"Sports Journalism" Archive

If there’s anything football fans can agree on, it’s that color commentary in the game is lacking enormously. Whether biased commentators are blatantly kissing the asses of their former colleagues or favorite teams or whether announcers are saying one thing while replay CLEARLY shows something different. I think we all have our pet peeves…I hear a lot about what we all don’t like but what about the color commentators we do like?

I make no secrets of how much I love Jon Gruden and Chris Collingsworth–they’re easily my favorite color guys. Though, admittedly, I think Chris Collingsworth is the ultimate SHADE ARTIST. For those aren’t familiar, the term “shade” is used to describe a circumstance in which one person actively seeks to prevent another person from shining fully. No matter what that person has done, the other person will find a way to put a damper on it. If you want to hear some Collingsworth shade, listen to him call a Bengals game and analyze the performance of Chad Ochocinco. He will try to be kind. Then he will fail. Repeatedly.

In terms of writers, I enjoy Sally Jenkins at the Post and Michael Wilbon. I have no interest in seeing Wilbon on television though. When it comes to show hosts, I’m one of the few who love Bob Costas–even though I know his propensity to make EVERY GAME sound historically significant can be very annoying. I don’t listen to much radio, but when I do, Bomani Jones is top for me–though he covers all sports.  For an exclusive football experience, LaVar Arrington’s show is my choice despite the fact that there is an emphasis on the Washington Redskins.

My biggest pet peeve about sports commentary is how easily biased commentators can drive story lines. For new fans and casual fans it really affects how they view the game no matter whether it’s during-game commentary or Pardon the Interruption or any other number of sports shows, blogs, and writing.

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I never saw the movie “Blind Side,” (the story about Michael Oher’s adoption into his white Coach’s family) but I heard it was a really good film. When I ran across this Slate article profiling other black athletes who have been adopted by white families my interest was piqued, but at the time I couldn’t quite put my finger on why. Slate didn’t have to work too hard to find these stories, from Jeremy Maclin to Demarcus Cobb,  examples of white families adopting black male athletes abound. The Slate article is full of links to story after story. Now that I’ve had some time to peruse the many links, a month later I can finally articulate what bothers me.

Four questions: 1. Is this a phenomena limited to black male athletes or are white families adopting black male teenagers who aren’t possible high dollar college or NFL prospects. 2. Are those players who leave their black homes to go to white ones able to maintain a positive perception of black people and black identity? 3. Do the white families who adopt these boys see them as an end or as a means to an end? 4. Are black coaches, who, of course are lesser in number, taking in black male athletes as well? Conversely, are white male athletes being adopted by school staff, white or black?

I don’t have answers to these questions but I would speculate that given the circumstances surrounding how these boys come to live with the families’ of their coaches and other instructors, odds are this is mainly an athletics related occurrence and happening almost exclusively between an athlete who is black and a family that is white.

It bothers me that the majority of these boys, unlike Oher, are leaving their caretakers’ homes to live with these families as teenagers after their athletic potential as already been discovered.

“…all of these narratives hit the same uplifting marks: Black athlete meets white family, flourishes on account of the added support, and everyone lives happily ever after.

Why do white families take in black athletes? Consider the case of Ross Chouest and Clarence Moore. The Louisiana natives, the former white and the latter black, became summer basketball teammates as middle-schoolers in the mid-1990s. Ross’ father Gary, the owner of a private offshore oil firm, is one of the state’s richest men. Moore’s family, by contrast, was struggling to hold it together, with Clarence’s mother in very poor health and his father legally blind. Given those wildly disparate circumstances, the Moores and the Chouests decided it would be best for Clarence to move in with his teammate.

As a 1999 Cox News Service story relates, Clarence “swapped his Kmart clothes for Hilfiger and Polo” and “focus[ed] on jump shots and schoolbooks” rather than his chaotic home life. After they started bunking together, Clarence and Ross teamed up to win a state basketball title. The best buddies-turned-brothers then joined up at Georgia Tech, where Clarence was a key member of the Yellow Jackets’ 2004 Final Four team.”

