Whitlock Revises And Extends His Remarks

No matter what you think of this column -- and I happen to agree with the premise that many sportswriters deify athletes to make sportswriters seem more important -- I think we should all respect Whitlock's willingness to post on these boards with his own name. How many of us do it? I don't. (In my defense, at least I don't criticize other journalists personally and then hide behind the convenient cloak of a catchy screen name.)

 

You gotta play hurt.

 

That's because it's the quality of his posts, not the quantity.

 

What's with the E.E. Cummins impersonation, Whitlock? My God (God is upper-cased, and I'm not religious), man, it's not that strenuous to use the shift key every so often.

 

clarett might pick up a felony soon. could that be categorized as defying the federal government?

 

This is an outstanding post.

 

wow dude, you're used to the warm, salty taste of the fat man, aren't you?

 

I am feeling very ill now, thank you.

 

I couldn't keep reading after the first paragraph. True, sports might be more about entertainment than it used to be because of the money involved, but the bottom line is that when teams don't win, they get less attendance, less merchandise sales, and less revenue, as do players who don't produce, so teams are always going to be trying to win.

 

i already won this debate... let it go or i'll fire again.

 

There aren't as many athletes taking a stand today, but when you think about it, there aren't as many politicians taking a stand in 2006. Take a poll, parse things so there is proper phrasing, and raise enough money so you can scare off any meaningful opposition.

Jason raises an interesting point - would John Carlos and Tommy Smith have raised the fists if there were million-dollar endorsement contracts on the line. However, you can't really put something like that into context. In 1968, it was only three years after the Voting Rights Act and the Fair Housing Act was approved earlier that year. So both of those athletes grew up in a time when, even if they did get a lot of money, their money wasn't as good as everybody else's money - they wouldn't be allowed to buy a lot of houses that they could afford - they couldn't vote in a lot of places a couple of years earlier - and their job options would have been very limited.

And with public relations and marketing making advances, probably somebody could devise a campaign so they could benefit from the notoriety - Latrell Sprewell managed to have the And One ad campaign on national television after he started to choke PJ, for crying out loud.

 

Had to bring this back not ot rip Whitlock, but to suggest an addendum to his column:

Is it conceivable that journalists made athletes' "statements" in the 1960s more than what they were? That they are remembered today not so much for their impact, but because old mostly white journalists like putting on their liberal storyteller clothes and pump them up?

Michael Jordan? Yeah, he was a brilliant basketball player and a capitalist, me-first prick who looks like he's had 2998 gallons of booze since his retirement.

But look at Magic Johnson, who, yes, had six women at a time, but put a public face on AIDS, was fairly courageous about busting stereotypes, probably saved some lives and now helps revitalize blight-ridden urban communities with movie theaters. We lionize Lou Gehrig for being the unluckiest lucky man, and more or less ignore Magic's significant contributions because he had a failed late-night show and gained some weight.

Tiger Woods has done more as the richest athlete in the world for black Americans than Mr. Carlos and Mr. Smith, whom not one in 100 kids could name today, much less what they did, or what supposedly it meant, if particularly anything. It's a picture shown in a collage for Black History Month. It has about one-tenth the meaning to kids today as Flava Flav spouting life philosophies as he eats chicken legs straight from the bucket (yep, he did that, I suppose as ironic commentary.) If it had permanence, or genuine meaning, you'd hear it mentioned in the same breath with Rosa Parks or Little Rock Central. It does not.

About all young Americans know about the Black Panthers is that Tupac's mom used to be one before she hit the rock pipe. Say the name Huey Newton, and the likely response will be "And The News?"