I have to admit that I don't root for teams in any sport any more. I
haven't done that for a long time. Last year, though, the Colts started
drawing my interest. This was primarily due to the fact that they
actually had a couple of white receivers that were real participants in
a very exciting offense (not to mention a great white QB leading it).
My point about Manning is not that he isn't a nice guy; like his dad
and brother, he certainly seems to be. Obviously, he is light years
ahead of just about any black athlete I can think of in terms of common
decency. However, like Brett Favre and the other handful of white stars
in the NFL, he doesn't do anything to help other white players beat the
Caste System he was fortunate enough to avoid. Brett Favre was Bill
Schroeder's biggest critic when he was a WR with Green Bay. He could
have issued public words of praise for Schroeder, when he was taking
all that unfair heat from fans, media and coaching staff. Instead, he
publicly reacted in disgust to every drop Schroeder made or every
alleged wrong pattern he ran. Favre also never did anything to help
Travis Jervey. While Manning is hardly in Favre's category, imho, as a
die-hard supporter of the Caste System, he still obviously doesn't
treat Stokley or Clark the way he would treat blacks that played the
same role on the team. Peyton isn't stupid; he supposedly was the one
who recommended that the Colts sign Stokley. He certainly must
recognize that he is a better playmaker than Harrison at this point in
his career, and just as good if not better than Wayne. Why no public
statements to the effect of: "Brandon is a great WR, and we're really
lucky to have him. He should be a #1 guy on some team. That's how I
think of him, as a #1 guy. I think we have three #1 guys." He
also would have lobbied the coaching staff to keep Stokley on the field
more often when they were using those 2-TE sets almost exclusively
early in the season. Since Manning has great control over the offense
and calls a lot of audibles, he should have been forcing the ball to
Stokley many times over the course of this season, even if Stokely
never complained (which, as a typical white player, I'm sure is the
case). I have watched all the Colts games the past few seasons (Sunday
Ticket), and Stokley is open on almost every play. Manning decides
prior to the snap where he's going to go, and just looks that way. He
splits those looks fairly evenly between Harrison and Wayne. They no
longer have to complain to him; he instinctively knows he must keep
them happy. Why doesn't he have any desire to keep Stokley or Clark
happy? He just doesn't look for Stokley that often, especially
when he has to know the defense isn't expecting it and he is able to
beat just about any defender teams throw at him. As for Dallas Clark,
this guy had to play behind an older and much slower player last
season, simply because that guy was black. No right-thinking coach
would start Marcus Pollard over Clark, and Manning should have
protested that. He can't be stupid enough to not notice the difference
between them in speed alone. Now that Pollard is gone, Clark should be
shining. Instead, he is truly the forgotten man in the offense. The
ridiculous black TE they found somewhere and somehow promoted over the
other two young TEs on the roster often gets as many or more looks per
game than Clark. That's a joke; Clark has elite talent and should be an
intregal part of this offense.
This is a great discussion. It's nice to hear other viewpoints, but
please consider how Donovan McNabb's dad reacted to T.O.'s criticism of
his son. The elder McNabb said he considered T.O.'s rather tame
comments to be nothing less than "black on black crime." While this is
typical modern-day racist exaggeration to the ultimate degree, it
represents the kind of tribal mindset that more and more blacks
subscribe to in Don King's America. I just think that it would be nice
if one of the few white superstars in the sport would exhibit a
microcosm of that racial defensiveness for his roommate and good
friend.
