Double standard: It’s only a controversy when Caitlin Clark walks out with Morgan Wallen
Caitlin Clark’s surprise outing with Morgan Wallen during her concert Saturday night in Indianapolis sparked a predictable reaction online.
Idolized racing commentator Van Lathan Jr. fanned the flames with a viral post, writing “lol” above a clip of Clark and Wallen.
ESPN guest writer Jayson Buford went further, calling Clark “uncool” in a Substack article after the appearance.
“Caitlin Clark is beloved by most people despite her proximity to the type of whiteness that is inherently frightening,” Buford wrote. “So why did she date Morgan Wallen? It’s so cheesy. Just be cool.”
Inherently scaryeh?
Indiana Fever guard Caitlin Clark waits to check in for a game against the Dallas Wings on May 9, 2026, at Gainbridge Fieldhouse in Indianapolis, Indiana. (Brian Spurlock/Sportswire Icon)
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Fox News Digital compiled other notable reactions, including one user responding to a Barstool post: “She’s going with a racist? That’s not a good look.”
Nearly two days later, similar comments are still surfacing. It’s pathetic and hopeless. This also smacks of a double standard.
The outrage is, in part, linked to a recording of Wallen using a racial slur in 2021. In reality, however, the reaction reflects the contempt critics like Lathan have for Clark. They want to portray her as a villain in the culture war to satisfy their contempt for a straight woman achieving superstardom in women’s basketball.
Wallen is one of the country’s biggest musical stars. Given the chance, few people would turn down the opportunity to hang out with him at a concert, including most athletes, black and white. Patrick Mahomes, Myles Garrett, Marshawn Lynch and Mike Tyson all did it on Wallen’s tour. Yet there was no such outrage when they did it.
Morgan Wallen performs at the 16th Annual Darius and Friends St. Jude Benefit at Ryman Auditorium in Nashville, Tennessee on June 2. (Jason Kempin/Getty Images for ABA)
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One also can’t help but notice the morality monitors’ lack of fury when players and coaches embraced other musicians, those with darker pasts than Wallen.
Chris Brown is a serial abuser. And yet, Paige Bueckers and Coach Dawn Staley received no backlash for attending his concerts and posing with him last summer.
We asked Lathan why he seemed more offended by Clark leaving with Wallen than by Staley and Bueckers celebrating Brown. He responded by blocking me on
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Indiana Fever’s Caitlin Clark reacts to fans before the WNBA All-Star basketball game in Indianapolis on July 19, 2025. (AP Photo/Michael Conroy, file)
To put it bluntly, Clark’s detractors are not serious people. They are cutthroat scammers trying to seduce the racist corners of the internet.
Caitlin Clark has done nothing in her career to involve herself in discussions of racism. The reality is that some black players and members of the media cannot accept that she is the most popular woman in basketball and therefore project their own racism onto her.
The response to her leaving with Morgan Wallen was just another excuse to try to smear her on racial lines.
