Donovan McNabb, quarterback of the Philadelphia Eagles, was given an interview on HBO’s “Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel”, stating that black quarterbacks in the National Football League “have to do a little bit extra” due to harsher criticisms. McNabb says that if he were to pass for 300 yards, and his team were to win by a touchdown, the critics would say, “Oh, he could have made this throw here. We would have scored more points if he would have done this.” I agree with this statement, because from what I’ve seen in interviews, and in newspaper articles after the games, the critics do typically point this out, asking why they didn’t do this, or why they didn’t do that. When McNabb was asked about quarterbacks like Peyton Manning, Tom Brady, Carson Palmer, etc. are held to the same standards, McNabb replied “Let me start by saying, I love those guys. But they don’t get criticized as much as us. They don’t.” McNabb is one of six starting quarterbacks in the NFL, the others being: David Garrard (Jacksonville Jaguars), Vince Young (Tennessee Titans), Steve McNair (Baltimore Ravens), Jason Campbell (Washington Redskins), and Tarvaris Jackson (Minnesota Vikings).
In 2003, Rush Limbaugh of ESPN radio stated that he didn’t believe that McNabb wasn’t as good as perceived. “I think what we’ve had here is a little social concern in the NFL,” Limbaugh said. “The media has been very desirous that a black quarterback do well.” The thing that showed that he was wrong, I personally believe, is the fact that Limbaugh resigned from the show the following week. This, to me, shows that he knows he said something wrong. Instead of waiting for it to come back to him later on, he went ahead and resigned. This is the same sort of controversy that went on between the Rutgers’ women’s basketball team and Don Imus, of XM radio, for the most part. Imus said something considered racist toward them, and he ended up resigning from the station and, eventually, went to court over it.
1 comment:
McNabb is right. First of all, you stated 6 black quarterbacks in the NFL. But the truth is, there are only 3 that people talk about anymore today. Donovan McNabb, Michael Vick, and Vince Young. Football is the last of the worries for Michael Vick, so I'm just giong to leave him alone. But McNabb gets blamed for all of the Eagles struggles, and that just isn't right. I'm a huge philadelphia fan... and I think McNabb is a great quarterback. People are throwing the blame at him when he's got no one to throw to! The year they gave him a good wide reciever, they were a field goal away from a Super Bowl title.
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