Following the shitstorm created by his critique of Eagles QB Donovan McNabb, the Philadelphia Sun’s J. Whyatt Mondesire is interviewed in today’s Philadelphia Inquirer by Stephen A. Smith.
Question: You’re saying that as the publisher and a columnist at the Philadelphia Sun, the comments you’ve made about Donovan McNabb have nothing to do with the NAACP; it’s strictly your opinion. How can you possibly make these comments and assume people would not attach the NAACP to that?
A: People have to be a little more careful in what they read and how they read. In reading my column, you see no reference of the NAACP in the Sun except when there’s a story about the NAACP or an issue that we’re raising. Certainly in this column there’s no connection to the NAACP.
I’m a fan of football. I’m not even a sports columnist. I’m a fan. What I’ve watched has been disappointing, and when I read and remembered what McNabb said a few years ago about not wanting to be a stereotypically black quarterback in terms of running in the pocket and scrambling, I was very dissatisfied by what I’ve seen on the field this season.
Q: You also mentioned in your column that you normally save your space for other important issues, not sports. So how do you explain writing about McNabb in this situation?
A: They’re just things I write about. It’s just amazing. Like I said to The Inquirer a few days ago: We’ve written about AIDS. We’ve written about children killing children, here and around the country. We broke the story about the pay-to-play scandal, when Ron White was dying of cancer. Yet the only time people want to talk to us is when we touch the holy grail of football.
Q: If Donovan McNabb was white, would you have felt the same way and written this?
A: Yeah! I write about white folks all the time.
Q: If somebody said about you what you said about McNabb, how would you feel?
A: I’ve been called a lot worse. They’ve talked about my light skin and straight hair, calling me an albino.