http://msn.foxs****ts.com/nfl/story/7343980
Jason Whitlock / FOXS****ts.com
Posted: 6 hours ago
You get one NFL Truth today. Watching Chad Johnson and Larry Johnson
undermine their respective head coaches, Marvin Lewis and Herm Edwards,
on Sunday gave me a singular focus, forced me to contemplate an
uncomfortable truth.
African-American football players caught up in the rebellion and
buffoonery of hip hop culture have given NFL owners and coaches a
justifiable reason to whiten their rosters. That will be the legacy left
by Chad, Larry and Tank Johnson, Pacman Jones, Terrell Owens, Michael
Vick and all the other football bojanglers.
In terms of op****tunity for American-born black athletes, they're going
to leave the game in far worse shape than they found it.
It's already starting to happen. A little-publicized fact is that the
Colts and the Patriots — the league's model franchises — are two of the
whitest teams in the NFL. If you count rookie receiver Anthony Gonzalez,
the Colts opened the season with an NFL-high 24 white players on their
53-man roster. Toss in linebacker Naivote Taulawakeiaho "Freddie" Keiaho
and 47 percent of Tony Dungy's defending Super Bowl-champion roster is
non-African-American. Bill Belichick's Patriots are nearly as white,
boasting a 23-man non-African-American roster, counting linebacker
Tiaina "Junior" Seau and backup quarterback Matt Gutierrez.
For some reason, these facts are being ignored by the mainstream media.
Could you imagine what would be written and discussed by the media if
the Yankees and the Red Sox were chasing World Series titles with 11
African-Americans on their 25-man rosters (45 percent)?
We would be inundated with information and analysis on the social
significance. Well, trust me, what is happening with the roster of the
Patriots and the Colts and with Roger Goodell's disciplinary crackdown
are all socially significant.
Hip hop athletes are being rejected because they're not good for
business and, most im****tant, because they don't contribute to a
consistent winning environment. Herm Edwards said it best: You play to
win the game.
I'm sure when we look up 10 years from now and 50 percent — rather than
70 percent — of NFL rosters are African-American, some Al Sharpton
wannabe is going to blame the decline on a white-racist plot.
That bogus charge will ignore our role in our football demise. We are in
the process of mishandling the op****tunity and freedom earned for us by
Jim Brown, Walter Payton, Doug Williams, Mike Singletary, Gale Sayers,
Willie Lanier and countless others. And those of us in the media who
have rationalized, minimized and racialized every misstep by Vick,
Pacman and T.O. have played an equal role in blowing it.
By failing to confront and annihilate the abhorrent cultural norms we
have allowed to grab our youth, we have in the grand American scheme
sentenced many of them to hell on earth (incarceration), and in the
s****ts/entertainment world we've left them to define us as unreliable,
selfish and buffoonish.
I take you to Arrowhead Stadium this past Sunday when two competent and
respected black head coaches led the Chiefs and the Bengals in battle,
and their efforts were periodically sabotaged by Chad and Larry Johnson,
the two players Lewis and Edwards have defended the most.
Football fans are aware of Lewis' love affair with Chad Johnson, the
Flavor Flav of the gridiron. Johnson's insistence on conducting a
minstrel show during games has long been reluctantly tolerated by Lewis.
Johnson, I guess, is just too talented, productive and well-compensated
for Lewis to discipline. So Lewis has chosen to enable, going as far as
making excuses when Johnson's selfish behavior extended to an alleged
locker-room shoving match with coaches (including a swing at Lewis) at
halftime of the Bengals' Jan. 8, 2006 playoff loss to the Steelers.
Coming off an 11-5 regular season and having been crowned the toast of
Cincinnati, Lewis responded to that Johnson meltdown by vowing to cut
the player who leaked the fight information to the media.
Since then, the Bengals have been one of the league's biggest
disappointments, fini****ng 8-8 last season and starting 1-4 this season.
Injuries have played a significant role in Cincy's troubles, but so has
a lack of on- and off-field discipline and focus. Lewis' coddling of
Chad Johnson has destroyed the chemistry that made the Bengals a playoff
team in 2005.
On Sunday, with the Bengals trying to rally out of a two-score deficit,
Johnson failed to finish a pass route, which contributed to Carson
Palmer throwing an interception.
Not to be outdone, Larry Johnson continued his season-long pattern of
immature behavior, spiking the football in frustration with 4 minutes to
play and the Chiefs attempting to run out the clock. The Bengals were
out of timeouts and the spike stopped the clock, giving Cincy one last
chance to make a comeback.
Johnson, despite receiving a new $45-million contract, has brooded,
pouted and complained all season. He spent the off-season promising to
be a leader and has spent the first six weeks of the season spreading
locker-room cancer. Edwards-coached teams have traditionally been the
least-penalized squads in the NFL. This year's Chiefs are one of the
most-penalized squads. Nickel back Benny Sapp drew an uns****tsmanlike
conduct penalty on Sunday, had to be dragged off the field by Donnie
Edwards, and was spotted on the sideline arguing with players and
coaches.
Race is not the determining factor when it comes to having a good or bad
attitude. Culture is.
Hip hop is the dominant culture for black youth. In general, music,
especially hip hop music, is rebellious for no good reason other than to
make money. Rappers and rockers are not trying to fix problems. They
create problems for attention.
That philosophy, attitude and behavior go against everything football
coaches stand for. They're in a constant battle to squash rebellion,
dissent and second opinions from their players.
You know why Muhammad Ali is/was an icon? Because he rebelled against
something meaningful and because he excelled in an individual s****t. His
rebellion didn't interfere with winning. Jim Brown, Bill Russell, Kareem
Abdul-Jabbar, etc. rebelled with dignity and purpose.
What we're witnessing today are purposeless, selfish acts of buffoonery.
Sensible people have grown tired of it. Football people are recognizing
it doesn't contribute to a winning environment.
Whether calculated or not, the Patriots and the Colts have created
settings in which Brady and Manning can lead and feel comfortable. I
remember back in the 1980s when some black s****ts fans accused the
Celtics of being racist for having a predominantly-white roster when
Larry Bird was the star. No one remembered that Red Auerbach
occasionally fielded an all-black starting lineup during Bill Russell's
heyday.
My point is that it makes sense to cater to your stars. And it makes
even more sense to fill your roster with players who don't mind being
led, even if you sacrifice a little 40-yard dash speed.
If things don't change quickly, we're going to learn this lesson the
hard way.
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