Jeff Passan was outspoken about the U.S. Department of Defense’s decision to remove an article detailing Jackie Robinson’s military history. On Tuesday night, the ESPN MLB insider tweeted, “This used to be the URL for a story on the @DeptofDefense website about Jackie Robinson’s time in the Army. The story has been removed,” sharing the now-defunct article’s link. He added, “The ghouls who did this should be ashamed. Jackie Robinson was the embodiment of an American hero. Fix this now.”
This used to be the URL for a story on the @DeptofDefense website about Jackie Robinson’s time in the Army. The story has been removed. The ghouls who did this should be ashamed. Jackie Robinson was the embodiment of an American hero. Fix this now. https://t.co/rEpZFUbJ8h
— Jeff Passan (@JeffPassan) March 19, 2025
Passan’s tweet followed reports from various outlets highlighting the removal of several historical webpages, seemingly linked to President Donald Trump’s executive order on diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts (DEI). KSBW.com reported that the article originally titled “Sports Heroes Who Served: Baseball Great Jackie Robinson Was WWII Soldier” now leads to a URL containing “deisports,” but redirects users to a “404 – Page Not Found” error. A search of the Army’s website for “Jackie Robinson” yields 18 results, with 14 now deleted, including articles titled “U.S. Army Soldiers face off against Romanian National Team in Jackie Robinson Trophy baseball game” and “‘Wagonmasters’ Ruck to Honor Jackie Robinson.”
The Department of Defense stated that the removal of pages honoring a Black Medal of Honor recipient and Japanese American service members was accidental, although a Pentagon spokesperson robustly defended the administration’s stance against DEI efforts. The affected pages exhibited the same “dei” addition in their URLs as the now-removed Robinson article and similarly redirected to a “404 – Page Not Found” error before being later restored.
While ESPN personalities have not frequently been involved in political controversies, this situation clearly illustrates the intersection of current administrative policies with sports—a subject Passan is understandably passionate about. It will be interesting to see whether his post, which garnered over 5,800 retweets and 24,000 likes by Wednesday morning, leads to any significant changes or merely prompts the DOD to reinforce its stance.
