PrintRace and ridiculousness in sports
New York Times sports columnist William Rhoden considers the 1968 anti—American Olympic protest the most courageous act of sports demonstration in his lifetime, or maybe in history. The whole paper just cannot get over the late 1960s.
The Times sports columnist indulges in nostalgia for the protest era while lauding two black sprinters for rasing black power fists instead of respecting the national anthem.
Ed Lasky 10 17 05
Richard Baehr adds:
Rhoden also wrote about Notre Dame on Sunday, after their thrilling game with Southern Cal this weekend. He had to throw in how badly the University handled its firing of former Coach Tyrone Willingham. Willingham had his three seasons with the Irish, and could not turn them into a consistent winner. New coach Charlie Weis has made the Irish a national power again 6 games into his first season. His team played brilliantly against a very talented USC team, and lost in the final three seconds Saturday in a memorably intense battle.
The University fired Willingham, a decent man, but not a coach who would bring the school back to national prominence on the gridiron. But because Willingham is black, Rhoden has to treat his firing as a problem and misstep for the University. Why is it a bigger deal to fire a black coach than a white one, if he has not succeeded in his job? Perhaps this explains why relatively few black coaches are hired. College football at the highest level is an all but professional big money operation. Winning is the bottom line to keep contributing alumni happy. As a coach at a major power Division 1 school, there is great pressure to win, and win quickly. If hiring a black coach gets the school lauded by the press, but firing one gets you trashed, why take the risk?
William Rhoden is obsessed by race. He manages to filter it into virtually every story. It is, in fact, not the key to much of what he writes about, but he can't help himself. Nor can the Times, which had a first page news story on the alleged rapid firing of black NBA coaches , a story that did not hold up under even the most basic scrutiny. Choose your section of the Times: the arts, sports, news, opinion, and everywhere you find the influence of the left, and the obsession with race and class . Every story has to have a political angle.
The USC—Notre Dame game may have been the best college football game I have ever watched: two outstanding teams fighting like champions for the full 60 minutes in one of sports' most electric venues. Real sports fan can enjoy it, without wallowing in the race pit.
