FURTHER CONFIRMATION THAT ESPN IS JUST MSNBC WITH BETTER VIDEO: “Savior and scourge, Fidel Castro was many things to many people. One thing all can agree on: He loved his sports.”

A tyrannical socialist who loves sports — now there’s a first! Oh wait:

It’s hard to believe that 14 years ago, an earlier, saner, less bloodthirsty ESPN was publishing pieces titled “Blood on the Rings,” a profile of the savagery of Uday Hussein, which quoted his former Olympic volleyball coach stating that in Saddam’s Iraq, “Being a well-known athlete can get you killed:”

Dozens of athletes and leaders in the Iraqi sports movement have been executed, in part because they were popular with the public. Many of them were framed under the pretext of political reasons — you need only to criticize the government — but the fact is Uday cannot stand to think that someone in Iraq could be smarter or more famous than him.

Nowadays, ESPN would headline that piece, “Savior and scourge, Saddam Hussein and his rambunctious sons were many things to many people. One thing all can agree on: they certainly loved their sports.”

Related: Matt Welch’s 2008 Reason obit for Severo Nieto, the Cuban baseball historian whose books were banned by Castro because he dared write about Cuba’s rich history in sports prior the “glorious” revolution.