Obviously, the ideal solutions would be to support the parents in taking care of their sons better rather than taking them in yourself. That’s not always feasible but even when it is, such as in the case of Chouest, it isn’t pursued. In many cases the boys’ families were already destroyed by drugs and abuse, still that highlights my concern that the only black men society is interested in saving have to be good with a ball.

It’s hard to lament these adoptions because the men overall seem to be better for it. But that doesn’t mean it doesn’t or shouldn’t make us a little uncomfortable.

Fox Columnist Jason Whitlock who I’ve agreed with more in the past couple months than I care to admit, advocates in his column for the NFL to make a distinction between flagrant and incidental hits. If you saw the Eagles/Colts game yesterday you understand why:

On Sunday, Quintin Mikell and Kurt Coleman executed the perfect defensive secondary play, sandwiching Colts receiver Austin Collie just as he reeled in a Peyton Manning pass and took a second step running upfield. Collie fumbled. The Eagles recovered. The hit knocked Collie out cold.

A ref threw a flag, penalizing Mikell for unnecessary roughness. The ref ruled Collie’s catch an incomplete pass and flagged Mikell for a helmet-to-helmet hit. The Colts went on to score a touchdown on the drive.

In the fourth quarter of the same game, with the Colts trailing by nine points, Philly’s Trent Cole beat Indy’s left tackle and executed the perfect tomahawk-chop sack/strip on fourth-and-18. Game over.

Not quite.

A ref flagged Cole for unnecessary roughness. Cole’s hand hit the back of Manning’s helmet as he chopped down on the cocked football. The penalty gave Indy a first down. The Colts scored a touchdown, cutting Philly’s lead to 26-24.

Beyond the speculation that the NFL tried to “fix” the game for Peyton Manning, it’s obvious that this is one of those situations in which players are being (and will continue to be) punished unfairly. Whitlock’s call for a distinction to be made between an intentional hit on a defenseless player and one simply caused by momentum (or in the case of Collie, partly or wholly caused by the offensive player lowering his own head) is great in theory but getting the NFL to consider it might be difficult.

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ESPN’s Jon Greenberg makes the case for why the Bears should sign Moss right away.

Case, yes. Glowing endorsement…not quite. It’s a curious article to say the least.

Greenberg writes:

Is everyone caught up? Well good, now let me just get up on my soapbox and tell a professional football team ranked in the top 32 by Forbes Magazine how to handle its business.

Sign Randy Moss. Sign him tomorrow and pay him the $3.38 million he’s owed for the rest of the season. You can pay him in “straight cash homey,” his preferred method of paying fines, or you can pay him in unsold Jay Cutler jerseys.

The Bears have wasted money on lesser players. Orlando Pace made almost twice as much last year as a turnstile operator. Money should not be an object for this franchise.

Just pay him and play him.

Sure, Moss is on the downswing of his epic career, and yes, he’s not the friendliest of guys or the easiest to coach or the first to avoid annoying a traffic cop.

At this stage of his career, the 33-year-old Moss is no sure thing. The New England Patriotswouldn’t have gotten rid of him otherwise, and the Minnesota Vikings wouldn’t be putting him on waivers after he ripped the team just yesterday.

Greenberg goes on to list all the negatives with Moss (dropped balls, unhappy over future, stiffing the media etc.) and lists only one real positive–that he’d be the best receiver on the roster.

You know, I had a conversation with a guy at a sportsbar a few weeks back about “best” player vs. “most productive.” I will take a productive player over one that is considered to be the best any day. What does it mean to be one of the best receivers in the league or even the best receiver on a team if you’re leading the league in dropped passes?

With the overall sour mood in the Bears locker room do they really need Moss who has made it clear that he’s not just unhappy about where he is, he’s unhappy about where he’s not.

