The National Football League is not what usually comes to mind when someone thinks of the late Martin Luther King Junior. But on the celebration of what would be King’s 77th birthday, there are occurrences in the NFL that make you remember King’s sacrifice. Next week the AFC Championship game features the New England Patriots visiting the Indianapolis Colts. The NFL Championship game features the New Orleans Saints visiting the Chicago Bears. In both cases, the home team features a Black coach.

This was still hard to imagine back when King delivered his famed “I have a Dream” speech. Just after King’s assassination, the NFL had its first Black starting quarterback, never mind a head coach. (That QB, Marlin Briscoe set an NFL rookie record with 14 TD passes in 11 games, but never played QB again after that first season.)

We all want the best teams (coach included) to win next Sunday, but even seeing Blacks coaching in high profile games proves the racists wrong. They said Blacks could never play QB, but it happened. They said Blacks lacked the mental ability to play, never mind coach. Now Blacks are doing both. When King died in 1968, who would have thought you would see Blacks coaching NFL teams in less than 40 years? This proves that America has been blessed, to provide opportunities to all who work hard for them.

I hope you all have a great Martin Luther King Jr. day. It is a day for all of America to celebrate, that we are the greatest nation on God’s green earth! Because America provides the greatest opportunities for anyone to excel and King tried as best he knew how to make that a reality.

Related post: Random Thoughts on Martin Luther King Jr. and The MLK Holiday

Kansas City Chiefs running back Larry Johnson says that he’s more “comfortable” with a Black coach. The team’s new coach is Herman Edwards, who Larry Johnson is so happy has a little brown skin.

Larry Johnson prefers working with a Black coach

He also says that Black players would do better with Black coaches and that “we” hate for a non-Black to tell us to do something. Because non-Blacks don’t know where he’s from and what he’s had to live through. (The world’s smallest violin is playing.)

Larry Elder exposed this bigoted mess on his radio show yesterday. And Larry Elder was right to do so. Imagine if Indianapolis Colts star quarterback Payton Manning said that he and his fellow White players would be able to win more playoff games if they had a White coach? Given their current coach is Black (Tony Dungy), has not been able to lead them through the playoffs and no Black coach has lead a team to a Super Bowl win yet. I mean just what if Manning said the key to more victories was for the White players to feel more “comfortable”? We all know there would be a storm of anger from the members of the Civil Rights Industry all the way to this blog. And so I would be remiss to ignore Larry Johnson’s bigotry. In fact, since Larry Johnson feels that Black coaches have an inherent ability to coach him and other Blacks better than a White person, I could say that Larry Johnson is racist for saying Blacks’ coaching ability is superior to that of White coaches.

The bottom line here is that Larry Johnson has some obvious personal racial hang ups that he needs to overcome. But don’t look for Larry Johnson to be treated like any White man accused of racist and/or bigoted comments. Oh nooooo. Larry Johnson can say it and it does not make any news because he’s Black. I also think Chris Carter might harbor some of the same feelings, given his angle of questioning.

Oh imagine if White people said things like this. Well they once did and were called RACISTS. This just shows that as America gets more “brown” some people of various brown shades will act just like they accused people of lighter shades of skin of acting. Oh but it’s not racist to these Blacks, because it came from their mouth and they were talking about their race. Well what was it when Whites did it? The same racist thing.

A caller to Larry Elder’s show pointed out that Joe Paterno was Larry Johnson’s coach in college and Larry played pretty well there. Well enough to be drafted into the NFL. Oh the insanity of it all. But by the rules of political correctness these comments will get no time in the MSM. They are waiting for a White person to say it about White coaches and then we’ll see the mess flying day and night for weeks!

Hear it all using the audio link below.
Larry Elder on Larry Johnson - MP3 Audio (Size: 1.65 MB)
(If linking, please link to this post, not the media file. For the sake of bandwidth there will be no other formats made.)

I’ll be honest with you, I did not agree with Limbaugh’s whining about McNabb, but it was nothing compared to this.

If La Shawn Barber had not covered this I might have never known about it. She feels Rush should not have been fired and that Irvin should not be fired either. I say Rush is gone and that’s a done deal regardless of how anyone felt about it. Now Irvin’s gotta go. I don’t want to turn on sports talk to hear somebody talking about some Black “studs” in the “hood”. My word if Irvin were White he’d already be crying like Michael Richards.

And while many claim Blacks hold athletic supremacy, they ignore the growing number of Europeans in the NBA. I’m not saying there is no such things as genetics, but lets not ignore that many of the NBA’s newest stars are from European countries.

Good to see the judge did the right thing.

Related post: Barry Bonds’ Personal Trainer is Trying to Avoid Testifying. This Could Sink Bonds!

Barry Bonds’ personal trainer Greg Anderson is trying to avoid testifying in court about a recording, where he admits he gave Bonds undetectable performance enhancing drugs. Why is he trying to avoid testifying in court? Probably because Bonds has already claimed he never used performance enhancing drugs and the testimony would put Bonds in serious legal trouble. I say the judge better hold Anderson in contempt of court.

