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......