The Athletic Doesn't Write About LaVar Ball, Except When They Do

LaVar Ball backlash is particularly high this week. Seeking to capitalize, The Athletic trumpeted a “no LaVar Ball” policy as part of a push to try the subscription service.

Stewart Mandel, editor-in-chief of The Athletic CFB, tweeted that the company had an official policy regarding the bombastic helicopter parent.

It is unclear when this policy took effect as Anthony Slater mentioned LaVar Ball in a piece published 13 hours ago.

The relevant section, per Andrew Bucholz of Awful Announcing:

"“That included the public controversy swirling around the Lakers organization, centered around his friend Luke Walton, who continues to be publicly criticized by LaVar Ball, the father of Luke’s starting point guard, Lonzo Ball.”"

A search of The Athletic’s archives reveals a Dec. 5 column titled, “Dear LaVar, It’s time to let your sons live their own lives and learn from their mistakes” and a Nov. 13 column titled, “Time for LaVar Ball to drop the showmanship and start parenting.”

It is true that, comparatively, The Athletic does not frequently fish in the Ball family pageview pond. To say that there’s no LaVar Ball content, however, is inaccurate.

Then there’s this brain-bender: isn’t mentioning Ball’s name in the push a violation of the policy? The first rule of Fight Club was never talking about Fight Club.

There’s an argument to be made that The Athletic, in this push, is using Ball to boost the bottom line, the very practice they claim to be running from.