If Martha Stewart was able to do her time then Roid-head puffed-up Barry Bonds should have no problem doing his. Once he’s found guilty. Bonds should have left baseball in disgrace after he was exposed. Not only did he get exposed for the steroids, but his “mistress” exposed that his roid rage would flair up around her at times. But Barry had no shame. He stayed in the game and points to heaven as if his abilities are God given. As if God is smiling on his actions. It’s a disgrace to sport and faith.

And he’s not the only one. More people than most are willing to admit are a bunch of dope using frauds.

Your folks move from an apartment east of San Diego, into a home with a view of Sweetwater Lake. You’re a college football player and you figure it all is legit. Hmmmmm…

Then when the media ask questions your family runs from the house, but you still say everything is cool. Hmmmmm…

We all smell the stink. We all see the pile of crap, but we’re being told nothing is there. Hmmmm….

Related post: Did Reggie Bush Violate NCAA Rules?

This one is gonna blow up big! Unless somehow, someway Reggie Bush and his family can come up with a reasonable explanation. But seeing they have RUN from the house, it appears this is not good.

The Pac-10 plans to investigate, after a request to do so from the University of Southern California.

Basically this might end up hurting USC and players still there, more than it might ever hurt Reggie Bush. The school might have to forfeit games and face other discipline. While Reggie Bush goes pro and gets a nice fat contract. Unless the NFL decides to take some sort of action. If what appears to be true, really is the sad truth. That Reggie Bush broke the rules and took a very big gift from a man who was basically working like an agent. If this all ends up being true, I think the NFL should take some kind of disciplinary action. If they don’t it will only encourage more of this.

Yea people are saying wait until there are more facts available, but at this point it’s hard to see how this is anything but a clear case of breaking the rules.

And no I do not think that college athletes should be paid, regardless of how much money they make for the school. They are students and so they play for the school and their reward is a free education. If they have a problem with that, then they should go play in NFL Europe or the Canadian Football League.

update 4/24/2006 11:11AM: Blog Moonage Webdream has an even better idea than the NFL taking any action at all.

That makes good sense. Although I said I want the NFL to do something, it was only because I could not think of another way for Reggie Bush to pay a price for doing wrong. I was concerned about the NFL getting involved in NCAA affairs though. If Reggie Bush is sued by USC and/or the players, that would be better. It keeps the NFL out of NCAA affairs and the affected parties can go after the one that messed things up for them. If Reggie Bush was still playing college ball, then the school could handle this internally, but given he’s left, a lawsuit is the only way to ensure he does not get away clean.

An honor well deserved.

Given Major League Baseball’s integration of the Negro Leagues, this is another reason why what is now called “Black History” should be fully integrated and called “American History”, which is what it is. No more “Black History Month”. Learn it all as American history.

American Shani Davis, the world record holder in men’s 1,000-meter speedskating has won the gold medal in the event at the Winter games. He is also the first Black to ever win an individual gold medal at the Winter Olympics. I recall back during the 1988 Winter Olympics, when everyone thought figure skater Debbie Thomas would do it. But she choked and came home with the bronze. (I don’t care if she had to skate last, she choked and that’s the bottom line.)

Shay over at Booker Rising offers this jubilant report.

Notice Mr. Davis says nothing about Blacks being “too poor” to participate in speed skating (like Juan Williams), but rather most make the choice to play something else. Now will Bryant Gumbel say that Mr. Davis is not one of the world’s greatest athletes, because he participated in games that don’t feature a lot of Blacks? Maybe Mr. Gumbel thinks that Mr. Davis is “acting White”? For Black racist like Mr. Gumbel, this is a moment to rejoice simply because Mr. Davis is Black. Suddenly the sport is “legitimate” once a Black person wins it. It is a shame that people like Mr. Gumbel can’t be happy if an American wins regardless of race. Given all Americans can try out for the games. All Americans were happy when Joe Lewis beat Max Schmeling, because Joe was an American. Everybody cheered Carl Lewis and Flo-Jo’s dominance because they are/were Americans.

I do have to mention, that I disagree with Shay’s view of Chad Hedrick. I don’t think Chad gave Mr. Davis the cold shoulder because of his skin tone. Mr. Davis made a choice not to join his team in another event and so of course some people are upset about that. It is not Mr. Davis’ skin color that turns people like Mr. Hendrick against him, but rather the content of Mr. Davis’ character. Sure some other folks are upset Mr. Davis is Black, but some racist messages on his web site does not mean “Whites” or “White Americans” should all be lumped with a few idiots because of skin tone. Just as a law abiding Black does not like being considered a criminal just because of the actions of some others with the same skin tone.

With that said, I’m happy for Mr. Davis. The USA does not necessarily do well in the Winter Olympics, so we should applaud every American that comes out on top.

Now I wonder, if a White American wins the 100 meters in the next Summer Olympics, will there be headlines that say “first White to win in XX years”?

