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FreeRepublic , LLC PO BOX 9771 FRESNO, CA 93794
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Posted on 10/03/2003 10:38:35 AM PDT by Bicentennial_Man
Donovan McNabb seemed more saddened than angry as he talked with great dignity and poise about the latest in a career's worth of stupid comments from Rush Limbaugh, who this week ended his blessedly brief stint as part of ESPN's "NFL Sunday Countdown."
"It's not something I can sit here and say won't bother me," McNabb said at a news conference this week.
As he often does, Limbaugh inserted race into an argument where race wasn't the topic.
In a discussion about the early-season troubles of Philadelphia Eagles quarterback McNabb with panel members Steve Young, Michael Irvin and Tom Jackson, Limbaugh blathered, "I think what we've had here is a little social concern in the NFL. The media has been very desirous that a black quarterback do well.
"There is a little hope invested in McNabb and he got a lot of credit for the performance of this team that he didn't deserve. The defense carried the team."
The rest of the panel was talking football. Limbaugh turned it into race. That's what racists do.
My guess is he believes that the occupation of NFL quarterback is another once-exclusive piece that has been taken from his white world. And that makes Limbaugh nervous.
In his lame defense, Limbaugh tried to make his remarks sound benign. He said he wasn't talking about race. He was criticizing the media.
Which media? Last time I checked, Limbaugh, regrettably, is part of the media.
If he was talking about what he believes is the media's blind desire for McNabb to succeed, why wasn't he more specific?
Which writers? Which commentators?
And if this nebulous media is so blinkered by its passion for a black quarterback to succeed, why have writers been so hard on Daunte Culpepper, Kordell Stewart, Quincy Carter and Akili Smith?
Responsible members of the sports-journalism community cover black quarterbacks the way they cover, well, quarterbacks. There are no Limbaugh-like hidden agendas.
The ESPN crew was talking about McNabb's struggles since his injury last season. Limbaugh decided this was the prime time to launch a short, racist volley.
He dragged out a story — the black quarterback — that is almost as dated as the leather helmet. A long line of successful quarterbacks — from Doug Williams to Steve McNair, from Randall Cunningham to Michael Vick — has buried that story.
If sportswriters, as Limbaugh suggested, have been cheering for the success of a black quarterback, their cheers already have been answered in Minnesota, in Tennessee, in Dallas, in Jacksonville, in Atlanta and Philadelphia.
Limbaugh was as wrong as he is racist. He was as outdated as AstroTurf.
This was the real Rush Limbaugh. The original right-wing bash brother. This is Rush Limbaugh without Bill Clinton to kick around anymore.
This is the same man who once asked a caller to remove the bone from his nose. This is the same man who is the best friend of former Sonics coach Paul Westphal.
When Limbaugh came to visit Westphal in Seattle, Westphal invited the Sonics' assistant coaches to play golf with them. The coaches turned down the invitation because they didn't want to play with a racist.
Limbaugh claims the response that his remarks has sparked among sportswriters is proof that he is right. That, like so much of what he says, is stupid and wrong.
He skewed the record and it needed to be set straight. Hence, the media cacophony.
ESPN got what it deserved in Limbaugh. It got good ratings and bad karma. It got national attention and political ridicule. It got embarrassed.
The network thought Limbaugh would speak for the common man. Sadly, he speaks for many.
As McNabb said this week with calm and palpable sorrow, "I'm sure he's not the only one that feels that way. But it's somewhat shocking to actually hear that on national TV."
Despite Rush, "Around the Horn," and the cliché-driven soap opera "Playmakers," ESPN is a smart network that doesn't cower from the important social issues wrapped inside of sports.
Bob Ley's "Outside The Lines" consistently delivers some of the best sports journalism in the country.
Shows such as "SportsCenter," "The Sports Reporters," "Pardon the Interruption" and "Baseball Tonight" appreciably have raised the bar for TV sports reporting and commentary.
But Limbaugh was a mistake from the get-go. He isn't harmless like Charles Barkley clowning it up on TNT for the sake of a good time. Or Bill Walton testing our tolerance for outrageousness on ABC and ESPN.
He's a bad man with an evil agenda.
In his brief career as an NFL commentator, he tried to throw one quick sucker punch at a successful black quarterback.
Fortunately, he knocked himself out.
Steve Kelley: 206-464-2176 or skelley@seattletimes.com
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FreeRepublic , LLC PO BOX 9771 FRESNO, CA 93794
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It is in the breaking news sidebar! |
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And just how does this make Rush racist?
This guy should be fired for intolerance and insensitivity of racists. After all there are probably 280 million of us racists in the country.
And should not be posted on FR.
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Kelly:
Your ignorance and insularity as a journalist is appalling. What Rush was criticizing is precisely the herd mentality of the Dominant Liberal Media Culture that you are obediently carrying the banner for. Such as the unquestioning conformity to Political Correctness and the immediate damning of all who dissent from Liberal urinalist (sp?) orthodoxy.
Rush is not the only person who thinks McNabb is overrated and he is not the only person who thinks that journalists run in herds. Did you miss the fact that he said 'the defense is carrying this team" and that the defense has 10 starting black players?
If he is a racist, he needs to get better material.
What Rush's comment was pointing to was not even primarily Donovan McNabb's performance, but the racism inherent in the patronization of blacks by big media.
You need to get out more. There is a world outside of sheltered lib subculture in which you live.
Here he is correct. The NAACP and Congressional Black Caucus do this all the time!
Dear kiethtoo,
CONSERVATIVE RACIST!
Kelly
I'd be more willing to accept the notion that ESPN doesn't want political commentary from their sports commentators if they weren't providing Hunter S. Thompson with a several times a week column which he uses to bash the President and conservatives...
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