All Talk Sports

There’s not that many African-American quarterbacks, so we have to do a little bit extra.  Because the percentage of us playing this position, which people didn’t want us to play … is low, so we do a little extra.

These are the words spoken by Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Donovan McNabb in an interview with Jim Brown, on HBO’s “Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel.” 

McNabb goes on to tell Jim Brown that players like Carson Palmer and Peyton Manning are not criticized as much as he is, and states that even if he passes for 300 yards and the team wins by seven, he is still going to face some type of criticism.

I’ve already heard many opinions on McNabb’s accusations, and most discredit everything McNabb said. Let me start off by saying that I think there is a lot of truth to McNabb’s comments. Every fan is on the outside looking in, but I think McNabb is referring to personal things he may have encountered as a player during his 9 years in the NFL.  I don’t think the racism or criticism he talked about is something we fans would see.  What McNabb is talking about  may possibly be the racism and criticism within the orginization, the city, or the NFL.  Due to frustration, he made it seem  like every black quarterback faces racism, but in my opinion he meant it  on a more personal level.

One of the reasons many people are discrediting McNabb’s statements is that he is playing in one of the toughest cities in the world.  Philadelphia is notorious for having a love, hate relationship with their athletes and teams. When a player is playing bad or the team is losing, the fans turn in an instant. Many fans are probably thinking that he faces more criticism than any other  player because he has some of the harshest fans in America.

Also, I think the timing of the accusations are causing people to think the accusations are false.  One can argue that McNabb is probably frustrated due to his poor play and lack of team success the past couple of seasons.  For McNabb to come out with these accusations during a frustrating point in his career automatically causes fans to wonder if the accusations are just, or if he is just an extremely frustrated player using the race card to take the heat off of him.

Donovan McNabb has been one of the classiest guys in the NFL, and I highly doubt that he would simply make this up due to frustration.  I believe everything he said has some truth to it.  My only issue is that McNabb has had so many opportunites to speak the truth, but stayed away from the issue.  He should have spoken up immediately, even if the team was having sucess, and not wait when he is at a low point in his career.

It’s important to note, as fans, we are still somewhat kept in the dark about what goes on with players and the many things they have to deal with everyday.  If a player with as much class as Donovan McNabb speaks out with these types of accusations, it would only be right to give him the benefit of the doubt and support the man, instead of immediately discrediting everything he’s said.

Back in the day, “Bo knows” was the common phrase many fans used to describe the extremely talented Bo Jackson.  It seemed liked this guy could do anything and everything if he put his mind to it.  The many Nike ads also encouraged this type of thinking, but Jackson not only played professional football, he also played professional baseball. More importantly, he was really good at both sports becoming the first athlete to play in an All Star Game of two major sports.

Jackson is most known for playing running back for the Oakland Raiders.  He also played left field and designated hitter for the Kansas City Royals, Chicago White Sox, and California Angels.

While playing running back for the Oakland Raiders, the former Heisman winner dazzled fans with his amazing speed and power.  He would often get long runs causing defenders to miss, or often dragged them on his way to a touchdown.  In his first four seasons in the NFL, Jackson rushed for 2, 782 yards on just 515 carries and recorded  16 touchdowns.  Jackson still holds the Monday Night Football record for rushing yards with 222.

When Jackson wasn’t running over linebackers like Seattle Seahawk’s Brian Bosworth, he was hitting homeruns in the Major Leagues.  Jackson used his amazing speed to run the bases as well as make some amazing catches in left field.  This was quite a thing to see.  Just picture Barry Bonds with the same amount of power but with Ricky Henderson’s speed, and you had Bo Jackson. In his eight seasons in the MLB, Jackson recorded 144 homeruns and 415 RBIs.

A  severe hip injury Jackson suffered in a game against the Cincinnati Bengals ended his football career, and would eventually end his baseball career. The amazing runs and signature breaking of the bat with his knee may be a distant memory, but this was Bo Jackson back in the day.

Note: A Bo Jackson baseball highlight video is coming soon