I didnt’ catch Chris Carter’s interview with the Chiefs’ Larry Johnson on HBO’s “Inside The NFL” last night, but Jeffrey Flanagan of the Kansas City Star quotes a few of the highlights.
Carter asked LJ, œDo you think Herm Edwards (above), being an African-American and you being raised, of course, by an African-American, that you see a lot of similarities in Herm that you saw in your dad that made you open up to him?
LJ™s response: œI think so. I could relate to Herman. I couldn™t do that with the other coaches I had because they had not done it. You know, they haven™t put those pads or they haven™t been in the situation as a young black athlete and know what we had to go through.
œYou know, when we go out, you know, we like to go out. You know, we like to hang out. We like to have fun. But then you got to worry about the guy around the corner with the gun. You got to worry about this girl on the block. You got to worry about, you know, your parents. You got to worry about your homeboys taking advantage of you.
œThere™s so much things you got to worry about being a young black athlete. And to be able to have a father like mine and have a coach like Herm, I was able to escape a lot of those realities and find myself in a new ray of light.
Conversely, LJ wasn’t nearly as enthusiastic when asked about Herm’s predecessor, Dick Vermeil.
œI wouldn™t pay attention, Johnson said of playing under Vermeil. œMy eyes, I would be up in the sky. You know, I would be sleeping in my locker. I wouldn™t carry my playbook because I was just trying to get away from this building, you know, when Dick was here.
ESPN ombudsman George Solomon has made the none-too-original observation that Michael Irvin’s ill-advised remarks regarding Tony Romo’s ancestry are comparable to the comments that cost Jimmy “The Greek” Snyder his CBS gig. As luck would have it, Solomon’s comments appear the very same day that Deadspin’s Will Leitch takes ESPN.com’s Scoop Jackson to task for the latter’s theft appropriation of the term “Orange Roundie”, previously employed by Yay Sports. Of course, this is the first time in recorded history a full-time, electronic correspondent has blatantly lifted material from elsewhere without attribution. Since there’s no Gakwer Media ombudsman on hand to sort it out, let’s be absolutely clear about this. Swiping of someone else’s writing is inexcusable and shameful. While watering down entire concepts and themes that others have previously mastered is…kinda lucrative.