just to add a little more on the subject:

 

 

http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/columns/sto...gene&id=2260407

 

McNabb barbs a pigment of someone's imagination

 

 

Let me see if I have my color chart straight:

 

Philadelphia NAACP president J. Whyatt Mondesire, who is black, ripped Eagles quarterback Donovan McNabb, who is black, for not being black enough.

 

Mondesire also suggested that McNabb should have given money, which is green, to exiled Eagles wide receiver Terrell Owens, who is black. This is because Eagles owner Jeffrey Lurie, who is white, wouldn't give more money to Owens. Never mind that Owens' contract, which is black and white, didn't require Lurie to do so.

 

There has been bad blood, which is red, between Owens and McNabb since late last season, when McNabb said the Eagles could win the Super Bowl without the then-injured Owens. Owens apparently wanted McNabb to say the Eagles should stay in Philly, which is grey, and not even bother showing up against the New England Patriots.

 

The Eagles didn't beat the Patriots with Owens, but that didn't stop T.O. from absolving himself of any responsibility. "I wasn't the guy who got tired in the Super Bowl,'' he said, which is yellow.

 

Earlier last month, Owens, green with envy, said the Eagles would be better off with Brett Favre, who is white, as their quarterback. He also said the Eagles, coached by Andy Reid, who is white, lacked class and integrity for not publicly recognizing his 100th career touchdown.

 

Former Eagles player Hugh Douglas, who is black, fought Owens over the remarks. Soon thereafter, Owens apologized to the Eagles and his teammates. It didn't matter; Owens was suspended indefinitely.

 

Several days later he apologized again, this time mentioning McNabb by name. Owens' agent, Drew Rosenhaus, who is white, also spoke at the second apology event. This is the same event where Rosenhaus turned a shade of red when a reporter asked what service the agent had performed for Owens, other than getting him dismissed from the team.

 

NFL Players Association President Gene Upshaw, who is black, demanded the Eagles release Owens if they weren't going to reinstate him. The NFLPA filed a grievance, which would be heard by arbitrator Richard Bloch, who is white.

 

About 10 days later Team Owens presented its case to Bloch. Reporting for ESPN was Sal Paolantonio and Rachel Nichols, who are white.

 

Several days after the hearings, McNabb announced his season was finished. McNabb aggravated a sports hernia injury while attempting to tackle Cowboys safety Roy Williams, who is black, during the Nov. 14 Philly-Dallas game.

 

On Nov. 23, Bloch delivered his verdict: the Eagles were within their rights to ice Owens. Bloch's decision caused Upshaw to hold his breath until he turned blue. He vowed to remove Bloch from the list of union-approved arbitrators. Upshaw would prefer arbitrators agree with all union stances.

 

Meanwhile, Sen. Arlen Specter, who is white, popped off about the possibility of a Senate investigation into possible antitrust violations relative to the Owens/Eagles case. Then Specter backpedaled faster than Brian Dawkins, who is black, settling into Cover Two coverage.

 

The Eagles are now 5-8 and couldn't qualify for the playoffs even if NFL Commissioner Paul Tagliabue, who is white, tried to add another wild-card team. They are counting the nanoseconds until their irregular season ends Jan. 1.

 

Of course, it doesn't help that Mondesire continues to look through a prism capable of only producing blacks and whites. His logic -- or absence of it -- is so jaw-droppingly dumb that you wonder what would possess someone in the NAACP to lash out against someone whose map only features the high road.

 

Mondesire says McNabb is "mediocre at best.'' Someone needs to enroll Mondesire into a remedial course on the NFL. McNabb is a four-time Pro Bowl selection, four-time Eagles team MVP, 2000 NFL MVP runner-up, and quarterback of a team that has made four consecutive NFC championship game appearances, and its first Super Bowl appearance since 1980.

 

Mondesire suggests that McNabb's supposed unwillingness to run somehow lessens his blackness. In a parallel universe this probably makes sense. But here on Earth, quarterbacks who run for a living usually end up becoming close, personal friends with surgeon of the stars, Dr. James Andrews, who is white. Or they suffer sports hernias, and look as if they're dragging a Volvo behind them.

 

"He doesn't get it,'' Mondesire said of McNabb.

 

Actually, it's the other way around.

 

But that's just the opinion of Gene Wojciechowski, who is white.

in case you were curious, here's mondesire's column:

 

Donovan McNabb: Mediocre at best

By J. Whyatt Mondesire

 

Hey McNabb!

 

Yo--Donny! I'm calling you man.

 

Hey, soup guy, over here!

 

Donovan E. McNabb, you hear me callin' you. Will you please pay attention?

 

For a whole lot of years now, we've heard you crying aloud about being taken seriously as a black quarterback who can camp out in the pocket and deliver rifle shots across midfield right into the fingertips of the fleetest of wideouts and tight ends. Say, like a Doug Williams, the brilliant Grambling star quarterback of a generation ago who went on to break a Super Bowl record for touchdown passes in 1988.

 

Well....well...I've seen you Donovan E. McNabb--in your formative years as well as your mid-career development--and one thing is certain. Donovan E. McNabb you're no Doug Williams.

 

The Grambling all-star completed 18 of 29 passes for 340 yards and four touchdowns, capping it off with 35 points in the fourth quarter alone. He followed that performance with three conference championships in 2000, ?01 and ?02.

