McNabb and the Racist Fans

It's easy to dismiss Rush Limbaugh as a delusional blowhard; it's more difficult to credit him as a person of influence, as venomous and disparaging as that influence is.

I listened to Limbaugh for the first time in years about a month ago, when a fender-bender took away my satellite radio and forced me to surf the terrestrial airwaves in my rental car for content. I landed on Limbaugh's afternoon program on a scratchy A.M. station, and heard an elderly female caller rant about the intrusion of the federal government into her life.

Illegal wiretaps? Laws that govern what medical choices she can or cannot make? Taxes? Nope. Her beef was that the Feds would follow some municipalities and make it illegal for her to smoke in her car with the windows up if she had a small child in the backseat. She said it was just like when governments forced drivers to — gasp! — wear seatbelts (which, I'm pretty sure, was a win/win situation for all involved).

Limbaugh, of course, came out in favor of the nicotine hot-boxing of toddlers, and humored this crackpot to the point of mutual admiration. I began scanning the frequencies for anything from a Korean-language channel to an all-polka station to escape this idiocy.

But the fact remains that this nut on the phone is like millions of listeners every day — they're acolytes of an entertainer masquerading as a political sage, and his words carry weight with that crowd and resonate through the media when it chooses to allow him a forum.

Like ESPN did, back in 2003, when the network made one of its most public blunders by putting Limbaugh on its NFL pre-game show panel. That led to this infamous comment about the media and Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Donovan McNabb:

"I think what we've had here is a little social concern in the NFL. The media has been very desirous that a black quarterback do well. There is a little hope invested in McNabb, and he got a lot of credit for the performance of this team that he didn't deserve. The defense carried this team."

It's not as if McNabb suddenly looked in a mirror and declared, "What do you mean I'm not white!?" He'd been dealing with the legacy and the challenges of a black man playing quarterback since he first strapped on a helmet. But this public calling out by Limbaugh resonated through the media, with McNabb fielding questions for months and columnists using the incident as a jumping-off point to a larger debate. McNabb wasn't Akili Smith; he was the quarterback on a successful team, and his champions felt he was unduly criticized by fans because of the color of his skin.

Four years later, McNabb is still facing the tempest that Limbaugh stirred. On HBO's "Real Sports" this month, McNabb claimed that black quarterbacks face far greater scrutiny than white quarterbacks in the NFL. "Because the percentage of us playing this position, which people didn't want us to play ... is low, so we do a little extra," he said.

(An aside: Isn't it interesting that HBO Sports has made more news with its "Real Sports" magazine than ESPN makes with, at last count, 73 different networks? It's a case of true sports journalism vs. info-tainment; HBO gives us McNabb on racism, while ESPN gives us a 10-year-old on "Sunday Countdown." Hey, you've already got Keyshawn Johnson on staff — one child is enough.)

First thing's first: considering where his team is at this point, McNabb going on record on this subject in a high-profile interview during the NFL season is as distracting to the Eagles as anything Terrell Owens did while wearing No. 81 in green. Granted, Philly's fortunes were unknown when the interview was taped, but McNabb had to know this thing would drop during the season and that this hot button would be pressed.

Others, however, celebrate his candor, no matter the timing. Michael Wilbon in Friday's Washington Post cheered McNabb and jeered fellow black quarterbacks Jason Campbell and Vince Young for basically passing on an invitation to join the fight. Wow, imagine that: two young quarterbacks more concerned with fielding questions about this week's opponent than affecting further social change during Week 3. Whodathunkit...

Wilbon played McNabb's comments off as commonplace and non-revelatory; that any black athlete, entertainer, or politician is scrutinized more that their white counterparts. And then the "PTI" co-bellower dropped the ace of race cards:

"Anybody who doubts McNabb needs only to walk around one of the upper-concourse areas of Lincoln Financial Field late in a game when, as several white friends have told me, the frequent use of the word 'nigger' preceding McNabb's name during a losing performance is so casual it sickens them."

Were this case to go to trial, the association between use of the "N-word" and racism being at the core of those fans' criticism of McNabb would circumstantial at best. (Well, unless it was the first O.J. jury.)

NEWS FLASH: There are scumbags lurking in the upper deck of every stadium in every NFL city; except for Jacksonville, which can barely fill its upper deck for most home games. Many of them are loaded after hours of pre-gaming. Many of them believe it's their right to say and do anything outrageous when it comes to support or criticism of their team. That includes attacking an athlete from the comfort of their upper deck seat or living room couch with the most personal diatribes possible.

One of these yokels dropping the "N-bomb" on McNabb is no different than a disgruntled Lions/Dolphins/Falcons fan dropping an "F-bomb" on Joey Harrington. (The one that rhymes with "hag," not "Chuck.") I don't think these people give a rat's ass what Harrington's sexual preference is — nor should any of us — and I don't think many of those fans at the Linc in Philly are really all that concerned with McNabb's race.

I think they want to find the single most derogatory and degrading adjective they can — realistic or not — and then apply it to the target of their ire.

(An aside: Googling "NFL" and "quarterback" and that derogatory sexual term above returns 71,000 hits.)

If we learned anything from Michael Richards's outburst at the Laugh Factory, it's that unsophisticated white men will resort to unconscionable slurs when seeking to verbally assail a black man. Kramer tried to silence a heckler by upping the ante, an attempt to amplify his outrage with forbidden verbiage. To say it failed would be an understatement; I'm pretty sure Richards couldn't get a job selling "Seinfeld" DVDs at Best Buy these days.

I'm not saying there aren't racists who are overly critical of McNabb because he's black. I'm not saying McNabb doesn't feel the pressure to play better than white contemporaries because he's facing a legacy of scrutiny. But when it comes to fans calling McNabb out on his race to criticize his performance, it's a symptom of our go-for-the-jugular, Internet muscles society where slurs about race and gender and sexual preference have replaced intelligent discourse. A society where it's easier to dismiss a group as "nappy headed ho's" than to craft some sort of meaningful satirical commentary.

I don't think McNabb, Campbell, and Young face the same sort of racist backlash that Doug Williams, Warren Moon, and even Randall Cunningham did. What they face is something equally as repugnant: fans who comfortably wade into racist waters as an exclamation point for their disapproval of a black athlete, who then claim their disgusting thoughts were aired just to get a rise out of their buddies.

Ah, the "I'm just an entertainer" defense. Limbaugh perfected that years ago.

Greg Wyshynski is also a weekly columnist for SportsFan Magazine. His columns appear every Saturday on Sports Central. You can e-mail Greg at [email protected].