The Chicago Tribune says NO MAS to the Moss talk:

Before anybody near Lake Forest posts “GROW MOSS HERE,” signs outside 1000 Football Drive or prints “WE WANT RANDY,” T-shirts, no, Randy Moss makes no sense for the Bears to consider.

Unless you think a me-first quitter well past his prime helps the Bears’ playoff chances. I don’t. When I think of Moss, who was waived by the Vikings on Monday, I see Manny Ramirez in shoulder pads. The Bears need a spark, not an explosion; intensity more than a player prone to long spells of indifference.

Moss may fit in perfectly in the Bears media room with his insolence but not so wonderfully in any locker room. His moody temperament gave the Patriots justification to trade him and the Vikings reason to think they were better without him despite their 2-5 record.

He remains as divisive as he is dangerous at this stage of his career, a talented player with Pro Bowl skill but diva-like tendencies who makes the atmosphere heavier every time he walks into a room or huddle.

While we’re having an emotional moment (yes, every moment we talk about Moss is emotional) I really wonder what makes guys like Moss tick. Here you have a guy who has made a lot of money and gotten a lot of respect but for some reason cannot seem to focus on anything beyond the negative. I wonder if, in 10 years, when Moss looks back on his career will he regret some of the things he’s said and done, especially those things that have happened since he’s been old enough to know better.

This is like when Michael Jordan gave that bitter ass Hall of Fame speech…this is like Allen Iverson signing with a Turkish basketball team. By all accounts Vikes Coach Childress handled this situations 11,000 different types of wrong, but still this is not the way I like to see sports heroes behave. I mean…he asked himself questions and answered them at the podium………………………………………

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Ray Lewis Cool on the Red Carpet at the 12th Annual Espys

Sports journalists use the term “larger than life figure” for all sorts of people, but when it comes to Baltimore Ravens LB Ray Lewis, the phrase is completely accurate. Lewis scares me a little. He doesn’t scare me in a way that would make me afraid to meet him–oh no, I’d LOVE to meet Ray Lewis. Would love to interview him and get inside what’s left of his mind (just kidding).

But he scares me in the sense that he’s so raw–verbally and physically. He’s a beast on auto pilot. A lawless enforcer. The toughest man among men. He’s an anomaly. Most guys don’t make it 15 years in the league. Most don’t even make it to 5 years. And playing the way that Lewis plays, it defies logic that he wasn’t one of the NFL’s former players a long time ago.

As his career comes to a close (could this be the year he retires?), it’s the dawning of a new era. He’s seen the game change…and change and change. And he ain’t too shy to say he doesn’t like it. Sports Illustrated profiles Lewis this month and like anything else Lewis is involved in–especially those Old Spice commercials–it’s more than a little intriguing.

“My goodness. You can’t do anything anymore. It’s a tragedy. Look what they’ve done to the greatest gladiator sport we’ve ever played. When you step on this gridiron, there’s something coming with it. That’s why you strap up the chinstrap. You sacrifice your body. You sacrifice everything you’ve got. That’s what the game has been. That’s why we praise the Dick Butkuses and the Jack Lamberts. Night Train Lane, the only thing he did was clothesline people. The stuff that Butkus did? If you did that now, people would be screaming on TV, ‘He’s out of control!’ I’m telling you, it’s a bitter subject.”

Bitter and also complicated. Lewis walks the same fine line—on one side the health of players, on the other the integrity and entertainment value of an immensely popular game—as the league itself. He is not only one of the best defensive players in the history of the NFL and a lock for the Hall of Fame. He is also an embodiment of the kind of athleticism and ferocity that get a man to the pros. Now that combination might make him a dinosaur.

Lewis goes on to say that the hits James Harrison and Brandon Meriweather were fined for were “totally” legal and the fact that the two men were fined is “embarrassing.”

Read the rest here.