Djokovic Out of U.S. Open Because of Idiotic Covid Rules

CLAY: News broke about an hour ago in the realm that Buck Sexton is now an expert. Sports prognosticator, Buck Sexton, has been on Patrick McEnroe’s podcast, right?

BUCK: Yes, sir.

CLAY: Talking about tennis. So, this is, to me, emblematic of the absurdity that is going on in our country —

BUCK: I do have a wicked forehand, Clay, for what it’s worth. I’m just saying.

CLAY: Still surrounding covid, Novak Djokovic, who is the best tennis player in the world and is trying to set an all-time major record, was not allowed to play in Australia. You may remember that he arrived in Australia, was held in quarantine, and then they refused to grant his entry to the country because he won’t get the covid shot. I believe he’s had covid at least twice. But is saying the covid shot is worthless for young and healthy people —

BUCK: And they were threatening to put him in jail for a while, if I recall. I mean, he was in quarantine, but then there was all… He might have fabricated documents; they were really flipping out about this.

CLAY: Yes, a hundred percent right. And so, he wasn’t able to play in the Australian Open. He was able to play in the French Open and in Wimbledon. He just sent out a message on social media, and I’ll read that for all of you. Djokovic wrote on Twitter:

Sadly, I will not be able to travel to NY this time for US Open. Thank you #NoleFam for your messages of love and support. ❤️ Good luck to my fellow players! I’ll keep in good shape and positive spirit and wait for an opportunity to compete again. 💪🏼 See you soon tennis world! 👋🏼

— Novak Djokovic (@DjokerNole) August 25, 2022

The reason he’s not allowed to come into the country is because we still have — and I cannot believe this exists. If you have not gotten the covid shot and you are not a citizen, you are not able to fly into this country. But, Buck, on our southern border, anyone can walk across our southern border effectively, enter the country, and they aren’t required to have gotten the covid shot at all.

So, the thing I would say, Buck, is, there’s lot of talk — you know this; I know many of you are driven insane by it, ’cause I certainly am — about, “Oh, this person, Megan Rapinoe is so brave for her super-left-wing political take. She won’t go visit the president. Oh, LeBron James! Oh, it’s so brave of what he’s saying” like, whoever it is.”

They get praised universally for left-wing political opinions that don’t actually cost them anything. Here Novak Djokovic is trying to become the greatest men’s tennis player in the history of the sport, and he has given up the Australian Open and the U.S. Open, two majors he would have been favored to win, strictly based on the principle that he won’t get the covid shot.

BUCK: It’s an enormous thing that he’s leaving on the table here, being possibly the greatest of all time.

CLAY: Yes.

BUCK: And it’s not just greatest of all time as argued by sports fans. I’m actually going to the U.S. Open next week, so —

CLAY: Are they still requiring the covid shot?

BUCK: No.

CLAY: Last year you went and you were supposed to show something. Have they given up on that?

BUCK: What happened last year was, for anyone who’s been out to the U.S. Open for tennis, they were saying, “All right, show me your vaccine passport.” I could have waved a flier for Bob’s Used Cars, and they would have said, “Looks good to me.” They were not exactly… That was always a big difference, by the way. There were the places that it was kind of like the college bars that some people may have gone to before they were 21.

I’ve heard rumors, you know, where if you show them a piece of paper that had your, “I’m 21” on it, but there are other places where they take out the black light and they, you know, bend it end-to-end and they’ll take it from you and put it on the wall and they’ll call the cops. That was the way it was with the covid vaccine passports. The U.S. Open, in terms of entry, was very lax. I don’t think there will be any requirement this year.

But that also, then, goes to what the heck are they doing not allowing the best tennis player in the world to go play. And I think that this is, at this stage — first of all, you brought up the illegal immigrant issue. Illegal immigrants are actually a protected class now because of the way Democrats view them, because of the political importance the Democrat Party of illegal immigrants. So, they have extra benefits. They get to break laws with impunity in a whole range of issues.

