Duck Season

I've seen many people (such as Peter King) say, in response to Rush Limbaugh's comments, something like, "It's 2003; race shouldn't be an issue anymore." I agree, but many of these people saying it don't really believe it themselves. When it comes to hiring head coaches, they want race to be an issue. They'd tell you that obviously there's a problem with the NFL only having 3 black head coaches when half of their players are black, even though they wouldn't say that any specific general manager/team owner was discriminatory.

So what's the difference between the two cases? The obvious inference is that they think race should be an issue only when they can advocate their progressive causes. I don't happen to agree with this interpretation, however, and have a different one. In the case with head coaches, it's the general managers/team owners who are accused of using race as a factor. In the case of Limbaugh's comments, it's the media who are accused of using race as a factor. For those in the media, it's okay when others are being accused, but when they are the target, they close ranks and become defensive.

And the indignant assertions that no one in the media is rooting or has ever rooted for an athlete because that athlete happens to be black are laughable. Limbaugh's comments are wrong because he's describing something that is no longer true but was true 10-15 years ago. When Doug Williams, Warren Moon, and Randall Cunningham were the only black QBs around, there probably were a lot of people who wanted them to do well because they were black. (If you don't agree with this statement, do you think many people wanted Jackie Robinson to do well because he was black when he first played with the Dodgers?) It's not unreasonable to assume that some of these people were sportswriters, though most of them probably didn't let that affect the quality of their work. Now that there are many black QBs in the league, it's not an issue anymore. But it still is for black coaches. Can anyone honestly say that the people who approve of the NFL's rule on interviewing minorities don't care one way or the other how Marvin Lewis, Herm Edwards, and Tony Dungee do? (This last part first appeared in Dan Drezner's comments.)

Since I'm only 22, I don't have specifics on how the media treated black quarterbacks in the 70's and 80's, but fortunately Gregg Easterbrook does:

There was at time and place when Limbaugh's comment might have been right. When African Americans like James Harris of the Rams and Joe Gilliam of the Steelers were breaking the quarterback color line about three decades ago, they struggled as players, and the sports media were often soft on that. Monday Night Football's Howard Cosell hyped the erratic Gilliam, because Cosell wanted to see a black quarterback succeed. We all now know the Steelers were better off playing the white guy, Terry Bradshaw, who made the Hall of Fame.

So all those people who say "it's 2003", please, gimme a break.