Related post: Bryant Gumbel Implies Black Race Superiority

Sometimes I hear about an instance of stupidity that simply trumps others I’ve heard in recent memory. I’m convinced an award should be setup for these idiots. It is important for history’s sake that we highlight the dumbest people in humanity, so nobody confuses them with other intelligent human beings. We need them to know that they are the champions of idiocy.

Today’s idiot is Bryant Gumbel. Although he’s a Liberal, I’ve always offered some defense for him when around some Black folks. Because there are Blacks that make fun of how Bryant talks and claim he’s “acting White”. As I often point out here, speaking proper English is not “acting White”. And people who say such are acting stupid. Bryant worked to be at the top of his field and his hard work proved that anyone can excel in America.

Well now he has allowed some new form of stupidity to infiltrate his brain. On his show Real Sports With Bryant Gumbel, he made a statement that is patently racist and I will point out how if you don’t understand from reading it for yourself.

NewBusters has the quote, video and audio.

Using Bryant’s logic, by definition any athletic event absent a large amount of Blacks cannot be featuring the best athletes in the world. Which means he feels that Blacks are the best athletes, despite the fact that the Winter Olympics allows athletes of all races to try and qualify for entry. This makes Mr. Gumbel’s statement racist by definition. The facts show that the Winter Olympics do feature the best athletes in the world for their areas of discipline, just like the Summer Olympics. Which means Mr. Gumbel’s statement does not agree with the facts. So what if a higher percentage of athletes in the Winter Olympics are White. There are plenty of Blacks at the Winter Olympics and Booker Rising has been featuring many of them in a “Black Ice” series of daily posts. But by Mr. Gumbel’s standards, this is only enough Blacks to qualify as a “GOP Convention”. This point of view is similar to Howard Dean’s view of the Republican Party as a “White Christian Party”. And Mr. Dean has made several other statements in that regard. These idiots feel every Black must be a Democrat and their political party race-bait is repugnant!

While I always knew Bryant Gumbel was basically a Liberal Media Operative, I never knew he also had delusions of Black racial superiority. Sorry Bryant, Track & Field, Basketball and other sports with more Blacks in the Summer Olympics are not the only “real sports” in the world. For you to even be hosting a show called “real sports” while degrading the Winter Olympics, because it does not fulfill your delusions of Black racial supremacy is a joke in its self. Yes there are Whites in this world that have athletic skills. And some of them even beat Blacks in some sports. Yes Bryant, there are some sports where the best person on earth right now is a White man. Are the swimming events in the Summer Olympics a “GOP Convention” also? So what if not many Blacks have dominated swimming events. So what if not many Blacks dominate Winter sports. Just because there is not some predefined percentage of Blacks at the Winter Olympics does not disqualify the participants from their position as some of the greatest athletes in the world.

I think Mr. Gumbel deserves all the criticism he gets for his stupid comments. And HBO would be doing a good thing to remove him from their network.

Lastly, I need to point out another real irony in these words coming from the mouth of Bryant Gumbel. Because while Mr. Gumbel seems to define quality by race when it comes to athletes, one has to wonder how he defines quality in terms of a woman. Because Bryant Gumbel divorced his former wife, a Black woman. And during the divorce he was dating a White woman, that he later married. So if Mr. Gumbel defines “the greatest” in athletics by race, what does he use to define the best woman in the world given his own actions? Not to mention his actions and those of his mistress prove that immorality comes in all colors.

Personally I think people should select their mate based on who they can best live with for the rest of their lives and the Lord wants them with. I don’t see that having to involve race as a determining factor. But with a racist one has to wonder how they can come to their loony conclusions.

update (2/17/2006 9:52AM ET): Thank you FoxNews for having a Fair and Balanced debate on this issue! Expose the Left has video from the Hannity and Colmes show, where Liberal commentator Juan Williams and Robert Woodson of the National Center for Neighborhood Enterprise debated this matter. Juan Williams defended Gumble’s racist comments and cried that winter sports are a “rich man’s game”. What a punk! Plenty of Blacks are able to afford expensive Basketball shoes, but he claims there simply is no money for playing winter sports. Stop lying Juan! It’s a matter of culture more than finance! Also Mr. Williams called the Winter Olympics “Lilly White”. Imagine if a Conservative called the Summer Olympics “Charcoal Black”?

Alan Colmes also offered some defense for Gumble’s insanity. And tried to make it seem like Blacks are do terrible under Republican Administrations. Lies like this ignore how well many Blacks are doing right now under the current Republican Administration.

Robert Woodson was the only one to call this whole mess racist. Which is really what it all is. He was the one who focused more on how racist the statement was and how racist defense of the statement is. While Hannity and others spent time discussing which political party the comments favored.

It is a shame that Liberals claim to fight against racism so hard, only to ignore it when the racism comes from a Black.

update (2/18/2006 6:20PM ET): I’m enjoying RightWinged.com’s commentary about this.

Be sure to read it all. Great commentary.

update (2/19/2006 11:22AM ET): La Shawn Barber has chimed in with a little humor and details about Mr. Gumbel’s adultery with someone of the skin tone he associates with the GOP.