Down, Set, Criticize

Neither the Eagles nor the Vikings are one of my favorite football teams, but watching the game between them on Sunday was kind of depressing. Although I was happy for my son to see two people that looked like him playing quarterback for their teams, I winced at every Donovan McNabb overthrow and every Tavaris Jackson pass thrown at the feet of his wide receivers. With each incompletion the image of black quarterbacks in the NFL took a hit. In a year in which black quarterbacks were constantly taking a media beating, this game only added insult to injury. The downward spiral really started last year with Michael Vick’s incarceration. Football analysts had already considered Vick to be just a physically gifted athlete who didn’t possess the skills to play the quarterback position. “Skills” being code for intelligence. And this was before he started pretending he was Will Smith in I Am Legend and choking out dogs. If you go down the list of black QB’s that started games in the NFL this year: Jason Campbell, DeMarcus Russell, Vince Young, Daunte Culpepper, David Garrad, Jackson and McNabb, only Seneca Wallace was given semi favorable reviews. But there was little mention of what these QB’s had to deal with during the season. Campbell was learning from his 3rd offensive coordinator in 4 years, Russell is playing for one of the worst organizations in the NFL in the Oakland Raiders, I think Vince Young is dealing with problems that go beyond football that he needs help with, Culpepper was set up to fail coming in trying to help the Lions who ended up with zero victories, Garrad ending up losing 4 starting lineman, one of which was shot 14 times and is now paralyzed. Jackson may be out of Minnesota soon but he’s young and still has time to develop.

McNabb easily receives the most negative press of all the black quarterbacks. I’ve always liked McNabb, we’re close in age and I was impressed by the way he handled himself after he was booed on draft day. I was also glad he took the high road and didn’t stoop down to that clown Terrell Owens level of shucking and jiving. That’s why I was so surprised when he admitted after a game earlier this year against the Bengals that he didn’t know NFL games could end in a tie. Whether he knew the rule or not, he knew better than to say he didn’t know. Listening to some of the sports talk radio after the game, I could just feel some of the caller’s venom towards McNabb and you sense that they were ready to say “stupid n****r” after each sentence.. Even with some of the disappointment McNabb has had the last couple of seasons,his stats (30,000 passing yards, 200 TD’s and a 73-39 win/loss total) leave him as one of the best black quarterbacks to ever play, alongside one of my childhood idols Warren Moon. Thankfully he was able to bounce back and lead his team to the playoffs and quiet some of his critics. Watching Ohio State’s freshmen quarterback Tyrelle Pryor last night gave me hope that there are future black stars at this position but it ultimately rests on McNabb’s shoulders and how far he take his team in the playoffs. With all that being said, I hope his @ss goes home this weekend since I’m a Giants fan but I hope he plays well enough not to receive most of the blame.