Since she was too busy playing Madden 17 to do it herself, allow me to apologize to the sports world on behalf of Meryl Streep.
You may have heard she went on bit of a rant after accepting the Cecil B. DeMille Award at the Golden Globe Awards. Screen Actors Guild rules stipulated she had to rail against Donald Trump, so I don't have an issue with that.
But why did she have to drag NFL and mixed martial arts into her speech?
Actually, we know why. Screen Actors Guild rules also require Hollywood stars to be self-absorbed, condescending dipwads. That's why Streep gazed out a room full of movie stars and said they all "belong to the most vilified segments in American society right now."
As Jay Cutler would say, "Huh?"
The most vilified segments of American society are referees, Cleveland Browns quarterbacks, NASCAR fans, Cutler and snotty Duke basketball players.
I'm guessing that Streep isn't familiar with Christian Laettner, J.J. Redick, Steve Wojciechowski, Greg Paulus or Grayson Allen. While she was probably at Spago on Tuesday night enjoying some Yukon Gold Potato Puree, Allen was in Tallahassee having 11,000 frothing FSU fans call him various expletives.
Streep also whined that if Trump's master plan to rid Hollywood and America of all foreigners is successful, "you'll have nothing to watch but football and Mixed Martial Arts, which are not the arts."
Forget that pro football and MMA have more diversity and foreign talent than 100 Academy Awards shows, who appointed Streep the Supreme Court Justice of Art?
Philosophers have spent centuries trying to define "art." All I know the National Endowment for the Arts once spent $15,000 on a photo of a crucifix in a jar of urine. If that's art, so is the exploration of bravery, sportsmanship, discipline and violence encompassed in the human conflict of sport.
Or maybe I'm just a gap-toothed fan clinging to my UFC and Tom Brady.
Streep didn't realize the irony when she pontificated, "An actor's only job is to enter the lives of people who are different from us and let you feel what that feels like."
Perhaps in her next movie the grand dame of Hollywood should play an MMA fan or a punky Duke basketball player. She might learn something about the fine art of humility.
