The remarks in question surround Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Donovan McNabb, whose reputation, Limbaugh claims, is due to more than his football abilities alone.
“”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,”” Limbaugh said. “”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 motives for such a comment are certainly questionable ‹ though if a black analyst like Michael Irvin had made them, there wouldn’t be quite this stir. A line was crossed that should never have been approached.
In sports, the black and white is a referee’s uniform, not ethnicity. Light and dark are home and away, not skin colors. Black, white, blue or orange, if you score four touchdowns for my fantasy football team this week, I’m your biggest fan.
Limbaugh’s comments are the kind of thing that taints the purity of sports. Though athletic competitions have been used as backdrops to social, political and revolutionary statements in the past, the core of the games remains the same. Play because you enjoy it. Play to win.
There is a sort of natural selection inherent in sports because the strong win and the weak lose. The standard of excellence is neither blurry nor graduated, and it defies racial characterization. A basketball hoop’s diameter remains the same, regardless of the shooter. A shotput’s weight remains the same no matter who hurls it.
When ESPN hired Limbaugh to analyze the NFL this season, it failed to realize the effect that would follow. We as sports fans are polarized already. We have teams we support unconditionally and rivals we hate as second nature. The only races we care about are pennant races, the Kentucky Derby and the Daytona 500.
Less Limbaugh is fine by me, but I hope that his replacement will take heed. Martin Luther King Jr. described “”that day when all of God’s children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands,”” and had he lived to see today, I think he would smile each time two teams line up for the national anthem before kickoff.
Donovan McNabb may be overrated, but to define his perception in terms of race was inappropriate. Sports possess their own language with which to express such thoughts. The language of passer ratings, touchdown-to-interception ratios and yards per completion tells the story of an athlete’s performance, and the wins and losses next to his team’s name define his perception.
Let’s leave race for Jesse Jackson to discuss. At least he’ll be more entertaining in making a mess of things.
