The Sports Writing Blues: Confessions of an Angry White Fan
August 20, 2008
I just want to write about:
…all the sports again, the ball and courts again, not false reports again;
…the game again, about the playing again, the NBA again;
…Knicks ball again, missed calls again, Chris Paul again.
…the salary cap again, create the stats again, debate the facts again
…how Mariano’s delivery makes them slumber, how his heater makes them dumber, how his cutter breaks their lumber.
…Bonds batting balls for homers, not battling “The Hall” for honors, or the black-balling by owners.
…that tennis Grand Slam event, how Nadal beat The Man to win, how I became a fan again…
…Bernard King’s forgotten greatness, how unstoppable his game was, how sorrowful his fate was.…
…Why Wilt’s legacy was coined by his haters, why MJ was anointed “the greatest”, while somehow this point went debate-less.
…Stan’s forgotten stance, “The Man’s” forgotten rank, how he outhit Mays and Hank…
…Why Namath is the most overrated name, how a career was built off of a game, add a guarantee and Eli Manning is the same.
…Why Manny Pacquaio is a legend in his prime, why Mike Tyson was a legend in your mind, why Ali-Liston is my favorite of all-time.
But I can’t… I — just — can’t…
Because I used to tackle sports half the time, and now I write what I have to write
But that was before I lost half my mind, and now I have only half the might…
to write about sports beyond media watching, beyond the media botching,
because they set-up AROD and Tejada with that sports media “gotcha”
Barry wasn’t blackballed? — go ahead and Use Your Illusion.
Was it owners or media? — go ahead, choose your collusion
Baseball’s so-called “purity guards” just allow it to happen,
when will you stand up Costas, Kurkijian, and Gammons?
The last three years only brought Sports Illustrated covers of Danica
We never saw Serena, Venus, Candace, Justine, Lorena, or Annika
And no matter how much Ms. Parker outplays her foes,
She may never land a cover until she takes off her clothes.
The field of sports journalism is in a state of crisis,
There’s way too much maleness, way too much whiteness.
Dr. Lapchick did the study, we all have the knowledge,
Sports journalism is as bad as football coaches in college.
Mariotti, Lupica, and Whitlock have all been rewarded for schemes,
D. K. Wilson won’t blame hip-hop, and gets ignored by mainstream.
Yet how many provide this much insight from mainstream’s school,
It’s time for the Associated Press to adopt a real “Rooney Rule”.
One that changes how athletes are judged in sports,
One that allows The Starting Five to take the court,
One where preserving Brett Favre’s legacy is not the mission.
One that ensures Sean Taylor’s grave won’t get pissed on.
One that might end the incredible sameness of ESPN,
And the incredible “white pass” they use again and again,
They look past Bernstein’s felony, but punish Jemele’s misdemeanor,
proving “racist” vs. “reckless” words, means less than target and speaker.
Ted Dupay caught a rape charge — and 1st and 10 just ignored it.
Brad Miller got caught 3 times — and Around the Horn couldn’t score it.
Matt Jones was busted cutting lines — but PTI wouldn’t snort it.
All-three happened the same day, but no ESPN show would report it [1].
Miller pulls the weed hat-trick, and ESPN posts the nicest blurb.
Shawne Williams friend gets busted, and he gets twice the words.
Joakim Noah has a joint in his pocket, and gets four ESPN posts.
Josh Howard admits off-season use, and is non-stop butt of ESPN jokes.
Derrick Rose got a traffic ticket, and 2 ESPN articles provided some reading.
Derrick Rose got a traffic ticket, and 3 ESPN talk shows debated his speeding.
In 2008, at least five black ballers have been web-cited for traffic flow.
ESPN’s reasons are obvious — white athletes drive slow.
So instead of game reflections, I’m making giant lists,
Make a race bias claim, and everyone becomes a scientist.
They need 6748 pieces of evidence to verify what they know,
Give ‘em half the facts, and they’ll send a man to death row.
If I were a hateful man, I’d wish you’d get cancer,
and hope that the doctor would give you no answer,
And performed more studies “just to be sure”,
Instead of the chemo that might be the cure.
But I’d never wish such a thing on another person too,
I only wish you’d see the bigot is no worse than you,
This little game is a shame as solutions are hopeless,
Why treat the disease? Let’s just avoid the diagnosis.
Meanwhile the bigots flock to ESPN’s comment section,
Ready to perform another “bad” black man inspection,
It’s not just Vick, it could just be Shawn Kemp’s redemption[2],
The mob will come hard, there will be few exceptions.
And ESPN will roll out another misbehaving black man
More than 300 articles this past year on “Pacman”,
Clicks keep coming on their tax-blacks-4-stacks plan.
And they knows full well that you’ve got their back, man
Not calling you a bigot, but your silence is large for ‘em,
Not calling you a burglar, but you’re driving the car for ‘em,
Not calling you a terrorist, but your shelter is harboring ‘em
Hate is running up-field, and you block like a guard for ‘em.
