The Sunday Six
What I read this week and why
Happy Sunday, everyone… Welcome to the Six.
There’s a saying — including many memes circulating on the internet — about what ails youth and school sports.
The saying is almost always some version of this:
It’s not the children, it’s the adults
We have a recent example of adults abandoning all rational thought in suburban Cook County this past week.
Conant High School is located in Hoffman Estates and is part of School District 211. The girls volleyball team, a fall sport in Illinois, accepted a 24th member of the team for its upcoming season—a trans-identifying male. This teenage girl pretending to be a boy happens to be 6-foot-4, an optimal height for a volleyball player. This season, playing matches all over Chicagoland, the Conant girls volleyball team will have a biological boy smacking kill shots over the net at opposing players of the opposite sex.
As we’ve seen time and time again with the intersection of sports and trans rights, the issue is not the young person or even the parents. They can pretend all they want in the privacy of their own residence.
It’s when their fantasy invades public space, that’s when problems arise. Those in charge of their public space are forced to make decisions. Do we affirm or reject the fantasy? Again, in the case of Conant High School and District 211, a public school administration has chosen to validate a teenage fantasy at the expense of others.
Say, for example, this individual wanted to dress like a girl at school, that would be reasonably acceptable conduct within the public space. But this individual wants to play a sport, a sport where possessing a biological advantage—strength, height, bone density—puts others at risk. And that simply can’t be allowed.
Is there anyone in charge at that district saying what any rational human being knows to be true? Of course not.
So this fall, every time the girl’s volleyball team at Conant steps onto the court, it will be complicit in a lie. For not stopping this when it had the chance, everyone in the administration at that school and District 211 is responsible for perpetuating that lie.
And these people are charged with educating thousands of young people, a frightening reality to accept.
Let’s proceed with the Six.
PAT FITZGERALD SETTLES WITH NORTHWESTERN
This came down late this week… former Northwestern football coach Pat Fitzgerald settled his lawsuit against the university. Two years ago, Fitzgerald was fired by NU after allegations of hazing from previous players. The university president, Michael Schill, rather than wait for an investigation, chose to fire Fitzgerald, inarguably the most popular coach in the school’s history. As part of the settlement, Fitzgerald received an undisclosed sum (likely millions of dollars) and said he plans to resume his coaching career. Firing Fitz was a botched rush to judgment from a panicked administration, and this piece in USA Today sums up how the coach will forever live with the stain.
SEXTORTION AND YOUNG ATHLETES
From the “be wary” of technology department… a terrific — yet troubling — story from ESPN. Columnist Dan Wetzel with a deep dive and delivers the incredibly painful — yet increasingly common — story of a teen driven to suicide by an online scammer. “This predatory web has snared victims from all kinds of backgrounds. But growing numbers of young, male athletes are particularly vulnerable because of both their elevated social status locally and the desire to project a perfect image for potential college recruitment.”
THANK YOU, TYSON BAGENT
We’re sports heavy on the Six today… how about a positive story? It’s rare today to see active professional athletes overcome with emotion. Rarer still when the do so after signing multi-million dollar contracts. This week, the backup quarterback for the Chicago Bears, Tyson Bagent, agreed to an extension worth $10 million. For most Americans, that’s life-changing money, and Bagent wasn’t shy about sharing just how life-changing the money is. “A lot of people don't know this, but my dad is – he's my right-hand man and he didn't even have running water until he was in high school." Bagent gained a lot of fans this week for reasons other than being a professional quarterback. Powerful stuff.
BLUE STATES REBUFF IMMIGRATION ENFORCEMENT
A major story on the 2024 campaign trail… inbound illegal immigration has largely stopped. The borders are secure. But as for outbound immigration, or deportation? That continues to be a hot-button topic. Attorney General Pam Bondi sent letters to leaders of sanctuary states, forcefully requesting they comply with federal deportation laws. Blue state politicians are pushing back, refusing to comply. Where do we go from here? Likely more rhetoric from staged press conferences.
THE YEAR THE MODERN WORLD LOST ITS MIND
In the ‘I found this really interesting’ category… the lives of people who lived through the drastic technological, financial and societal changes that occurred between 1875 and 1920 are completely alien to us in 2025. But as Derek Thompson points out in this excellent article about the year 1910, a year he argues was one of the more consequential ever: “Great history books remind us that while history never repeats itself, its themes never stop rhyming, and we would all do well to listen with open ears.”
TOP 25 SPORTS MOVIES OF ALL TIME
And finally… we like our lists on the Six. A good one published by the Hollywood Reporter ranks the top 25 sports films ever. I must say I’ve seen most on this list, and a few I’d never heard of (“The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner?” Anyone?) The Top 5 for me are three on this list — “Hoosiers,” “Bull Durham,” “Slap Shot” — and two that are not — ”Miracle” and “Caddyshack.” So many great scenes in each, but this one from “Bull Durham” is one of the most rewatchable. “Why does he keep calling me ‘meat?’
Have a great rest of your weekend, friends. Stay and be cool.
We’ll see you back here on Sept. 7.
Have a suggestion for The Kerr Report? Send email to jonjkerr@gmail.com.
When I read about the Conant High School farce, it immediately takes me back to an incident at the school in which I had taught. 1st day of the new semester & I’m taking attendance and learning the students names/nicknames, a FEMALE student approaches me & says she would like to be called “Hank”. I told her that is not her name listed and that I could not do that because she is a female. She said she “identifies” as a male. Long story short, wasn’t going to happen and I told her I would call her by her last name, ie: “Ms. Whatever”. I knew this wouldn’t set well with her & the administration & within the next 2 days I get called into a meeting w/the dean, social worker, asst. principal, etc. The discussion goes back & forth as to why I wouldn’t identify the student as she wished, I threw out this scenario: “If a 6’0 tall girl weighing 75 pounds comes to me & says she’s fat and wants to lose weight, and asks me as a PE. Teacher what she can do to lose weight, do I tell her to cut calories and hit the treadmill before & after school?” The administration group all kind of chuckles and said obviously not. I then ask why is that? They say because she obviously has/is, and before they said the word “anorexic”, they caught themselves. I said the word for them and then went on to say, you guys would obviously not want me telling someone who is obviously mentally unstable to get on a treadmill, because we can all see the damage it would do, yet you all want me to tell someone a falsehood that we all see that is equally untrue and possibly dangerous. I ended the meeting by saying until you can tell me it’s ok to tell the anorexic girl to lose weight, I’m not gonna tell the girl she’s a boy. Never heard from them again.