Rush ESPN Challenge

Lane over at Broken Goalie issues a challenge to me in his post here, over the Rush ESPN story because of some comments I left on his site when he was complaining about ESPN hiring Rush Limbaugh for Sunday NFL Countdown.

So were the comments made by Rush racist? Here's what he said:

McNabb, he said, is “overrated ... what we have here is a little social concern in the NFL. The media has been very desirous that a black quarterback can do well-black coaches and black quarterbacks doing well.” “There’s a little hope invested in McNabb, and he got a lot of credit for the performance of his team that he didn’t deserve. The defense carried this team.”

Is this a valid opinion, or should it be attributed to racism?

1. Does the media desire to see black quarterbacks and black coaches succeed?

2. Has McNabb received credit for the team's success that should arguably been awarded to the defense?

If you Google "black quarterbacks", (and omit "Rush") it's pretty obvious that the media has covered the race of quarterbacks extensively. Naturally you have the milestones of the first black quarterback, the first black quarterback to win the Super Bowl and MVP, and finally in 2001 it seemed to culminate in agreement that the race barrier for quarterbacks had been broken in the 2001 playoffs:

Here we go again. Sports fans can't turn on the tube or open the morning paper without yet another soft-edged commentary about "Black quarterbacks scoring in the NFL" (Los Angeles Times) or the "Change in QB thinking" (Gannett News), as if a black pro football quarterback is a recent phenomenon.

Is race still a factor in reporting on football? See here and here.

It seems to me there is a lot of evidence that the media has often focused on race when reporting on football. I'm not saying there's anything wrong with it. I'm just saying that it has been a media issue. In fact, there's a famous question and answer, (frequently misreported), that highlights the phenomenon:

The mere mention of the question causes uproarious laughter every year around Super Bowl media day. It's the kind of question all reporters go to great pains to never ask. "So, Doug (Williams) how long have you been a black quarterback?"

Well, you can stop laughing. According to a report in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution , the question was never asked.

The asker of the alleged question, Butch John, now a reporter for the Louisville Courier-Journal , who at the time was a sportswriter for the Clarion-Ledger in Jackson, Miss., remembers exactly what happened.

"For about 20 minutes, Doug's getting all these questions about the significance (of Williams' race)," said John, who had covered Williams' brother, Mike, at Grambling, where Doug also starred. "All these questions, blah-de-blah-de-blah. Never let up. Being from the South, having covered Grambling and his brother, Mike, Doug being a black quarterback was no big deal to me.

"This is what I said, verbatim: 'Doug, it's obvious you've been a black quarterback all your life. When did it start to matter?' Everybody got a pretty good laugh out of it. His answer was that it didn't matter till he got to the NFL.

The NFL has made it even more of a focus by mandating that a minority candidate be interviewed for any head coaching vacancy, and backing it up with a $200,000 fine for non-compliance, after litigation was threatened by Johnny Cochran.

On to the second part of the question, has McNabb received credit that was due to his defense?

I gave up on following football after the Vikings let me down repeatedly by choking in the Super Bowl year after year. A girl can only take so much. So, I'm not really qualified to say whether McNabb is overrated, and if so, is it due to the media wishing to see black quarterbacks succeed.

So, I turn to the media, and the verdict is mixed.

Allen Barra in Slate claims "Rush Limbaugh Was Right":

McNabb has started for the Eagles since the 2000 season. In that time, the Eagles offense has never ranked higher than 10 th in the league in yards gained. In fact, their 10 th -place rank in 2002 was easily their best; in their two previous seasons, they were 17 th in a 32-team league. They rank 31 st so far in 2003.

In contrast, the Eagles defense in those four seasons has never ranked lower than 10 th in yards allowed. In 2001, they were seventh; in 2002 they were fourth; this year they're fifth. It shouldn't take a football Einstein to see that the Eagles' strength over the past few seasons has been on defense, and Limbaugh is no football Einstein, which is probably why he spotted it.

The news that the Eagles defense has "carried" them over this period should be neither surprising nor controversial to anyone with access to simple NFL statistics—or for that matter, with access to a television. Yet, McNabb has received an overwhelming share of media attention and thus the credit. Now why is this?

(Snip)

In terms of performance, many NFL quarterbacks should be ranked ahead of McNabb. But McNabb has represented something special to all of us since he started his first game in the NFL, and we all know what that is.

Limbaugh is being excoriated for making race an issue in the NFL. This is hypocrisy. I don't know of a football writer who didn't regard the dearth of black NFL quarterbacks as one of the most important issues in the late '80s and early '90s. (The topic really caught fire after 1988, when Doug Williams of the Washington Redskins became the first black quarterback to win a Super Bowl.)

So far, no black quarterback has been able to dominate a league in which the majority of the players are black. To pretend that many of us didn't want McNabb to be the best quarterback in the NFL because he's black is absurd. To say that we shouldn't root for a quarterback to win because he's black is every bit as nonsensical as to say that we shouldn't have rooted for Jackie Robinson to succeed because he was black. (Please, I don't need to be reminded that McNabb's situation is not so difficult or important as Robinson's—I'm talking about a principle.)

Consequently, it is equally absurd to say that the sports media haven't overrated Donovan McNabb because he's black. I'm sorry to have to say it; he is the quarterback for a team I root for. Instead of calling him overrated, I wish I could be admiring his Super Bowl rings. But the truth is that I and a great many other sportswriters have chosen for the past few years to see McNabb as a better player than he has been because we want him to be.

The majority in the middle disagree with Rush's analysis, but don't interpret his comments as racist. An example from Sports Illustrated:

Limbaugh was not making a racist statement about black quarterbacks. He was making a racist statement about me. Actually, about me and my colleagues. But I feel like he was talking to me. I am not going to make this about any political view Limbaugh might hold about affirmative action--or about anything, really, except his exact words. And I can tell you that they are incredibly absurd.

