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I've been watching the Talking Head shows tonight, lots of talk about Vick. Only one or two defending him. Someone said that Vick was the "Golden Boy of the NFL." Think about that. By the media and fans, Vick was rated ahead of Tom Brady, who won Super Bowls, and Peyton Manning who set passing...

When O.J. Simpson was on Monday Night Football in the early 1980's, the TV critics rapped O.J. constantly for his poor diction. The Juice would say "hisself," instead of "himself," for example. Simpson was hard on the ears. He was all right in a 60 second commercial, but hard to take for 3...

When the LA Rams were going through a Black Quarterback Experiment with James Harris in 1974-76, Jaworski was the other QB through most of that period. As I previously wrote, Harris had good stats, but made critical errors in playoff games. The 1974 and 1975 NFC Title games in particular.

I remember the Marichal-Roseboro incident well. It was very big news when it happened at the height of the NL pennant race in August 1965. Marichal was suspended for nine days and lost two pitching turns. As it turned out, the Giants finished two games behind the Dodgers.

There is a Joe Ferguson Update Page. As of August 7, Joe Ferguson has been cancer-free for two years. He had been treated for Lymphoma during the Spring of 2005.

Someone who watches the Nashville media, told me yesterday why Young had to sit out the game. It seems the Titans have a rule that any player with less than 4 years experience, has to stay in the hotel with his teammates. Young said that he couldn't sleep in the hotel, so he stayed at home. The...

In the O.J. Simpson Trial, the black racialists were backing Simpson, while the (white) feminists were against him. By contrast, the Duke Hoax had the black racialists and the feminists allied against the Duke LAX players. The Vick case may have the black racialists against the PETA crowd...

My father and uncle used to go to what was then called Briggs Stadium in Detroit when Hank Greenberg was playing for the Tigers. They especially enjoyed watching him take batting practice.

This piece is now at the Chronicles site with some comments.

Until around the mid-60's, most NFL wide receivers were white. For example, the New York Giants from 1956-63, were probably the most publicized NFL team. The Giants of that era did not have a black WR.

In 1972, Dallas had Lance Alworth (his last season), Billy Parks, and Ron Sellers on the roster. Two of the three started at times that season. Bob Hayes was either injured or out of favor, or both. Gary Garrison and Alworth were the starters for the San Diego Chargers from 1966-70. They may...

I am old enough to remember when, as Don says, football players were thought of as white. Furthermore, the black players of the late 1950's and early 1960's were well-respected by white fans. There were standards, in public at least, that everybody adhered to. It really changed after 1964...

The first story the Army put out was that Pat Tillman was killed while charging up a hill under enemy fire. A lie, it soon turned out. I read several articles that said that Tillman was shot as a result of being mistaken for the enemy at considerable distance. These accounts had him shot by...

Last night on her CNN show, that brilliant journalist Paula Zahn, had two black commentators on. They cried that "the most hated athlete in America is always black." America loves to hate black athletes, is their belief. One of them said, "If this was Brett Favre, this wouldn't be happening."...

As Don writes, Bill Walsh used more white players than many of his contemporaries. Dwight Clark made one of the all-time great catches ("I didn't know a white man could jump that high," a black Cowboy said) from Joe Montana to beat Dallas in the 1981 NFC Title game. Also, Walsh was one of the...

I just did a Google search and found that the NAACP and others are lining up behind Vick. The Vick affair is shaping up much like the O.J. Simpson circus. We will soon see the hand-wringing in the System media over the Racial Divide which white people "need to understand."

About 25 years ago, during one of the periodic statements in the sports media that blacks are always faster and athletically superior to whites, there was a contrary opinion from a surprising source. I saw Harry Edwards quoted that there were several world-class white European sprinters. Edwards...

Here is Dr. Roger D. McGrath's piece in the August 2007 Chronicles Magazine: WHITE SPRINTERS For several years now, professional baseball has been pouring millions of dollars into developing black players. Evidently, the number of black players, at least American blacks, has been...

The August issue of Chronicles has an excellent piece by Roger McGrath titled "White Sprinters." McGrath tells of sprinters of the past-Charley Paddock, Mel Patton, Bobby Morrow, Dave Sime, and others. He mentions Jeremy Wariner as well. McGrath describes how professional baseball is...

Last week, I watched ESPN Sportcenter for the first time in a long while. Len Pasquarelli was on and said something like this; "I've been living in Atlanta the last few years and Michael Vick is a very polarizing figure, and its along racial lines." The next day, I saw Tim Green on a talking...

There was a fair amount of coverage of the case on the Talking Head shows tonight. Of interest is the fact that several commentators identified dog fighting as being very popular in urban areas. I saw a clip of a sign that said, "Cruelty isn't cool," which is said to be intended for "inner-city...

The NFL and the Falcons have just announced that Vick can continue to play. This is from USA Today. Nike is "reviewing the situation," about whether to drop Vick as a corporate sponsor. The Player's Union hopes that "Michael can prove his innocence."

I just saw this story reported on Dan Abram's show on MSNBC. Abrams was visibly disgusted. Someone from ESPN came on and Abrams asked him what the NFL could do. "The Falcons could release him," he said. As Don says, many blacks still believe "the white man is holding us down." It will be...

Ring magazine was never the same after the fiasco with the Don King "US Boxing Championships" of 1977. King was staging a TV boxing tournament with fighters rated by Ring magazine, which turned out to be fraudulent, with kickbacks, etc. Ring no longer had the "Bible of Boxing" prestige it had...