USA Today columnist Nancy Armour has never been one to hold her tongue when it comes to the hot-button issues of the day.
In recent years, she’s often made headlines with her columns, writing about the conversation around transgender athletes, Aaron Rodgers’ legacy, the fervor over Taylor Swift’s attendance at NFL games, and the “toxic cesspool” of X. As such, she’s gotten quite used to hearing critics bash her and her thoughts.
She considers criticism from certain pundits to be a sign that she’s doing something right.
Armour appeared on a recent episode of Good Game with Sarah Spain and was asked how she feels when she’s the target of harsh criticism from people like conservative media personality Megyn Kelly and Fox News’ Greg Gutfeld.
“How did you react or feel when Megyn Kelly, Greg Gutfeld, and others sic’d their viewers on you for the column that you wrote about [South Carolina coach] Dawn Staley and her support of trans participation in sport?” asked Spain.
After Armour said Staley was a “goddamn national treasure” for saying that transgender athletes “should be able to play” in collegiate women’s basketball, Kelly went on a tirade against her, referred to the columnist as “a goddamn national disgrace.”
“I mean, I consider it a badge of honor. If I’m pissing them off, I must be doing something right, is how I look at it,” said Armour. “But yeah, it is always weird when somebody tells me that, or, ‘Oh, I was watching Fox News,’ and I’m like, ‘Oh, God, no, please.’
“I’ve stopped caring. There are days that it depends on how much coffee I’ve had or whatever. But I mostly just don’t care because, and this is going to sound arrogant, and I don’t mean it to, but I know that I am on the right side of history in issues like that. It shocks me and enrages me that we haven’t caught up to that right side of history yet, but I know we eventually will. I am perfectly okay with taking up my positions on that.
“If the Megyn Kellys of the world don’t like it, I don’t much care.”
About Sean Keeley
Along with writing for Awful Announcing and The Comeback, Sean is the Managing Editor for Comeback Media. Previously, he created the Syracuse blog Troy Nunes Is An Absolute Magician and wrote 'How To Grow An Orange: The Right Way to Brainwash Your Child Into Rooting for Syracuse.' He has also written non-Syracuse-related things for SB Nation, Curbed, and other outlets. He currently lives in Seattle where he is complaining about bagels. Send tips/comments/complaints to sean@thecomeback.com.