Friday, October 03, 2003

I meant to jump on the Rush Limbaugh issue earlier, before the whiny blowhard had a chance to bail out of his undeserved ESPN gig. Unfortunately, I was tied up in one of those quasi-secret weekly media conference calls. You know, the ones in which thousands of members of the stinking liberal media set an agenda on what we'll cover and how we'll slant it.

You haven't heard of it?

Well, surely you've heard of our annual meeting in the same stadium as the Super Bowl but one night later. We all wear our yellow capes and hoods, of course, and it's quite a rousing rally.

Apparently, some rat has been taking notes and leaking information to Limbaugh. That must be how he knew we had designated Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Donovan McNabb as a poster boy. I mean man. Poster man.

Limbaugh must have felt awfully smug and righteous to "out" us on national TV last weekend when the roundtable discussion on "Sunday NFL Countdown" turned to Mc-Nabb and his slow start through two games.

Calling McNabb overrated, Limbaugh said: "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."

Nice work. Way to Rush to judgment.

Just one problem.

The joke was on him.

There is no liberal media convention. No weekly conference call. No conspiracy.

The only one with his butt hanging out was Limbaugh, who initially refused to comment on his comments, then reconfirmed them.

He pontificated on how he must have been right because of the swift, loud and negative response to his statements. Yeah, that's good logic. It couldn't be that the response was appropriate.

Limbaugh also said he had "no racist intent whatsoever."

Intent is in the mind of the blowhard. Racism is a matter of definition and public perception. Words don't have to be anti-black to be racist.

When someone generalizes and stereotypes a huge, diverse group such as "the media," and says that group has some sort of one-headed agenda for certain athletes based on their skin color, that's racism.

The fact that Limbaugh thinks of Mc-Nabb as a "black quarterback" gives him away. It's too bad we aren't past that. He says it's the media who treat McNabb differently, but he is the one defining McNabb by his skin color. Are white guys like the Steelers' Tommy Maddox "regular quarterbacks" to Limbaugh?

Sadly, Limbaugh isn't the only one hanging on to racism in sports, and for some reason quarterbacks remain a focal point of that years after it stopped being a big deal for a college or pro team to have a black man taking snaps.

McNabb knows it. He said someone on the ESPN set immediately should have called Limbaugh on his remarks. He also said he has no desire to clear the air with Limbaugh.

For the record, two poor games does not mean McNabb is overrated. He had a tremendous career at Syracuse and now is a Pro Bowl player who has helped the Eagles get to the NFC championship game twice. He also started to snap out of it shortly after Limbaugh's comments Sunday, passing for 172 yards and rushing for 47 in a 23-13 win against Buffalo.

McNabb and coach Andy Reid both fielded criticism for Philadelphia's 0-2 start, but I didn't hear anyone bring up the fact that Reid is white.

Locally, there was probably at least some element of racism behind Kordell Stewart's fall from grace with Steelers' fans. He certainly wasn't the first starting quarterback to be run out of town when his performance waned, but I don't recall that his white predecessors had to face unending rumors and innuendo about their personal lives as Stewart did.

If Maddox should falter this season, let's hope Steelers fans will start screaming for the backup as they always do and not waver just because Charlie Batch is black.

I am certain racism played at least a small part in Pitt fans' vocal preference for freshman quarterback Tyler Palko over the more experienced Rod Rutherford early last season.

I received a lot of critical responses when I addressed the issue in a story on Rutherford, who is black, later that season. But what those people who chastised me didn't know about were the e-mails I had been getting from so-called fans who pined for Palko, who is white.

They derided Rutherford. Some complained about Pitt relying on Rutherford when it was obvious to them that black quarterbacks never get the job done. They made insinuations about me for what they perceived as positive comments on Rutherford.

A year later, Rutherford, a senior, is being mentioned as a potential Heisman Trophy candidate and NFL hopeful.

"I don't think race should be part of it," Rutherford said this week. "If you give a person an opportunity to do whatever he wants to do, and that person takes advantage of it and gives it 110 percent, I think anybody can be successful at whatever they do."

Amen, brother.

E-mail this story   Print this story