The Underreported Story of the Week
September 18, 2009 by dwil
This following been an underreported story. It appeared on my news reader just yesterday, though it was first reported September 15. Any talk about this on ESPN? Not. any commentaries on ESPN.com by the bevy of Page 2 columnists? Nope. Was it the subject of a certain Fox Sports columnist who features “Real Talk” in his columns? Sure you’re right. Is the incident on the lips of sports fans? HA! No no no.
Instead the New York Jets players smack talking the New England Patriots players is the primary topic at the water cooler.
You could say, well, the NFL is America’s national pastime, so any story not all-things NFL isn’t worth discussing, especially the closer we get to Sunday. But this is an NFL story. Though it is not a game story, it is a game-related story. Yet if you’re a hater of all reporting that might shed some light on where we really stand today, you’ll create excuses for why it isn’t on the lips of —————- the entire nation.
You see, with a Black President, with race such a prominent issue in today’s America, this story should have been a lead story on every NEWS station, let alone the lead story in every national newspaper and major sports-related .com (to hell with the independent outlets and blogs, they are being purposely dismissed by the mainstream press, in part to protect the employees of those mainstream outlets from further staff cuts).
This story combines elements of good-old-fashioned night-ridin’ open hood-wearin’, nigger-yellin’ at noon in public racism with protect the motherland, err, homeland, militia-fearing, domestic terrorism. This story should have been on the lips of that Fox News pasty-faced racist doughboy, Glenn Beck (albeit twisted), as an example of America’s burgeoning incivility, thanks to the Obama administration. It should have been the subject of a Keith Olberman show-ending five minute diatribe on a postmodern America that is, if you believe academics, supposed to be about introspection and retrospection in order to live our lives today but is instead an Internet-anonymity induced passive-aggressive, segregated, cloistered, angry, and hateful society. Lou Dobbs should have melded the story to the nation’s economic woes, a, ‘when common people do not get the performance they pay dearly for, this is how they react today,’ story. This story and the reaction of the players, should have been the point of a week-long continuing discussion about guns and athletes:
Bills players are concerned with their privacy and safety after the front lawn of a home belonging to cornerback Leodis McKelvin was vandalized following Buffalo’s season-opening loss to New England.
Hamburg police on Tuesday confirmed the home of a Bills player was vandalized, but declined to release details of their investigation after an obscenity and the score of Monday night’s game – a 25-24 loss to the Patriots — were painted in white on the player’s lawn in suburban Buffalo.
McKelvin fumbled a kickoff return with under two minutes to play and the Bills leading 24-19. Three plays later, New England’s Tom Brady hit Benjamin Watson for the go-ahead touchdown as the Patriots overcome an 11-point deficit in the final 2:06.
Bills linebacker Kawika Mitchell referred to a teammate’s home being vandalized in a post on his Twitter page, though he did not say it was McKelvin’s home. Mitchell warned fans that such behavior is disturbing.
“W/ all the safety issues n the NFL its not funny at all,” Mitchell wrote. “We have Fam at our homes to protect. If u show ur face on my prop Ill make sure I do everythin to keep my Fam safe.”
Mitchell warned that he would consider vandalism threatening behavior if it happened to his home.
“Its my job to protect my home as it is the job of all home owners. Dont push the limit,” Mitchell wrote.
Though Bills fans are passionate about their team, Monday’s night’s vandalism is surprising. Bills players previously have hailed the team’s fans for being respectful and allowing players their privacy.
Bills spokesman Scott Berchtold declined comment by saying the team considers this a police matter.
A message left on a phone listed to McKelvin was not returned.
It’s not clear if there was anyone at home at the time the vandalism occurred.
Bills players had the day off before returning to practice Wednesday to prepare to host Tampa Bay this weekend.
Bills safety George Wilson was shocked upon learning the news earlier in the day.
“To see that type of response from so-called passionate fans is taking things to the extreme,” said Wilson, who is the team’s union representative. “You can blog and make your opinions, but to go to a person’s residence, you’re taking it to a whole new level.”
An obscenity? That’s the best the Associated Press can do? Since the AP reports much of the news first, other news reports will follow the AP’s lead.
And, of course, in the case of this story, they did. So, in the press, there is no hint of what “obscenity” means, or what the obscenity was.
The first question that should leap from the mouths of Black people is, “Does this happen to White athletes?”
The obvious answer is a resounding, “HELL NO!” Rarely, if ever.
The first thought that should leap from the minds of White people is, “We need to stop this shit before Black people go slam off and start punching us in our faces.”
Both the answer and the thought are stark realities.
Vandalism to a White athlete’s lawn is a rare occurrence, while random acts of shittiness toward Black athletes are all-too common. And while there has been a mid-first decade of the 21st century period of an uneasy togetherness between Black and White people, there now exists a schism between the races that with each passing second of every day grows deeper and wider.
