Wednesday, September 19, 2007

Race Matters

Disclaimer: Donovan McNabb is my favorite quarterback. Donovan McNabb says black qb's are scrutinized differently. He's right. I don't understand why everyone, especially the talking heads on tv and radio want to be so dismissive when a black athlete brings up race. Race is still very much an issue in this country whether people want to acknowledge it or not. People want to compare his scrutiny to that of Rex Grossman, Chad Pennington, Joey Harrington and etc. with all due respect to those dudes, they aren't half the quarterback McNabb is. The only thing he and Rex have in common is the fact that they both lost in the Super Bowl. Rex and the crew gets scrutinized because more often than not, they suck. McNabb is actually a very good quarterback (when healthy) He has a very good career winning percentage and the Eagles have been perennial Super Bowl contenders year in an out. Up until the past couple of years McNabb has always been the best player on the Eagles team. He's had to be Superman because except for the one year T.O. was there, he's had a gang of receivers who couldn't start for any other team. He's always gotten the most out of them and he's never complained about it. We fans bitch about his receivers year in and out, but he always defends them. You have to admit it takes a pretty big man to defend the likes of Todd Pinkston and Freddie Mitchell, but anyway. When black athletes bring up racial issues in sports I think it would do us a world of good to listen. Everyone criticized Gary Sheffield when he said the MLB owners preferred Latino players because they were easier to control, but no one stopped to think about the fact that Sheff has been in the league for 20 years! He's seen and heard a lot. I've never played in the League, but I believe there's a lot of truth to what he said. A lot of the Latino players come from poor countries and they have to support their families by any means necessary. Is it so hard to fathom that when they get over here they'll put up with a lot of shit to stay in the league? I mean come on, people go to work everyday and they HATE their jobs, but they can't just quit. People have children to take care of and bills to pay, so sometimes you have to go to work and put up with a boss and co-workers who are assholes! Sometimes when you have to take care of your family you have to do shit that you don't want to do. That's life for a lot of people. Everyone doesn't have their dream job! If only the talking heads had tried to look at it from some other point of view. For whatever reasons sports fans seem to think that just because blacks, browns and whites come together to try to win a game that there's racial harmony. Well, there isn't. The people on the field may be all chummy with each other but don't be deceived, they are still working in corporate America. The NFL, MLB and NBA are no different than any other Fortune 500 company. There are politics involved in every decision. Everyone thinks one day race will no longer be an issue in this country, to those people I say take off the rose colored glasses. Look at the Jena 6, this is the world we live in and its 2007. Things aren't going to change any time soon. I'm just sayin......

2 comments:

Eboy said...

Co Co, it's a definite problem that McNabb brings up, but you know what? Sometimes, even if there is truth in certain situations, it's sometimes ok not to say anything. What prompted McNabb to make these comments? It wasn't asked of him in the interview. He volunteered it. And being a Dolphin fan, all I've seen in the last 10 years since Marino has left, is a parade of horrible white quaterbacks (with the exception of a brief Ray Lucas stint and the current Cleo Lemon backup)that have taken more scrutiny than ANY South Florida sports team or player. And I have a tremendous amount of love for the Giants, and I have never heard more rough dissing of one player than the criticism of Eli. So I think Donavan might have been a little touchy that day, because he needs to broaden his scope on his views of shitty analysis. The black/white issue of harmony is definitly true but the "extra" criticism Donavon speaks of may be a little exagerrated, if only for the fact that he has been the NFL's version of Karl Malone (great player who can't win the big one).

CoCo said...

None of the quarterbacks you mentioned are as good as McNabb so they are getting scrutinized for different reasons. They suck. Eli is Peyton's brother so he can't win no matter what he does. I just don't like to dismiss it when athletes talk about race, especially athletes who have been doing it for years. We don't know what McNabb hears behind closed doors so he might genuinely feel like he has to do a little extra. I don't dooubt his feelings about that.