I have come to respect Donovan McNabb as an athlete and a person throughout his NFL career, but his comments during an HBO interview last night about African American quarterbacks taking more criticism than their white counterparts is simply off base.
There's no question McNabb takes his share of abuse in Philly, one of the toughest sports towns on quarterbacks, but it's not much different than in any other city with any other quarterback - black or white.
John Elway got skewered in Denver in his early days with the Broncos.
Peyton Manning was constantly questioned about whether he'd ever win a big game.
Boomer Esiason was often roasted in New York during his days with the Jets.
Phil Simms was booed when he was drafted by the Giants, and booed until he broke out in 1984 and turned into a Super Bowl winner two years after that.
And Rex Grossman is ripped mercilessly in Chicago, even though he helped the team get to the Super Bowl last season.
I can understand that McNabb would be insulted by the haters in Philly, because there are many of them. But to dress it in the cloak of racism is just wrong.
Fans don't care if their quarterback is black or white, they only care if he wins football games. McNabb has won his share in Philly, but he's also lost his share, too. Just look at all those NFC Championship Games he couldn't win. And the Super Bowl, too.
McNabb has mostly been all about what's right with today's athlete. But on this topic, he didn't get anything right.
Comments (1)
Enough already. It's getting old. The only time we hear about race anymore is from black athletes using it as an excuse for their actions and shortcomings.
Donovan needs to look at Charlie Frye who was traded, or Chad Pennington whose injury was cheered.
Then you have Isahia Thomas who intimates that it's different for a blackman than a whit man to call a woman a B***h.
ESPN hires a talk show host (Steven A Smith) who's primary shtick is to capitalize on the color of peoples skin.
Differentiating in any way based on the color of a mans skin, is racism, period.
Let's encourage all man, black, white, brown, red, whatever, to quit pointing out our differences and hold all men to the same standard.