Since the hostile and complete takeover of America by a group of neo-conservatives who made a devil’s pact with a sect of old-fashioned, hang ‘em high racist, Evangelical Christians, and the baby they have produced is a demon-seed jackal that has given us an open war on darker-skinned peoples in America and around the world, an open hostility toward the rights of peoples everywhere, a complete gutting of our nation’s economy by fascist legislators for the benefit of corporate hyenas who can only survive if there exists vast swaths of utterly drained, near dead work force carcasses, and a dismantling of our education system to shift the people of the U.S. from an intellectual technological, philosophical, and arts advancing nation to a collective body of fast-food workers.
It is no coincidence that journalism has taken a sharp downturn since there has been an emphasis on solely hiring journalism school college majors. The body of people charged with being the go-between for the average American and the elite is mostly an easily-molded, anti-intellectual, and utterly pliant mass of sychcophant lackeys who will do anything to suck the asses of those the designated elite, even if it means they are witting lapdogs for the very people they are charged with reporting, critiquing, and exposing.
Even if it means that when the powers that be decide to divest our society of all its worth, the people who pass for what was once proudly called “the press” perish right along with the fast-food servers from whom they keep any semblance of truth and understanding.
With this gross psychic desert as America’s new cultural topography, the wholly uncivil act of vandalizing a wealthy Black man’s lawn is barely noteworthy. A White neighbor can escape unscathed and without the demand of an apology when she calls the police on a Black Harvard professor who reacts with proper self-righteousness when negatively approached by police who decide their uniform means they can press the issue even when they know the property on which they stand belongs to the Black man. A nearly all-encompassing sports media conglomerate can openly castigate Black athletes, downplay the acumen and achievements of Black athletes on a daily basis, and have an employment force of less than nine percent Black journalists covering sports where Black athletes are more than 60% of the employees (no one at ESPN has yet to mention that Miami quarterback Jacory Harris is the point man for elevating the Hurricanes back to national prominence having started just FOUR games and that Black head coach Randy Shannon is game planning as well as any head coach in the country and winning with a team thought to be too young to compete for prominence in its own conference, let alone national prominence).
“I hear babies crying, I watch them grow
They’ll learn much more than I’ll never know
And I think to myself what a wonderful world
Yes I think to myself what a wonderful world.”
-What a Wonderful World
Tell that to Leodis McKelvin.
—————————————-
(thanks Miranda)
PTI/ATH had brief segments on this. If I remember right, they said that someone had spray-painted the losing score on his lawn along with a painted picture of a cock. I wanted to think it was someone from the team or a person who knew where he lived that did it as some sort of dirty practical joke.
I didn’t think information such as addresses were given out to the public, but who knows. I always recall that Tom Cruise flick “All the Right Moves” when dealing with sports and vandalism. Now, folks can get off that high-horse about athletes and their need for “security”.
SMH!
Hey Dwil,
I am a little biased, because I am a fan of the hurricanes from the early days of Jerome Brown and Irvin. The announcers spent most of last night’s game talking about the offensive coordinator rather than the black head coach. Shannon and Jacory Harris have an opportunity to do something wonderful for themselves and African Americans in a sport that is too often negative toward blacks. Shannon wins, means that black coaches can get better jobs I hope in major conferences.
This is what happens when the media chooses to focus too much on fan entitlement and what they think fans “deserve”. Of course as you eloquently point out, this has a lot to do with how the majority of pro athletes look these days. Where once athletes were glamorous heroes, they are now selfish, jerk, millionaires and any fan could do what these athletes could do if they just “worked hard.” We were talking about Jack Johnson on the other post and before he became champion, the heavyweight title holder was considered the not just the physical superior of everyman in the world but the intellectual superior. After Johnson dropped them thangs on that cat, he was only credited with being more of an animal then his opponent. Constant moving of the finish line.
And to briefly comment on what you said about a black athlete hauling off and sockin’ the sh*t out of somebody. I was reading a news story about an anti-abortion protester getting rode on and ventilated while in his car. I think he was shot 5 times. I don’t think that people like Glen Beck, Rush and to a lesser extent ESPN see the repurcussions of inflaming racists, bigots and dumbasses. The blow back being: there are unhinged people on either side of a debate. Out here in Los Angeles, there are brothers who don’t know sh*t about politics, never voted or whatever. But they know when they see a black man getting treated like a nigger and their response to that might not exactly be reasonable. If you kill too many abortion doctors, some cat on the other side of that issue is going to think it’s ok to kill people people who are against abortion. And typically they are going to attack somebody who is relatively moderate in their views about the subject. I don’t think this is good for anyone but as long as the media implicitly encourages it it’s not going to stop.
Oh and I am so glad it looks like Miami might be getting back to form. And they finally have a good qb. That has been driving me crazy for YEARS.
