I seem to recall author Milan Kundera saying that “all of my books could be called The Unbearable Lightness of Being.” Foxsports.com’s Jason Whitlock shows similar thematic discipline with his firm commitment to a single truth. (The Unbearable Heaviness of ‘Bojangling,’ perhaps?)
African-American football players caught up in the rebellion and buffoonery of hip hop culture have given NFL owners and coaches a justifiable reason to whiten their rosters. That will be the legacy left by Chad, Larry and Tank Johnson, Pacman Jones, Terrell Owens, Michael Vick and all the other football bojanglers.
In terms of opportunity for American-born black athletes, they’re going to leave the game in far worse shape than they found it.
It’s already starting to happen. A little-publicized fact is that the Colts and the Patriots ” the league’s model franchises ” are two of the whitest teams in the NFL. If you count rookie receiver Anthony Gonzalez, the Colts opened the season with an NFL-high 24 white players on their 53-man roster. Toss in linebacker Naivote Taulawakeiaho “Freddie” Keiaho and 47 percent of Tony Dungy’s defending Super Bowl-champion roster is non-African-American. Bill Belichick’s Patriots are nearly as white, boasting a 23-man non-African-American roster, counting linebacker Tiaina “Junior” Seau and backup quarterback Matt Gutierrez.
For some reason, these facts are being ignored by the mainstream media. Could you imagine what would be written and discussed by the media if the Yankees and the Red Sox were chasing World Series titles with 11 African-Americans on their 25-man rosters (45 percent)?
We would be inundated with information and analysis on the social significance. Well, trust me, what is happening with the roster of the Patriots and the Colts and with Roger Goodell’s disciplinary crackdown are all socially significant.
Hip hop athletes are being rejected because they’re not good for business and, most important, because they don’t contribute to a consistent winning environment. Herm Edwards said it best: You play to win the game.
Randy Moss and Tank Johnson could not be reached for comment.
I used to rather like Whitlock, but ever since he’s gone off on this anti-hiphop culture/”black KKK” thing it seems to be all he writes about. It’s as though he’s written himself into a corner, knows it, and keeps trying to “clarify” his way out of it. Remember Sasha Frere-Jones and his “Stephen Merritt is racist because he doesn’t listen to enough black music” thing? Same deal.
I love how he lumps in guys who haven’t had any criminal issues while in the league with the guys who have. What’s wrong with Chad Johnson? He’s entertaining, charismatic, talented, and sports an awesome bleached mowhawk. TO may be completely insane but he is one of best at his position for his era and is a man that put in one of the best super bowl performances on a losing team in quite a long time. Of course lets ignore all that because they fit the profile that old white dudes don’t like, young black men who talk.
solid points….’cept in the case of Whitlock, there’s at least one old black dude who is unimpressed, too.
Look, with all due respect to people treated unfairly, people harassed by the police and the like… I saw four people wearing “Stop Snitching” t-shirts in front of the courthouse last May. The Stop Snitching movement, the dogfighting movement, the unabated use of guns in nightclubs are big issues that truly are different from Public Enemy banding together to fight the power or even people exhorting others to merely keep it real. In the community I live in, this is a major issue that is dividing the teenagers under constant harassment and the elderly under the same harassment with the baby boom and older Gen Xers who are perpetrating these crazy, violent, insulting ideas. He’s not saying anything that the retirees, doctors, and teachers aren’t telling me every single day on the sidewalk as they attempt to distance themselves and their culture from the criminality they hope white yuppies like myself don’t equate with the larger African-American culture. If publicizing and mocking dogfighting hurts player, I could give a rat’s ass. If colleges can’t keep players because of their criminality, that just helps the bookish African-American teenagers I see on skateboards listening to punk rock feel better about themselves. Whitlock is goofy, sure, but if you aren’t hearing his same arguments presented by people you know then I wonder who you know?