JAG’s Sports Blog

Donovan McNabb has taken the career roller coaster ride of being booed when he was drafted in 1999, criticized as a product of the white media wanting to build him up because he’s black, losing 3 conference championship games in a row, finally going to the Super Bowl, starting the season with your star receiver criticizing you constantly to the press, throwing for 300 yards three times in four games, getting a painful debilitating sports hernia, star receiver suspended and out for the season, and last, but not least, J. Whyatt “Jerry” Mondesire, head of the Philadephia chapter of the NAACP and publisher of the black oriented Philadelphia Sun newspaper, decides to rip into McNabb.for trying to change his style of play. What has Donovan McNabb done to deserve such cutting criticism from all ends of the sports world black and white?

The story originated in the Philadelphia Sun on 4 Dec 2005, but has been reprinted by several sources since then. I took the story and further comments from the Attytood, a Philadelphia internet news site, http://www.pnionline.com/dnblog/attytood/archives/002540.html . Jerry Mondesire rips into McNabb for playing the race card in his style of play. What he’s inferring is that McNabb is trying to get away from the black quarterback stereotype of running a lot, rather than being considered a passer. McNabb wants to be a pocket passer because that gives credibility as a ‘real’ quarterback as opposed to just being athletic and having a gun for an arm. Mondesire is upset with the perceived theory that quarterbacks that are good runners can’t be great passers. His premise is that McNabb is so concerned with fitting the mold of what a quarterback should be that he’s not realizing his full potential and turning his back on being black and what he does and other black quarterbacks do well and that’s scramble to get out of trouble.

Mondesire seems to really rip into McNabb as being mediocre at best because he choked in the Super Bowl and isn’t a good team leader. The opinion is valid if he truly believes it, but he continuously takes on a sarcastic, condescending tone by calling him ‘Donny’ and ‘soup guy’ to get his point across. Furthermore, in calling someone mediocre, you should be held accountable in presenting a comparison in statistics and such to validate why you are mediocre and what players actually match up to McNabb. The truth is that only approximately 20 quarterbacks quarterbacks have started and won a Super Bowl in the entire 40 year history of the games (not to include the championship before it was named the Super Bowl). There are only a handful of players that come close to matching McNabb statistically, but no mention was made of which quarterbacks are actually better than the mediocre McNabb. Mondesire decided to mention Tom Brady in his criticism of McNabb also.

Mondesire commented on McNabb’s leadership skills by mentioning how Brady gave back some money so to speak (he didn’t accept as much to help sign players) and used that as a sign of leadership. The only problem with this example of McNabb’s lack of leadership is that Tom Brady is possibly the only quarterback or player in all of the NFL to give money back or take less to help sign players. Peyton Manning got a $100 million dollar contract and he has to know that will make it hard to keep Edgerrin James once the season is over, but he hasn’t bothered to restructure his contract. Same goes for Daunte Culpepper and Michael Vick. Football is different than baseball and basketball where with some swift redirection of the salary cap, everyone can get paid. Football has a hard salary cap and usually only one player seems to get the lion’s share of the money and at best, two players may get ‘paid’. Terrell Owens was trying to do the same thing and that was get ‘paid’. Owens didn’t care if Brian Westbrook was going to get his. Everyone wants to win, but how few people are willing to not take every scrap that’s left on the table.

Charles Barkley was on the Dan Patrick Radio Show Wednesday and he was livid that McNabb was being blistered by of all people, the head of the Philadelphia chapter of the NAACP. It’s hard to disagree with Barkley because the leader of the NAACP should be helping to build up McNabb as a role model rather than looking for a reason to tear him down. Mondesire declined a request by Dan Patrick to come on the show because he had other pressing matters on his agenda.
Barkley is upset with Mondesire because he contradicts himself right at the beginning of his commentary of McNabb. He states “Normally this column talks very little about sports because the games that grown men play pale in comparison to the great issues of racism, politics, social calamities, health crisis’s, war and peace, etc.; which gives us plenty of fertile territory to explore and pontificate about.”

Barkley’s rage comes from the fact that McNabb has always come off as a positive role model for kids of any color, but he’s taking heat in the black community because he isn’t acting hard or at least like a constantly angry, black man. There’s a perception that McNabb is a sellout because he’s perceived by many as a good company man. He seems to stay out of trouble and isn’t running his mouth about every thing. A caller to the show said the only black people that are quiet and not causing trouble are the ones that already got paid and Barkley should be quiet. As an African-American, I have to agree with Barkley, but yes, that caller was somewhat correct too. There’s this image of ‘keeping it real’ in the black community and that’s a perception that people need to get over. Dave Chappelle does it best on his show in a segment called ‘when keeping it real goes wrong’. The person tries to play the role of you aren’t going to do me wrong and always comes up on the short end of the stick after they ‘keep it real’. Terrell Owens tried to keep it real and now he’s basically lost millions of dollars for his efforts.

I understand that the black community doesn’t want to get stuck slaving for the man, but why hold McNabb’s success against him. McNabb is a prominent voice in the organization, but he can’t negotiate other players contracts. He’s not the team President or the owner, so he has no power to decide how much money they will get and who will get less. What does this prove when we try to tear down another African-American rather than build him up? For one of the primary leaders in the community to rip apart a successful leader is crazy. It opens the door for every other person of any color to take their shots at the other black quarterbacks like Michael Vick and Daunt Culpepper, who haven’t achieved nearly the same amount of success that Donovan McNabb has.

McNabb was compared to Doug Williams as to why he isn’t anything. Comparing McNabb to Doug Williams is interesting because if he hadn’t won that Super Bowl in 1988, his record would have been eerily similar to McNabb’s and there wouldn’t be any conversation as to his greatness in the black community. Our progress in black history has been measured many times by how our athletes have achieved. Jackie Robinson, Joe Louis, Michael Jordan, Wilt Chamberlain, and Doug Williams have brought great pride to the community when they’ve represented themselves as the first or best at what they do. I think this is where some of this rage is coming from.

McNabb is the black quarterback that’s supposed to get another ‘brother’ back at the top of the mountain. Michael Vick is one of the most entertaining athletes in any sport, but no one is laying their hat down on him being the next black Super Bowl quarterback. People in the community are upset that Tom Brady outplayed him and appeared so cool under pressure, but Mondesire said it earlier about their being more important issues. I think this has nothing to do with McNabb being mediocre as much as he let down his people when it counted the most.

Did Donovan McNabb fold up a bit in the Super Bowl when he had his chance? Yes, no one can deny this fact, but that does not take away from all the accomplishments he’s achieved because some perceive him as being part of the establishment now. McNabb will recover from his surgery and should be able to come back and play football as a quarterback as opposed to a ‘black quarterback’ to satisfy those in the community. A quarterback leads his team by doing whatever it takes to get the job done and if it means running to get a first down or throwing it, that’s what he should do. New York Jets coach Herman Edwards said it best last year, “You play the game to win.” I agree with that because no player should step on the field just to look good and represent an image. He’s there to represent his team and help them win.

Mondesire with his criticisms is simply opening the door for all other people that want to find fault where there really is none. He might want to consider taking stock in what his job truly is and who he represents. The leader of the NAACP is supposed to represent all people of color in Philadelphia, not just those that are considered downtrodden. McNabb should be lifted up to those people of color to show that you can be successful if you keep trying and not listen to those that would tear you down because you’ve made it in society as a whole, not just the black society.