physical issue too after suffering a back spasm in training, but if she can get a bit of momentum, no one will want to face her.

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Will Andreeva repeat her Melbourne success with a friend and rival in tow?

Although the WTA Tour is synonymous with prodigies, there are only four players in the women’s top 50 who are 20 or younger. One of those is Gauff, who feels so much older given it’ll be six years in July since her breakout tournament at Wimbledon. Of the other three, there’s Linda Noskova (20) and a pair of very exciting young Russians: Mirra Andreeva and Diana Shnaider.

Andreeva, 17, has thus far generated more of a buzz than her 20-year-old compatriot Shnaider, after a fairytale run to the fourth round in Melbourne last year. But Shnaider is currently ranked higher (13 vs. 15) and she won four tournaments in 2024 on three different surfaces, the only woman to do so. Her decision to go pro was partly spurred by running Maria Sakkari close at the 2023 tournament.

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Mirra Andreeva (left) and Diana Shnaider have formed a familiar doubles pairing during their respective rises on the singles circuit. (Bradley Kanaris / Getty Images)

She and Andreeva are the standout youngsters on the WTA Tour right now; they are also friends and doubles partners, winning a silver medal at the 2024 Paris Olympics and the Brisbane title in the run-up to the first Grand Slam of the year.

Robson, who is covering this year’s Australian Open for broadcaster Eurosport, has them down as her two players to watch at this Australian Open.

“She (Shnaider) is a really tricky lefty player, with a bit nice flair to a game and a style that slightly different from everyone else,” she said.

“She’s been my one to watch for 2025 for the last few months and I’m sticking with that.”

Then there’s Andreeva. “I think she’s going to have a great season,” said Robson.

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“I saw her in practice on Rod Laver Arena and she was absolutely smacking the ball. She always feels like she’s got a bit more experience than she actually does, and I think she’ll do well on any surface.”

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Tell us what you’re looking out for at the Australian Open this year in the comments.

(Top photo: Anthony Wallace / AFP via Getty Images)

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Law firm fighting for women’s sports in SCOTUS battle comments on ruling possibly impacting SJSU trans lawsuit

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Law firm fighting for women’s sports in SCOTUS battle comments on ruling possibly impacting SJSU trans lawsuit

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A law firm leading the charge in the ongoing Supreme Court case over trans athletes in women’s sports has responded after a federal judge suggested the case’s ruling could impact a separate case involving a similar issue. 

Colorado District Judge Kato Crews deferred ruling in motions to dismiss former San Jose State volleyball co-captain Brooke Slusser’s lawsuit against the California State University (CSU) system until after a ruling in the B.P.J. v. West Virginia Supreme Court case, which is expected to come in June. 

Slusser filed the lawsuit against representatives of her school and the Mountain West Conference in fall 2024 after she allegedly was made to share bedrooms and changing spaces with trans teammate Blaire Fleming for a whole season without being informed that Fleming is a biological male. 

 

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Meanwhile, the B.P.J. case went to the Supreme Court after a trans teen sued West Virginia to block the state’s law that prevents males from competing in girls’ high school sports. 

The Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) is the primary law firm defending West Virginia in that case at the Supreme Court, and has now responded to news that Slusser’s lawsuit could be affected by the SCOTUS ruling. 

“We hope the ruling from the Supreme Court will affirm that Title IX was designed to guarantee equal opportunity for women, not to let male athletes displace women and girl in competition. It is crucial that sports be separated by sex for not only the equal opportunity of women but for safety and privacy. Title IX should protect women’s right to compete in their own sports. Allowing men to compete in the female category reverses 50 years of advancement for women,” ADF Vice President of Litigation Strategies Jonathan Scruggs said.

Slusser’s attorney, Bill Bock of the Independent Council on Women’s Sports, expects a Supreme Court ruling in favor of the legal defense representing West Virginia, thus helping his case. 

(Left) Brooke Slusser (10) of the San Jose State Spartans serves the ball during the first set against the Air Force Falcons at Falcon Court at East Gym in Colorado Springs, Colorado, on Oct. 19, 2024. (Right) Blaire Fleming #3 of the San Jose State Spartans looks on during the third set against the Air Force Falcons at Falcon Court at East Gym on October 19, 2024 in Colorado Springs, Colorado. ( Andrew Wevers/Getty Images; Andrew Wevers/Getty Images)

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“We’re looking forward to the case going forward,” Bock told Fox News Digital. 

“I believe that the court is going to find that Title IX operates on the basis of biological sex, without regard to an assumed or professed gender, and so just like the congress and the members of congress that passed Title IX in 1972, allowed this specifically provided for in the regulations that there had to be separate men’s and women’s teams based on biological sex, I think the court is going to see that is the original meaning of the statute and apply it in that way, and I think it’s going to be a big win in women’s sports.”

The Supreme Court’s conservative majority appeared prepared to rule in favor of West Virginia after oral arguments on Jan. 13. 

