I Dislike Your Favorite Team

We aren't really setting out to be contrarian here at IDYFT. No more than usual, I mean. Sure, barnyard stepped in, with a well-reasoned, historical and legal analysis to show that the NFL veterans who are pissed off at the union are misdirecting their anger, as is typical of a union rank & file and management dispute. (Barnyard's a lawyer!)

And I recently pointed out that CSI: Miami sucks.

But this McNabb "controversy" is so stupid, and yet it is still getting media attention. As if this is shocking news that black quarterbacks are treated differently.

A lot of blogs are talking, with tongue firmly in cheek, about McNabb's bad timing. That this interview came out just as he is struggling. But, as apparent voice of reason Sean Salisbury pointed out on NFL Live, we are still talking about a quarterback who is less than 12 months out from major knee surgery. I imagine McNabb knew that he might struggle in the opening of this season.

Just as Carson Palmer did, early in 2006.

And yet, two weeks into the season, Andy Reid is getting peppered with questions about "What's wrong with Donovan?" He had major knee surgery less than 12 months ago. Next question.

The media seems astounded. How could McNabb reach this conclusion? This is crazy talk! Black quarterbacks aren't unfairly judged anymore! Except, um, yes, they are. But the same people who are acting all astonished by this interview.

Trey Wingo, the normally solid point man for ESPN's GameDay, noted that Philly fans boo fucking everybody. And that's true. But it is a bit of a strawman, as McNabb never said that the Eagles faithful treat him worse than they did white quarterbacks. At least, I've never seen that particular quote. Though, really, if we wanted to, he could hark back to when he was drafted, and was booed lustily by idiots from Philly who packed MSG that yar.

What Trey, and every other ESPN anchor failed to mention, as well as the AP, ABC, Comcast Sports (who? Special hate coming there), MSNBC (hate there too) is that ABC/ESPN hired noted racist/reactionary/asshole Rush Limbaugh in 2003 to do their national football broadcast, and he quickly said the type of shit he was hired to say. CNN paraphrases: Donovan McNabb was overrated because the media wanted to see a black quarterback succeed.

This isn't ancient history people. This isn't slave owners in antebellum South denigrating the hard work of their slaves; this is 4 years ago, and a mainstream media source giving a known fruitcake airtime to denigrate the work of one Donovan McNabb, whose career numbers are, if not staggering, certainly pretty damn impressive. None of those media sources mentioned it in their critique of Donovan's "ill-timed" interview.

I suppose it is funny that in all the articles and commentary written about this shocking event(!), I had to go to blackathlete.net to get a commentary that included McNabb's career numbers:

After five Pro Bowls, a Super Bowl appearance in 2004, 106 games with passing numbers of 1941 completions (a 58% completion rate for all you haters), 22,504 yards, 153 TDs, and an additional 2,750 yards rushing with 24 TDs, he's earned the right to speak out about the treatment of the black quarterback like Super Bowl MVP Doug Williams and Hall of Famer Warren Moon.

Incidentally, the writer of that piece, Lloyd M. Vance, has written a lengthy, award-winning piece on Black Quarterbacks. Funny, no one in the mainstream media asked him his opinion. Also, King Kaufman, an oasis of intelligence in the swamp of idiot sportswriters reacted much the way I did, with a "No shit."

But while it is good to pat the people who get it right, it is more fun to mock the dumbasses who got it wrong. Let's catalog some of them, shall we?

Ray Didinger wrote for Comcastsportnet the following:
Sorry, Donovan, but you’re wrong.I could cite any number of white quarterbacks who were savaged by the fans and media. Joey Harrington said he received death threats when he failed to live up to his billing as a savior in Detroit. And what player was mocked more widely – or loudly – than the clueless Ryan Leaf when he flopped as a first round pick in San Diego?

Ahem, umm, over here, Ray. did you just compare Joey Harrington and Ryan Leaf to Donovan McNabb? Did you see his numbers up there? You are, unwittingly, or rather, stupidly proving his point. As mentioned before, McNabb has never suggested he's been wronged by fans; his whole point seems about overcoming expectations of college/pro coaches (count the number of black quarterbacks who are now receivers!) and the media. The Media, like you, Ray, you twat, when you compare him to one a white quarterback who was out of league before his rookie contract was over, and Joey fucking Harrington, who is about to replaced by a black quarterback, who was without a team for the first two weeks of the season. You are comparing Donovan McNabb to those asswipes? Fuck you. No wonder you write for a shitty cable company.

Mikie Celizic of MSNBC, who sports a fancy chapeau, writes:
McNabb tells HBO that people didn’t want blacks to play quarterback, which is like telling us that the United States used to be a colony of Great Britain. It’s a historical fact. He also says there aren’t a lot of black quarterbacks in the NFL today, and to tell you the absolute truth, I was grateful the Associated Press story about him listed the six African-Americans starting at quarterback in the NFL today because I had no idea how many there were. It wasn’t anything I ever thought about or cared about because it’s no longer an oddity.

And if African-American quarterbacks are held to different standards, why is Atlanta bringing in Byron Leftwich to replace their white starter? It isn’t because there’s a different standard, I can tell you that. It’s because the standard is winning.

To paraphrase: Because there are more (6 of them!) black quarterbacks, the problem is fixed. This whole racial aspect, which was cited by Rush Limbaugh not 5 years ago about this very quarterback I'm talking about, is as historical as the Revolutionary War. Also career loser Joey Harrington is being replaced by a black quarterback. QED, Donovan is wrong.

Response; Loosen the fancy fedora, Mike. It is cutting off circulation to your brain. To you, 1776 and 2003 may be equally in the past, you old panty sniffer, but for the man ridiculed by a known racist on ESPN, they may not be equally "historical."

Quick Kudos to Brian Billick, who has worked with a lot of Negroes:
Ravens coach Brian Billick has coached several African-American quarterbacks, going back to Warren Moon and Randall Cunningham in Minnesota, then Tony Banks, Cunningham, Jeff Blake and Anthony Wright in Baltimore before [Steve] McNair and [Troy] Smith. When Wright was the starter for the Ravens in 2003, Billick echoed McNabb's current remarks by saying that African-American quarterbacks were scrutinized more than white quarterbacks. Billick said today that he hadn't watched the interview with McNabb."I'd kind of like to think we passed all that, but that's probably a little naive, too," Billick said.

Special Award to Dildo CBS' Online Dildo Gregg Doyel. He gets a post all his own.