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October 03, 2003
cgb vs ditto
Since I've morphed into a sportsblog for the time being, I feel obligated to mention the story that led every local newscast, and appeared above the fold in yesterday's Syracuse papers: Rush Limbaugh's nonsense about Donovan McNabb.
To the delight of this member of the coveted 18-34 yr old male bracket, Rush resigned from his "dream job" on ESPN's NFL coverage. The funny thing about it is that, regardless of whether his comments were meant to be racist, his comments were futilely stupid. Honestly, beyond any sort of facticity or truth, what does it really matter if the media roots for a particular player or coach? Who really cares?
For every player in the NFL, there are 100 who don't possess the talent to make it, and that estimate is probably low. The worst player in the NFL (who probably plays for the Bears right now) is substantially better than 99% of the people who played football in college--there's no one who doesn't deserve some attention. And if some get more attention than others, for whatever reason, what is horrible about that? We had to listen for four years (that included 2 MVP's) about how Kurt Warner stocked grocery store shelves before getting his shot and moving at light speed from unknown to Super Bowl QB. Yippee skippee. Talk about a quarterback who benefitted from a system. Team success has followed McNabb wherever he's been. Is it all his doing? No. Does he play a big role? Of course.
To focus on whether or not the media overrates one player or another is the kind of parasitic navel gazing that we don't need more of. I don't care. I want analysis, performance review, predictions, etc. I want coverage of the sport, not coverage of the coverage of the sport. When they hired Rush, ESPN was shooting for the latter, not the former, and that (as much as the fact that I can't stand Dimbaugh) was why I wasn't watching any pre-game on ESPN this season.
Now, if you'll excuse me, I need to spend the next 8 hours in meditation and preparation to watch Prior on the mound tonight.
Posted by cgbrooke at October 3, 2003 12:17 PM