People say what? I don’t know. Document fraud, Social Security card fraud. There’s a lot of things that come in addition to illegality. But, yeah, no, they don’t get barred from the country based on vaccination status. They show up, wave down Border Patrol, and they don’t turn you away anymore because of — they never turn you away — pardon me — for vaccination status specifically. They could turn people away under Title 42 authority, just in general they could say you’re not allowed to come in right now because it’s a pandemic.

Novak Djokovic won’t be allowed — because why, exactly? Federal government won’t answer the question. ‘Cause I think for them at this point they’re trying to balance out who they punish for refusing to be obedient, but how long they’re willing to keep the charade going, too, because now it’s a charade. Now it’s clear idiocy — you and I have been arguing it’s bad for a year. But the point is it’s indefensible based on the policies that they’re now having to implement across the board.

CLAY: And what is particularly crazy is, Djokovic played last year in the U.S. Open when there was actually way more covid danger, if you want to even call it that. As an extremely healthy, fit athlete, in the 99.9 percentile, I think it’s fair to say, of men his age, the risk from covid for Novak Djokovic is zero. I mean, I think it’s legitimately zero. Because, to my knowledge, Buck, I haven’t seen a single elite athlete anywhere die with covid. Even die with covid.

And so the idea that in any way we are protected by restricting him is bonkers. Moreover, though, what I want you to pay attention to is, if you’re a sports fan out there and you’re listening to us right now — and I know many of you are — this story is not going to be hardly covered at all. And, really, from a political perspective, what Djokovic is doing here has a tremendous cost upon him. All these other athletes get praise, they make more money. People say, oh, Colin Kaepernick. Colin Kaepernick made way more money.

BUCK: It’s brand and bank account enhancing for the heroes of the left in sports.

CLAY: That’s right. And I don’t even necessarily consider Novak here to be a hero of the right. I just consider him to be somebody who is hyperrational and standing on principle.

BUCK: Oh, I’m… He’s probably left-wing in his politics. He’s Serbian; so, they’ve got different political considerations over there, but —

CLAY: I have no idea what his politics are. Similarly, like Aaron Rodgers, Kyrie Irving, I don’t know who they voted for, for president. I don’t know what their thought process is. But they were hyperrational, they looked at the data, and they said it makes no sense for me to submit to this covid shot mandate, and they got crushed for it, and no comparable benefit. To me, that’s the height of bravery. Standing on principle when you actually lose something is what bravery should be in the world of athletics.

BUCK: I think that Fauci should be asked, ’cause he’s doing these rehabilitate his image. Well, it should be a lot more rehabilitation than it is. But these doing these closing arguments for why he’s not just fleeing Republican congressional accountability. Somebody should ask him, hey, is it a good idea to bar people from entering the U.S. based on vaccination status at this point? Force him to answer that question, because you know what he would say? Oh, it’s complicated. There are a lot of factors. There’s a — this is what this slimy, disgraceful bureaucrat does every time, for “yes” or “no” questions where it’s basically, are you a moron, sir? Oh, it’s complicated. There’s a lot of data changes.

CLAY: I would just love for him to be asked, why is it that you can cross the southern border and we do not care about your covid shot status at all, but if you fly in legally as someone who is just coming to the United States to visit, you can’t enter unless you’ve gotten the covid shot? I would love to hear it.

BUCK: (impression) It’s because the southern border is a congregate setting where droplets can more freely spread, and the heat and sunlight added…” He would come up with something. I’m just telling you.

CLAY: I also would legitimately love to know, what would happen if Novak Djokovic showed up at the southern border and tried to walk across and claimed that he was — I mean, I’m not an expert in immigration policy. What would they do to him?

BUCK: Technically… Well, it’s a great question because you’re supposed to be barred under some immigration statutes from being able to reenter the U.S. legally if you’ve entered legally; so, he comes in and out obviously, he’s flying private so, you know, different situation. But, yeah, I mean, they’d probably say you’re barred from the country. Technically I think you’re supposed to be not able to come back into the U.S. legally for 10 years if you enter illegally —

CLAY: If you crossed illegally.

BUCK: People say, “Well, what about the people that are coming over legally now?” Yeah, they don’t make them leave. They’re not leaving. They’re certainly not flying private to Monaco every other weekend. So, yeah, Novak —

CLAY: Pretty good life. I just would love to see an absurdity like that play out.