Good stuff, but a small point … in Canada 5 years ago fans dumped manure on the lawn of a CFL kicker who missed a big field goal in a playoff game. It did happen, once. The funny part was the idiots messed up and got the neighbours’ yard.
That’s one isolated example, though, and it doesn’t invalidate DWil’s point.
Thanks all… I saw the ATH/PTI segments yesterday. But nothing after the game? Nothing glowing about Harris or Shannon today. Skip Bayless said, “He [Harris] looks so much better than he did last year.” And he dissed Harris’ throwing motion! “That funky little throwing motion,” is what he called it.
And I’m thinking, wow you didn’t see that much of Jacory Harris last year. WTF are you talking about? A dude coming off the bench who then started only two games?… Instead of gushing about a a kid w/ only four starts looking so poised and making all the right decisions, that’s what he had to say?
And not even a mention of how Shannon and Harris and the defense harken back to the Canes’ glory days? Really?!
Are they that overtly biased? Or, are they so fucked up that don’t even realize that, given the type of coverage they would give a White kid with four starts under his belt going 20-25 for 270 yards and 2 TDs against a quality opponent, they leave themselves with only one out – racism – as to why they aren’t gushing about Harris today? I mean dude was 13-18 w/ the 2 TDs in the first half. Then, when Shannon wanted the Canes to control the ball, which meant Harris was throwing most often on 3rd down in obvious pass situations, he went seven for seven – with Tech desperately needing stops?!
Wow.
What’s amazing, is that the Toronto Star did a better job of reporting the story about McKelvin’s lawn being vandalized than anything American that I’ve seen.
http://www.thestar.com/football/nfl/article/697442
It’s good to see Miami returning to be a power. I know this much. If Jacory Harris were a white qb with those kind of numbers, they’d already be talking about him for a Heisman. Shannon would be hailed as a genius.
Thomas -
Don’t count on success from Shannon opening the door for African Americans in D-1 Football. You’ve had successful African Americans before, and the minute that they mess up… Then, you bring in your recycled, possibly morally challenged white savior.
awb -
Glenn Beck, Rush Limbaugh, Bill O’Reilly, and the other extremists all hide behind the veil of free speech. When someone kills someone after listening to everything that they say, they will just say, “I never told them to kill anybody!” It’s the same thing that White Supremacists and anti-government groups have done for years. Inflame the weak-minded and get them to go do the dirty work, then hide behind freedom of speech. Remember Ricky Byrdsong and the Church of the Creator?
dwil – regarding Jacory Harris & Randy Shannon: dude looks awesome, but that was against FSU (which has no secondary) and Georgia Tech (with a lacking linebacking and secondary). We know how mediocre the ACC is when it comes to football, but cats have been lionized for less against crappy non-con matchups.
If Harris & Shannon get no props AFTER putting the wood to VA Tech this weekend (and they will, Tech can’t score worth a damn) — then I got issues.
Correction: I mean NEXT weekend against VA Tech.
SportsCenter seems to be jockin’ on Harris this morning, but who knows.
That was a decent column from The Star.
Love this line from the Star article:
“You wonder why so many professional athletes carry guns these days. I wonder why they carry guns, too, because rocket launchers would work better.”
Hey Kos,
I disagree, there has only been to my knowledge one black head coach of a prominent college football program and that was John Blake at Oklahoma. He was fired but his recruits won Bob Stoops first and only championship. I am pretty sure there has never been a black coach with a great college football job.
Ty Willingham ———————- for a second.
Yeah. Willingham was yanked from Notre Dame before he could get it fully turned around. Unfortunately, he went to a horrible situation at UW. At the time, I thought he should have waited a bit for a program in better shape. Where is he now?
You put it down with this nugget D!
In the words of my main man George Clinton “think, it ain’t illegal yet!” The viewing public in America opens their eyes and ears and says tell me what to think FIX News, ESPN, Lou Dobbs, Oprah, Dr. Phil, Sean Hannity, Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck, Bill O’Reilly. They need to think for themselves!!!
Its cool as hell to come to a site where brothers and sisters, regardless of color, can chop it up and have an opinion that doesn’t originate in the mind of a network executive. Don’t always agree with everyone here but at least their points of view don’t sound like canned shit with a CNN, FOX or ESPN label.
Dwil, great article…
Mactown, It amazes me how people like Joe Scarborough can say, “Well, we know racism still exist in this country…” But two things are always true: ONE, They will NEVER bring to the fore a situation of racism (except when Uncle Tom Sambos like Michael Steele and Larry Elder say that affirmative action & liberalism {and calling Clarence Thomas the Tom that he is} are examples of “racism”) and TWO, to tell you that the example of racism that you may cite is NOT racism. Conservatives always tell us how “credible” Thomas Sowell and Elder and Steele are on race because “they’re black”. But they dismiss the credibility of Jimmy Carter saying that a large segment of Southerners are racist – shouldn’t he be more credible on Southerners because he IS one?