(Snip)

Maybe, I thought, I'm being naïve here. Maybe someone here has an agenda I haven't heard of. I called Reuben Frank of the Burlington County (N.J.) Times . He has covered the Eagles' beat since 1987. He's covered quarterbacks white ( Bubby Brister ,Bobby Hoying ,Ty Detmer ,Koy Detmer ) and black ( Randall Cunningham ,Rodney Peete , McNabb), and coaches white ( Rich Kotite , Reid) and black ( Ray Rhodes ).

I wondered in the past 17 seasons whether Frank had ever heard in the press room or on the practice field, or while having a few beers the night before games, a colleague talking about how great it was to see a black quarterback or coach succeeding. I wondered whether Frank had ever heard a fellow journalist say that he and his peers should write nice things about the black people and not such nice things about the white people. "In all the years I've covered this team,'' Frank said, "nobody I've heard has ever said anything remotely along those lines. I don't think of Donovan McNabb as a black quarterback and I didn't think of Rhodes as a black coach. They're a quarterback and a coach. Maybe someone in our business thinks the way Limbaugh said, but I haven't met him.''

On the left we have The Seattle Times Steve Kelly, Limbaugh comments betray his racism:

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.

Here's my view, (the masses sigh with relief.) Rush may have been wrong. I do think the media has played the race card when it comes to sports and specifically black quarterbacks, but since black quarterbacks have become commonplace, I'm not convinced the media gives them favorable treatment today. (though they may have in 2001.)

I do think it's likely McNabb has received more credit for the success of his team because he's the quarterback.

I don't believe the comments were racist. I think it was a comment on media coverage that should have been challenged and discussed.

What I do find racist is the obvious pressure put on the other participants in the show for not challenging Rush. Why is it incumbent on them to have had a negative reaction to his opinion? Is it simply because of their race?

Reporters asked McNabb if he thought the other ESPN commentators on the set, including two black former NFL players, Tom Jackson and Michael Irvin, should have confronted Limbaugh.

Why is it pertinent to the discussion that two of the other hosts are "black former NFL players."

From their show comments this weekend:

Berman said he "had been kicking himself all week" for not stepping in. Young added: "Everyone at ESPN missed it."

"I’ve asked myself a thousand times, `How could this happen?"’ Jackson said. "When Rush made his statement, I started to think in football terms. Do I wish I had caught it? Absolutely. Mostly I regret it for Donovan McNabb’s sake."

When it happened, no one at ESPN was offended by the comment. No phone lines starting ringing. Now they are being made to feel guilty for that. In fact, it wasn't even an issue until the Philadelphia media made it one on Tuesday.

What does that tell you?

First the only politically correct discussion about race is the oppression of the minority by the majority. Any other discussion will be called racism, especially if the source is a conservative.

Second, once we decide any comment is racist in nature we expect that everyone else should have recognized it and reacted to it according to our expectations. If you are a minority, our expectations for your reaction is different than our expectation for someone who isn't. We are going to hold you to a different standard.

If that isn't racism, what is it?

DC

Comments

[john]

D_C- if Rush was NOT trying to make race an issue, why wasn't his statement simply confined to 'McNabb is overrated', and let it flow from there. If he felt strongly enough about it, he could have brought it up(preference for black quarterbacks in the NFL) as a later part of the conversation, if not touched upon by that time? I have a hunch that he would have had to bring it to the table, because this would not be on the minds of the others there, simply because it is a non-issue.

I had the pleasure of watching McNabb in college, here at Syracuse University, and can't remember the subject being bruted about here, even though this is a rather provincial 'burg... maybe it was because he followed another QB, who was black, that was also a crowd pleaser.... McNabb is and was an electrifying player- great scrambler, good arm, and a lineman's mentality- he would mix it up with the biggest when he ran, and gave as good as he took.....

Perhaps I am not an average fan. I don't usually know a player's stats, who the played for before, or what college they attended. I do know when I see a good play, I appreciate it for what it is, not the color, salary, sexual preference, number of homes, etc that some broadcasters and analysts, and Rush- I put him separately because he isn't an announcer or analyst by any means- seem to be 'gee whizzing' over, or what is important to them, whatever the reasons....

Rush got into trouble because he wasn't in his "megadittos" territory, where people seem to glorify his every word and thought. He was just being his usualomnipotent self, and got his hand whacked for being an idiot. Then, to go and pout about it with his regulars and cry that his "free speech" was being abridged.... that was too much. He would have been much better served by saying that he may have broached the subject in the wrong way, that this was a possibility, and let it flow from there, but his ego wouldn't permit it.

So, what may have been an interesting addition to the inane sports talk that usually takes place on this type of show, he is on the sidelines...

john

[DC]

Hi John,

Thanks for stopping by!

My point is that Rush didn't make any statement about McNabb's race in relation to his performance as a quarterback, which would have been racist.

He said that the media overrated McNabb because they want to see black quarterbacks and black coaches succeed.

What I find interesting is Rush is not the first one or the only one to have made this observation. Allen Barra, sportswriter published in Slate, Salon, WSJ, and Village Voice, and also book author, said essentially the same thing in a Salon article in Jan. 2002 you can read here:

http://archive.salon.com/news/sports/col/barra/2002/01/23/qbs/

Where was the outrage? Has Barra lost his job or been chastised? No?

Also, if what Rush said was so bad, why was there no reaction from his co-anchors, or in calls to the network when it happened? Are we really unable to recognize a racist statement unless we are told it's racist by the Philadelphia media?

Rush may well have been wrong that the media continues to treat black quarterbacks any differently, but that does not make his comment about the media racist.

DC