Seattle Times sports columnist Matt Calkins quits over spiked Sophie Cunningham column

Matt Calkins refused to be muzzled.

A representative for the Seattle Times declined comment to The Post.

"I sent a draft after talking to my editor the morning of Friday, July 31, telling him there was no rush to run it... Thursday afternoon, my editor informed me that it wasn't going to run because I didn't tell him I was doing this in advance. I didn't buy this reasoning. If that were the case, the piece would have been killed on the spot, not passed through the hands of multiple editors over several days."

"To be honest, I'm scared s–tless right now... But that fear beats the indignity of being muzzled."

"One was a piece questioning whether players for the U.S. Women's Soccer Team were really the victims of discrimination in their equal-pay lawsuit. Another was a more general column on cancel culture in sports. The last, written shortly after George Floyd's death, implored people to listen to state-champion basketball coach Mike Bethea — a black man urging the public not to stereotype cops. The common theme? All of these challenged prevailing newsroom narratives and likely would have triggered the outrage mob."