Slusser spoke on the steps of the Supreme Court on Jan. 13 while oral arguments took place inside, sharing her experience with a divided crowd of opposing protesters. 

With Fleming on its roster, SJSU reached the 2024 conference final by virtue of a forfeit by Boise State in the semifinal round. SJSU lost in the final to Colorado State.

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Slusser went on to develop an eating disorder due to the anxiety and trauma from the scandal and dropped out of her classes the following semester. The eating disorder became so severe, that Slusser said she lost her menstrual cycle for nine months. Her decision to drop her classes resulted in the loss of her scholarship, and her parents said they had to foot the bill out of pocket for an unfinished final semester of college. 

President Donald Trump’s Department of Education determined in January that SJSU violated Title IX in its handling of the situation involving Fleming, and has given the university an ultimatum to agree to a series of resolutions or face a referral to the Department of Justice. 

Among the department’s findings, it determined that a female athlete discovered that the trans student allegedly conspired to have a member of an opposing team spike her in the face during a match. ED claims that “SJSU did not investigate the conspiracy, but later subjected the female athlete to a Title IX complaint for ‘misgendering’ the male athlete in online videos and interviews.”

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SJSU trans player Blaire Fleming and teammate Brooke Slusser went to a magic show and had Thanksgiving together in Las Vegas despite an ongoing lawsuit over Fleming being transgender. (Thien-An Truong/San Jose State Athletics)

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SJSU Athletic Director Jeff Konya told Fox News Digital in a July interview that he was satisfied with how the university handled the situation involving Fleming.

“I think everybody acted in the best possible way they could, given the circumstances,” Konya said. 

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Myles Garrett cited for speeding a ninth time, an elite pass rusher seemingly always in a rush

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Myles Garrett cited for speeding a ninth time, an elite pass rusher seemingly always in a rush

Myles Garrett is in a hurry to become the greatest pass rusher in NFL history. The Cleveland Browns All-Pro defensive end set the single-season sack record in 2025 and has cracked the top 20 career leaders after only nine seasons.

“I’m going to take that down, and I prefer I take it down in the next five years,” Garrett told Casino Guru News last month.

Off the field, however, his urgency to get from point A to B is a problem. He’s accumulating speeding tickets at an alarming rate.

On Feb. 21, Garrett was handed his ninth speeding ticket since his NFL career began in 2017. He was cited for driving 94 mph in a 70-mph zone on Interstate 71 between Cleveland and Columbus, Ohio.

The citation from the Wayne County Sheriff’s Office says Garrett was driving his green 2024 Porsche at 1:35 a.m., returning home after attending a Miami of Ohio basketball game in Oxford.

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Body cam footage shows the officer telling Garrett that she kept the charge under 100 mph so that a court appearance wouldn’t be mandatory. Garrett reportedly still holds a Texas driver’s license — he attended Texas A&M — and told the officer that he did not have an Ohio license.

Cleveland Browns’ Myles Garrett wears a jacket displaying his girlfriend Chloe Kim before the women’s snowboarding halfpipe finals at the 2026 Winter Olympics, in Livigno, Italy.

(Lindsey Wasson / AP)

The officer wrote that the famously affable Garrett was “kind and cooperative,” and that drugs and alcohol were not a factor.

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Garrett’s need for speed flies in the face of his persona. He has written poetry since high school, peppers social media with inspirational sayings and donates time and money to several charities.

His girlfriend is two-time gold-medal-winning U.S. Olympic snowboarder Chloe Kim, for whom he wrote a poem he shared on social media: “You enrapture fools to kings, and exist without a peer, put on this Earth for many things, but our love is why you’re here.”

Verse hasn’t slowed his roll. On Aug. 9 he was cited for ticket No. 8, clocked at 100 mph in a 60-mph zone in a Cleveland suburb a day after the Browns returned home from a preseason game at Carolina.

Garrett’s seventh ticket followed a frightening crash in 2022. He flipped his gray 2021 Porsche 911 Turbo S off State Road in Sharon Township and he and a female passenger were injured. He was cited for failing to control his vehicle due to unsafe speeds on what had been a slick roadway.

A witness told a responding police officer that Garrett’s vehicle went airborne, took out a fire hydrant and rolled three times. Garrett sustained shoulder and biceps sprains and was sidelined for the Browns’ game that week against the Atlanta Falcons. His companion was not seriously injured.

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Cleveland television station WKYC reported that in September 2021 Garrett was stopped twice in a 24-hour period — for driving 120 and 105 mph. The infractions occurred on Interstate 71 in Medina County, where the speed limit is 70 mph, and he paid fines of $267 and $287.

A year earlier, Garrett was cited for driving 100 mph in a 65-mph zone of Interstate 77 — again while driving a Porsche — and paid a $308 fine. He accumulated his first batch of speeding tickets in 2017 and 2018, and the police reports recite similar circumstances: Garrett driving well over the speed limit, cited without incident, paid a nominal fine.