Check the stats man, it’s just the facts maam,
Hate groups up 50% — it’s time to act man.
This is serious, how will we fight the drama,
No – it’s not enough to vote for Obama.
It will only get worse if Barack gets sworn in,
Hate stock will spike the very next morning,
The history of progress has been met with a backlash.
And has always succeeded cuz good folks won’t act fast.
Or they celebrate victory while hate hatched a new plan,
It was Reconstruction that birthed Jim Crow and the Klan,
Civil Rights sparked 30 years of new drug law insanity
An 8-fold prison increase is a crime against humanity.
Now the line it is drawn, the curse it is cast
The slow one now, will later be fast
The times they are a changin’, but what will be written
This is a call to sports bloggers to stop trying to fit in.
And I could care less if this comes off self-righteous,
Don’t care if it’s liked, if it means that you might just…
write a meaningful article or take ESPN to task,
Or have one less post with some girl shaking her ass.
Don’t care about accusations of “trying to be down”
Tired of racism reduced to some new kind of a sound,
Like some new fad to be found, like I’m just glad to be ‘round,
Don’t let my smile convince you, it’s just the tears of a clown.
The truth is, I’d rather laugh and talk trash again,
Instead of blasting ESPN’s racial-bash again,
Is that too much to ask from them?
Is that too hard a task for them?
And while “I don’t write for the sake of riddlin’”
I just want to write like a little kid again…
And I’m just trying to find the will again…
…But I just don’t know when I will again…
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Footnotes:
[1] Refers to ESPN afternoon shows not SportsCenter.
[2] This week Kemp signed on to play in Italy. Half of the comments were reserved were jokes and potshots at his personal life.
Comments
15 Responses to “The Sports Writing Blues: Confessions of an Angry White Fan”
Got something to say?
Keep your head up MODI. Just you being you makes me feel better about the world. Just the fact that you’re willing to dig and find stuff about racism. To prove what’s going on with facts. That’s progress man.
Don’t let a sense of obligation stop you from pursuing what you want to pursue. Write about the stuff you want to write about, don’t feel like you have to carry the burden of changing th media on your back. Sometimes you have to put a heavy load down for a while, so you can pick it back up later and carry it the distance.
MODI,
Big man said it better than I could. We’re all on the same team, so when one gets weak, the rest of us will carry you until you get your strength back.
Also great pic of Michael Douglas. ” Falling Down” was a very underrated film.
Thanks fellas. My head was up by the time I hit click. The writing exercise in and of itself works itself out. Will stay on an ESPN kick for a while though. As for obligations, if the SOMM crew, TSF, Zirin and others weren’t doing regular heavy lifting, then there would be much more pressure. Even still, it would be nice if more than the same handful of sites wrote about anything. The political blogosphere that you (Big Man) play in has so many more comrades in arms. It would nice to see the sports blogosphere catch up. Maybe one day.
I thought about writing about sports when I started my blog, I even did some sports related pieces, but then I just gave up.
MODI:
I was wondering where you’d been. Now I know. You took a Genius Pause. Work that shit like you work it!!!!
Great stuff Modi….truly great stuff.
MODI, if there were more caucasians like you, racism would be deaded…period. Nice P.E. reference, also. Caught that. To phrase Rakim: Nice the way you “hit um with the rhythm”
Big Man, if I posted more frequently I’d definitely mix it up a whole lot more (definitely Knicks). I’m often drawn to do the straight political thing, but I feel comfortable with many of the blogs that are out there like you, Jack and Jill, Daily Kos, Media Matters, etc. There is a SOME sense that somebody else will cover it AND that word will spread through the network. But around these sports parts, I feel like it’s the same handful of people who cover the bullshit, and anything else is just a real pleasant bonus. (like when the blogosphere united against the Fanhouse “fantasy girls” — but even that chain reaction was started by D-Wil)
Absolutely brilliantly done, MODI.
Dare I say it was ‘Mayweatheresque’. (-:
That was great, Ch…Modi. Keep your head up; complaint and dissent DOES lead to change, just not as quickly as some would like.
One of many. CTRL+D like a mug!!
Modi,
It is Published so that we don’t Perish. You know what’s good.
Modi, Nice flow. But would those be the true confessions of a white fan? I’m thinking it would be more like, too many niggas, making too much money and oh god, please get us some white boys to compete with them.
title was ironic… been having evolving struggle with it. Originally conceived as “The Sports Writing Blues”… then added “angry white fan” tag at last minute… then removed “TSWB” after first couple of comments… then just re-added it now…
actually got a traditional piece coming truer to the “confessions” moniker — just no more time this week
http://www.wired.com/techbiz/media/magazine/16-09/st_15ojsimpson