 

Your record is another matter entirely. In fact this whole dismal season so far has really been a testament of fallen dreams and lost opportunities most of which belongs at your feet (or should I say hands) and that of your coach, Andy Reid who has allowed you to perpetuate a fraud on the field while hiding behind excuses dripping in make-believe racial stereotypes.

 

Normally this column talks very little about sports because the games that grown men play pale in comparison to the great issues of racism, politics, social calamities, health crisis's, war and peace, etc. which gives us plenty of fertile territory to explore and pontificate about.

 

However, this week I felt compelled to offer some personal thoughts about your horrific on-field performances this season because at their core there is a lie you have tried to use to hide the fact that in reality you actually are not that good. In essence Donny, you are mediocre at best. And trying to disguise that fact behind some concocted reasoning that African American quarterbacks who can scramble and who can run the ball are somehow lesser field generals than one who can summon up dead-on passes at a whim is more insulting off the field than on.

 

Your athleticism and unpredictability to sometimes run with the ball earlier in your career not only confused defenses, it also thrilled Eagles fans. At last, said many of us, now we have a multifaceted offensive threat whose talents threaten to not just dominate the NFC East Division, but maybe the whole NFL for several years. We were elated. We were in awe.

 

We celebrated the boss's giving you that huge lifetime salary deal which meant we'd have you around until it was time for you to join the other retired stars in television's broadcast booth.

 

But then you played the race card and practically all of us fell for your hustle. You scammed us man and there's no way any longer to refrain from "keepin' it real."

 

We could have remained silent too, if you had found another way to remain effective and a winner. But when your mediocre talent becomes so apparent it's time to call it out.

 

Through the first four games, you completed 110 of 174 passes (63.2 percent) for a league-leading 1,333 yards and 11 touchdowns.

 

However, in your last five games, you connected on just 101 of 183 passes (55.2 percent) for 1,174 yards and five touchdowns, while throwing six interceptions, two of which clearly were game losers.

 

The sports hernia you suffered after the team's Week 3 win over Oakland clearly is a mega factor in the latter numbers.

 

But who can forget your mind numbing fourth-quarter collapse in last year's Super Bowl against New England.

 

Andy Reid may not have seen it. Owner Jeff Lurie may have missed it on the videotaped replay. But Ray Charles and Stevie Wonder "saw" it. You choked brother.

 

The brash and bombastic Terrell Owens may have committed the unpardonable sin of going public with his put down, but was he fundamentally wrong? The pressure, the hype, the clock--they all just converged and your nerve collapsed under their combined weight. Mediocre isn't horrible in and of itself. Most of us don't live up to our dreams. It's when we fake it that most of the rest of us get irritated.

 

So, for you to continue to deny we fans (as well as yourself) one of the strongest elements of your game by claiming that "everybody expects black quarterbacks to scramble" not only amounts to a breach of faith but also belittles the real struggles of black athletes who've had to overcome real racial stereotypcasting in addition to downright segregation.

 

College football in the South didn't drop its White Only wall until 1966 four years after James Meredith while trying to enroll at Ole Miss, which went 10-0 that year, even as its practice field was covered federal troops who had bivouacked there.

 

Earlier this month Sports Illustrated reporting pioneering black players in the vaunted SEC had to endure serious hardships, such as "Fritz Pollard, the black all-America at Brown during World War I, (who) had learned to spin on his back and thrust his cleats in the air when tackled, to protect himself from late hits; how Iowa State's Jack Trice was trampled to death during a 1923 game against Minnesota; and how in 1951, on the first play from scrimmage, an Oklahoma A&M player broke the jaw of Drake running back Johnny Bright, forcing him to abandon football and causing the school to withdraw in protest from the Missouri Valley Conference."

 

Hey Donny, see any difference yet in your trumped up racial views and those pioneers?

 

Taken together, your pretty decent arm, strong desire to win, and your instinctive ability to scramble in the backfield gave you an awesome package. Take away any one of the legs from this tripod, and whole thing falls flat as your are right now as you recuperate from the surgery that was long overdue the day you entered the hospital.

 

Finally, your failure as a team leader off the field to my mind did as much as anything to exacerbate the debacle that has become synonymous with T.O.'s full name.

 

Professional football is really more about money that sport. The fans know it. The players signs contracts for it. And, of course the owners know it, since they are first and last ones to count it when the season ends.

 

Just think how the whole media circus could have been avoided had you had the courage to offer only a tiny fraction of your bonus this year to Owens and running back, Brian Westbrook.

 

The gesture alone would have prompted these guys to run through walls for you. The rest of the team would have praised you. And what the heck were Lurie and team president Joe Banner going to do publicly if they objected or thought you had reach out-of-bounds. Fire you?

 

Yeah right. Let's really do "keep it real."

 

Leaders who make sacrifices are the stuff of legends. Who remembers a hoarder except for maybe Midas?

 

Hey Donny...soup guy! Pull your head out of your million-dollar Campbell's soup bowl for a moment ask which current quarterback in fact made a gesture like that for members of his squad.

 

Does the name Tom Brady ring a bell? Isn't he the guy who took home last year's Super Bowl ring while you were standing in the soup line?

http://www.philasun.com/back_issues/2005/11-27-05/cover.html