We Got A Black Guy in the White House, but We Don't Want Him in Our Locker Room

Gene Wojciechowski has an article on espn.com right now arguing that embattled receiver Terrel Owens should look to Randy Moss for guidance on how to resurrect his career. Essentially the argument is that Owens is a trouble-making malcontent, and unless he reforms like former trouble-making malcontent Moss, he will never be respected or get into the Hall of Fame or all other sorts of terrible things.

And while I'm certainly not arguing that either of them are perfectly upstanding citizens, it's pretty easy to see examples of how sports coverage and our wider society are still pretty damn racist in this article.

For example, let's look at the list of Moss' sins offered up in the article as proof of his corrupt soul. Wojciechowski writes:

with the Minnesota Vikings, he pretended to moon opposing fans, confronted a traffic officer, left the field before the end of a game, verbally abused game officials, squirted water at a side judge, said he didn't think the Vikes would reach the Super Bowl and once announced, "I play when I want to play." As a Raider, Moss openly criticized the franchise.

Now let's look at all of these terrible things in perspective. Pretending to moon opposing fans? Sure, Moss did once, after a touchdown in Green Bay, mimic pulling down his pants to moon the opposing fans. Why did he do this? It was in parody of the Packers' (mostly white) fans who actually do moon the opposing team's bus coming into and leaving the stadium. I've yet to see a hyperbolic article about how evil Packers fans are because they actually moon people.

Leaving the field before a game was over? Sure, I remember that game. He left with 3 seconds left when the opposing team was up by nearly a touchdown and was kicking off with 3 seconds left. Much as everyone in the stadium or watching at home predicted, they squib kicked and the game was over with no chance of an offensive play. You know who else has walked off a field before the game was over? Universally beloved cheater (and white guy) Bill Belichick. Of course, though, he's the head coach, not just one of dozens of players. Again, I'm yet to read an article about how Belichick is troubled goods and teams should stay away from him.

As a Raider Moss criticized the franchise? Oh no! You know who else has criticized the Raiders franchise? Everyone who has ever watched football. It's a terrible team owned by a certifiably insane person. Saying an employee of a corrupt business has no right to criticize said business is not only stupid, it's un-American.

And I could go on and on for everyone of those actions. Does that make the excusable? Maybe or maybe not. But I could also point to much less excusable behavior in football (say, Brett Farve's recreational abuse of painkillers) done by white players that doesn't make them pariahs in the league.

The point is guys like Moss and Owens may be assholes (Owens seemingly much more so), but it's hard to understand how much of that image is them, and how much of it is our racist image of the way people are supposed to act. When white players are assholes and prima donnas that expect everyone to bow to their will (again, Mr. Farve for example) it's called integrity and leadership. When black players do the same thing, it's called being a clubhouse cancer. It's hard to say that racism doesn't play a significant role in that.