Donovan McNabb race-card revisited

Excellent op-ed from columnist Jason Whitlock regarding the latest Donovan McNabb witch hunt. Whitlock's probably the only guy with the balls to put McNabb's "controversial" comments about feeling more pressure as a black QB into context. I'm a big McNabb guy, frankly, and couldn't help but nod my head in agreement after each paragraph.

However...

Shed no tears for McNabb, model of consistency and superstar that he is. Peyton Manning, the whitest guy around, had more than his fair share of undue pressure. Until he finally won the big one, that is. What am I saying? I'm saying that winning the Superbowl cures all if your focus is simply quelling the masses. People en masse don't have time for the intricacies of any given story. Just feed them the headline and move them along. It's a sound-byte, SportsCenter-driven world we live in. And when you've got the talent like McNabb does, guess what? You're going to get steaming piles of undue praise and criticism (depending on your most recent performance) because you're a superstar quarterback. Black or white. Hell, it took all of one statistically impressive season for the nation to fall in love with Daunte Culpepper even though he underachieved in Minnesota with regularity. Vince Young averages something pitiful like 125 passing yards per game, yet he's got a bandwagon the size of Tennessee.

But people don't have time to dwell on the fact that you've never had a supporting cast to get the ball to. Sadly, nobody outside of Philadelphia (and even then...) is looking to Jeff Lurie to rectify that situation. As far as the nation is concerned, McNabb should be good enough to overcome his offense's general lack of talent (Brian Westbrook accepted). That is what's unfair. Is it racist? Well, not really so much as it is stubborn on the part of Lurie and Andy Reid. Reviving Whitlock's comparison of the New England Patriots and Tom Brady, yes, Bob Kraft finally broke down this summer and got his QB some receivers after some squawking from the locker room and an all-too-telling performance in the AFC Championship game punctuated what Brady had been griping about for the last two Superbowl trophy-less seasons. But I suppose when you're thrown under the bus by your teammates for not being "black enough," it is hard for these types of concerns to gain traction with the higher-ups in the organization.

Anyway, all told, I'm still a McNabb guy. He's still not 100% as evidenced by the loss on Monday night. Should be interesting to see when he breaks down this season. I still think the Eagles are good enough to win that division. Even with the death knell of an 0-2 start.

Game Balls and Lame Balls

Just felt like mixing up the name of the Heroes and Doinks bit. This weekend's best and worst...

Game Balls

Arizona Wildcats - Bowl bound! For the first time since our 12-1 team in '98, the Wildcats will be playing in a bowl after crushing Oregon at Autzen. The Ducks never lose at home. Consider that UofA has beaten Washington State, Cal, and Oregon this season, yet has lost to Washington and Oregon State. I think that's a pretty good indicator of how tough the Pac Ten is this year. Come Friday, Arizona State's ass is grass. No one in the country has three better looking wins over the last three weeks than Mike Stoops & co. Resilient effort for the basketball team against New Mexico State, yesterday, too. Hopefully, a lesson learned.

Jaromir Jagr - Joined the 600-goal club in a win over Tampa last night. NHL royalty.

YOUR Los Angeles Lakers - Wins on Friday and Sunday over Toronto and Chicago have the Lakers on a 3-game win streak heading into tomorrow night's monster clash with the Clippers. Lamar is still playing extremely well, Kwame is slowly integrating himself back into the flow, Bynum is turning in the goods consistently, Kobe... Well, he's turning the ball over at astronomical rates, averaging 9.5 TOs in his last four games. Hmm...

Old Dominion - BIG WIN for the Monarchs stunning Georgetown yesterday and putting the CAA back on everyone's lips. Huge win for the conference especially after Wichita State beat George Mason in a possible bubble game a day earlier.

Lame Balls

Randy Moss - He's officially reached "piece of crap" status after yesterday's loss to KC which capped an awesome week of pity-partying and self-loathing. 0 catches yesterday for Moss and the Raiders still managed to stay in the game right until the very last play... which was a typical interception in the end zone to seal the defeat. That INT, though, was a pass intended for Moss in the back of the end zone and he just... flat... gave... up on the route. He could care less whether or not he caught that ball. A DB jostled with him for position so why should he care? He's unhappy, remember? What an a-hole. News only gets better for the Raiders as LaMont Jordan is lost for the year. This would be a bigger deal if Jordan had done anything at all this season.

Rutgers - All I can do is laugh. Top ten teams don't get pasted at Cincinnati. That embarrassing L finally proves that the Big East is as mediocre and irrelevant as every intelligent college football fan knows it is.

Bob Davie - Speaking of intelligent college football fans, Davie isn't one of them. Watching the Ohio State/Michigan game, I couldn't help but take issue with the man who couldn't coach his way out of a paper bag even while at Notre Dame -- and all the prestige and prized recruits that come with that job -- say that anyone lobbying for a playoff in college football should think twice because of how good the OSU/Mich game was, saying that each team would rest their starters if they had more games to play. Sorry, idiot, no. In the rivalry in college football, with a Big Ten title on the line, these two schools would never EVER rest their starters. There's too much at stake. And seeding in a playoff matters, or have you not paid any attention to every single other freaking sport in the country? Playoffs are the only way to go and anyone who says otherwise is just plain wrong.

Liverpool - Peter Crouch had the biggest impact on a dull, uninspiring, 0-0 draw at Middlesbrough on Saturday. Nothing wrong with that other than he only played the last 12 miutes of the match. Why he was subbed on for Kuyt and not Bellamy is beyond me. Craig Bellamy is on absolutely horrible form, right now, and the lack of service from midfield isn't helping matters either. Mark Gonzalez had yet another game to forget and someone might want to put out a missing persons report on behalf of Steven Gerrard. I guess he wasn't on the pitch on Saturday. How strange. At any rate, the Reds look a thoroughly average side at the moment. Practicing corner kicks would be a start for improvement. I've never seen so many pathetic attempts from corners in my life. Just wasteful.

Donovan McNabb - I don't have anything invested in the Eagles, but my heart goes out to one of the NFL's good guys, now out for the season. The Eagles unreasonably have too many critics and it looks like all those nay-sayers will have their day as Philly's playoffs hopes are all but ruined with McNabb holding a clipboard until next year.