Darren Rovell, currently working for The Action Network, posted some remarkable tweets on Martin Luther King Jr. Day Monday. Rovell (seen above during his time at ESPN) revealed that he has an extensive collection of MLK artifacts, showed some of those off, and responded to criticism of him with “some of my closest friends are Black!” Here are those initial tweets (the first one is still up, the second was later deleted, but preserved in screengrabs):
My most cherished piece of Martin Luther King Jr. memorabilia are pages from the warden’s log books from the Birmingham Jail in 1963 when he wrote “Letter from a Birmingham Jail.”
King signed in and out his mail 12 times. pic.twitter.com/8yPLckCV9K
— Darren Rovell (@darrenrovell) January 17, 2022
Why’d you delete my man? @darrenrovell pic.twitter.com/vEr33gd9TO
— Mike (@MikeSanchize) January 17, 2022
Of course, many wondered why Rovell has “one of the largest Martin Luther King Jr. collections in the world.” To some who said he should have let these artifacts go on display in a museum, he responded that he was unwilling to with the Smithsonian because they required a donation rather than a loan, and that his attempts with other museums were thwarted by COVID:
I offered to put it on loan at the Smithsonian. They required me to donate it.
— Darren Rovell (@darrenrovell) January 17, 2022
Why? Why can’t they just display it. Why do they have to own it when I bought it?
— Darren Rovell (@darrenrovell) January 17, 2022
I called three other museums. They said after Covid we can talk more. Your narrative stinks.
— Darren Rovell (@darrenrovell) January 17, 2022
Rovell’s whole timeline of responses to his many critics is available (to those he hasn’t yet blocked, or those willing to go to the effort of an incognito tab) for those interested, but what’s perhaps more notable to a wide audience is some of the Rovell discussion this led to on Twitter.
Darren Rovell when he finds out the National Museum of African American History has new artifacts pic.twitter.com/L3rCJZvPqn
— Andrew Hammond (@ahammALDC) January 17, 2022
Darren Rovell to one of his many black friends: pic.twitter.com/RFTkD593Wo
— Slippery Pete (@HamsterDealer) January 17, 2022
Darren Rovell pic.twitter.com/bfQfi2vFOH
— Cam (non ball knower) (@Camorooni) January 17, 2022
Imagine thinking that you having a MLK signature and a few black friends is some sort of prize to flex. @darrenrovell pic.twitter.com/MNwUCkPGaK
— Bo Tilly 보석 🇰🇷✌🏽 (@BoTilly) January 18, 2022
It’s always wild when you think an artist has long since passed the peak of their career, and then they drop one of their biggest hits ever out of nowhere pic.twitter.com/lpfYhBRkDH
— actioncookbook (@actioncookbook) January 17, 2022
This is far from the first tweet on MLK Day to draw comment, and it’s not even necessarily on the level of Florida State’s 2019 gaffe. But it did draw a lot of critical reaction. And it even led to an edit to Rovell’s Wikipedia page, one saying he had “recently acknowledged having one of the largest MLK collections and several close black friends”:
https://twitter.com/rons_mkay/status/1483221619925520397
Anyway, this at least diverted attention away from everyone yelling at Rovell over a tweet criticizing a name, image and likeness (NIL) deal at Miami. (Most of the rest of his Twitter timeline is replies to critics there, usually involving him again posting a link to an article he wrote in December.) So on that level, the discussion of his “MLK collection” at least changed the conversation. And it got a lot of people who hadn’t thought about him in years to once again think of him. But not all of those thoughts were positive.
[Screengrab via @MikeSanchize on Twitter]