The piddly fines certainly aren’t a deterrent. Garrett, 30, and the Browns agreed to a four-year contract extension in March 2025 that made him the highest-paid non-quarterback in NFL history at the time. The deal pays the seven-time All-Pro more than $40 million a season and includes more than $123 million in guaranteed money.

He set the NFL single-season sack record with 23.0 last season, surpassing the 22.5 accumulated by T.J. Watt and Michael Strahan. Garrett has 125.5 career sacks, averaging 14 a season, a pace that would enable him to break Bruce Smith’s career record of 200 in five years.

“That is definitely on my mind to go out there and get,” Garrett said. “That’s a goal I’ve had for years now since college.”

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Garrett has declined to discuss his driving habits.

“I’d honestly prefer to talk about football and this team than anything I’m doing off the field other than the back-to-school event that I did the other day,” he told reporters after ticket No. 8 in August, referring to a charity appearance.

“I try to keep my personal life personal. And I’d rather focus on this team when I can.”

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Keith Olbermann under fire for calling Lou Holtz a ‘scumbag’ after legendary coach’s death

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Keith Olbermann under fire for calling Lou Holtz a ‘scumbag’ after legendary coach’s death

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Former ESPN broadcaster Keith Olbermann once again incited backlash on social media Wednesday after he called late legendary college football coach Lou Holtz a “legendary scumbag” in an X post on the day Holtz was announced dead. 

“Legendary scumbag, yes,” Olbermann wrote in response to a clip of Holtz criticizing former President Joe Biden in 2020 for supporting abortion rights. 

Olbermann received scathing criticism in response to his post on X.

 

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“You’re a scumbag that needs mental help,” one X user wrote to Olbermann. 

One user echoed that sentiment, writing to Olbermann, “You’re the real scumbag here. Lou Holtz had more class, integrity, and genuine decency in his pinky finger than you’ll ever show in your lifetime.”

Another user wrote, “You’re a grumpy, lonely, Godless man. All the things Lou Holtz was not.”

Keith Olbermann speaks onstage during the Olbermann panel at the ESPN portion of the 2013 Summer Television Critics Association tour at the Beverly Hilton Hotel July 24, 2013, in Beverly Hills, Calif.  (Frederick M. Brown/Getty Images)

Olbermann has made it a pattern of sharing politically charged far-left statements that are often combative and ridiculed on social media, typically resulting in immense backlash.

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After the U.S. men’s hockey team’s gold medal win, Olbermann heavily criticized the team for accepting an invitation from President Trump to the State of the Union address. Olbermann wrote on X that any members of the men’s team who attended the event were “declaring their indelible stupidity and misogyny,” while praising the women’s team for declining the invitation.

In January, Olbermann attacked former University of Kentucky women’s swimmer Kaitlynn Wheeler for celebrating a women’s rights rally outside the U.S. Supreme Court during oral arguments for two cases focused on the legality of biological male trans athletes in women’s sports.

Former Notre Dame football coach Lou Holtz listens before being presented with the Presidential Medal of Freedom at the White House in Washington, D.C., Dec, 3, 2020.  (Doug Mills/The New York Times/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

“It’s still about you trying to find an excuse for a lifetime wasted trying to succeed in sports without talent,” Olbermann wrote in response to Wheeler’s post. 

In 2025, Olbermann faced significant backlash after posting (and later deleting) a message on X aimed at CNN contributor Scott Jennings, that said, “You’re next motherf—–,” shortly after the assassination of conservative influencer Charlie Kirk. 

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Holtz was a stern supporter of President Donald Trump, even saying in February 2024 that Trump needed to “coach America back to greatness!”

Near the end of Trump’s first term, shortly after former President Joe Biden defeated him in the 2020 election, Trump awarded Holtz with the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest civilian award of the United States. 

After Holtz’s death was announced Wednesday, several top GOP figures paid tribute to the coach on social media. 

Those GOP lawmakers included senators Tommy Tuberville, R-Ala.; Todd Young, R-Ind.; Tom Cotton, R-Ark.; and Lindsey Graham, R-S.C.; representatives Greg Murphy, R-N.C.; David Rouzer, R-N.C.; Erin Houchin, R-Ind.; and Steve Womack, R-Ark.; and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis; Indiana Gov. Mike Braun; U.S. Education Secretary Linda McMahon; and Rudy Giuliani.

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Lou Holtz, former Notre Dame football coach, addresses the America First Policy Institute’s America First Agenda Summit at the Marriott Marquis July 26, 2022. (Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc)

At the time of publication, prominent Democrat leaders have appeared silent on Holtz’s passing, including prominent Democrats with a football background. 

Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, who worked as an assistant high school football coach; Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J., who was a recruiting target for Holtz in 1986 as a college prospect; Rep. Colin Allred, D-Texas, who played in the NFL; and Rep. Kam Buckner, D-Ill., who played football for the University of Illinois, have not posted acknowledging Holtz’s death. 

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