What's an "bull pulpit?" Is it a breed of dog? Does Muhammad Ali own a kennel outfitted with a rape stand?
I am an unabashed Eagles fan and have been for my entire adolescence and adult life. As a season ticket holder, I attend all home games. I have stood (not sat) up in the stands through the entire Donovan McNabb era, screaming my support of the Eagles and McNabb. I learned to love Terrell Owens for what he gave the team that magic year when he hadn't become a cancer on the team and I learned to loathe him for being the self-serving cancer he was back in San Francisco.
Having said all that, when McNabb makes a content-free accusation against the fans and media in Philly because he's black and he doesn't get his props and "nobody wanted him to be a QB", I have to say, "bullshit, Donovan." He's right about one thing, as a starting QB in the NFL, you're expected to do a little bit more. Note, I didn't say black or white starting QB. I said starting QB period. What you're supposed to do is lead, not divide the team. You're supposed to earn the millions of dollars you're paid by scoring touchdowns and winning games. This is not what McNabb is doing now. He is failing miserably and publicly and then piling on top of himself by playing the race card.
Message to Donovan -- nobody wants you to succeed more than the long suffering fans in Philly. The media will be more than happy to print happy talk about you, if only they had some to print. Right now, what we have is a season about to unravel because management didn't sign the right talent, or enough of it, to catch balls, the defense is leaking oil, special teams were neglected, and our main weapon may be injured. Oh yeah, and our starting QB is playing more like Bart Simpson than Bart Starr. No, you're not the only reason and the only target of everyone's ire. But, you're the starting QB and, fair or not, the starting QB is usually the first place to begin pointing fingers when things go south.
One black QB did manage to do a little bit more this past Monday night -- it's a shame he had to be the black QB in the Redskins jersey however.
Illegitimi non carborundum.
Let me start by recalling one of my favorite lines from Raymond Chandler, as Marlowe is cooling his heels in an office at police headquarters, "The air in the room was as flat and stale as a football interview." Over time, the accuracy of this statement has only grown on me-- with a few notable exceptions, this is as true now as it was in the 50s.
So did McNabb think this was "explosive" or "provocative" when he said it? I have my doubts, because it hinges on what you think, "a little bit extra" means in the context of an NFL quarterback. I definitely don't think it means "twice as good", in fact, I think it refers to what the writeup hints at in the "company man" link-- I remember Karl Malone (albeit in the NBA) being referred to as "the whitest black man alive", which is a kind of pressure white QBs never have to face, I'd guess. Every NFL QB is supposed to win every game, and take their team to the Superbowl, which are high enough expectations to be sure; what I think McNabb is getting at is that a black QB also has to do it with a certain style, with a certain panache.
Does the NFL still have some issues with race? I'll agree with nmiguy that the league is light years ahead of the larger society on the matter, and probably has been for years. Which is also one way to parse McNabbs comments, as a player- not the first and hardly the last- who wonders why life can't be as good outside the lines as it is inside. YMMV.
All that being so, it was still a dumb thing to say. If you think the media and fans are going to blow anything you say out of proportion- and Philly fans certainly sound like they fit the bill- then you've got to be smart enough not to give them an excuse to go into hyperventilation mode once again. Save it for your memoirs; the fans still won't like it, but they won't be able to raise the same ruckus if aren't "sabotaging the team" either.
Oh, and to restate an earlier comment from when Limbaugh's comments first got him canned: the problem was less what he said than where he said it. That very week, IIRC, ESPN had run a segment on a white free safety who talked about how perceptions and the position. Clearly, the network wasn't, and remains, unafraid about addressing race-- with the right program. Limbaugh's problem was that he brought race into what was supposed to the pure sports part of the programming; if he'd said the same thing for an Outside the Lines segment, he would have gotten a lot of heat, but ESPN might not have fired him. (They might not have aired the segment, either, but that's another matter.) As I recall, Limbaugh was already showing that he was having trouble mixing with the other broadcasters. IMO, this was an excuse to drop a developing problem before it got any worse. In short, the guy had already misread the "script" once, and it was time for him to go.
Ex ignorantia ad sapientiam; e luce ad tenebras
McNabb's remarks are ridiculous. For example, he cites Jake Plummer, a guy who lost his starting job and was repeatedly booed by his own fans as a quarterback who didnt get crtiticized the way he does. And how would even know? Does he really pay careful attention to how fans and media treat quarterbacks on other teams? Obviously not.
But then elite athletes live in a bubble, and many say ridiculous things. It would be nice if the pro-black media treated the remarks of white athletes with as much politeness as they do the remarks of a has-been like McNabb.
