World Cup Tallies Another Human Rights Abuse

The legacy of the World Cup is intertwined with human rights abuses and propagandizing on behalf of killers and despots. The 2026 tournament has already sullied itself with things like the handing of a totally real FIFA Peace Prize to Donald Trump, and FIFA president Gianni Infantino's botched attempt to engineer a Palestine-Israel handshake photo op. Even Fox, the tournament's broadcast partner in the United States, has taken it upon itself to further make watching this World Cup an act of moral compromise. In a particularly dastardly move, the network has decided to inflict Jameis Winston on its viewers.

Winston is apparently the "Fox Sports FIFA World Cup correspondent" for the tournament this summer. What does that mean? I have no idea, but it does involve giving Winston a microphone and a platform to use that microphone, so it can't be good. Winston's bullshit-as-motivational-speeches gimmick gets a lot of play, and attempts to paper over other horrible shit, but I can't imagine it translating well to a sport that he surely doesn't watch regularly. Then again, Alexi Lalas, who shows up in the announcement video, is employed by Fox already, so it's not like knowledge is a prerequisite.

This feels like another misunderstanding of what people actually want from a World Cup broadcast. What's the goal here, other than treating anyone curious about the World Cup like morons? Is Fox hoping that a few hundred Giants fans will tune in to see Winston make jokes like, "I'm talking futbol, with the feet" on air? That he tells some poor unsuspecting Moroccan fan to eat a W, in hopes of getting a viral clip out of the deal? It's inexplicable.

On the other hand, given that this World Cup seems committed to adding on layers of evil and discomfort at every level, Winston actually does feel like a pretty spot-on addition to the broadcast.