Step back, black quarterback

While I was surprised that Rush Limbaugh elected to take advantage of his elephantine media status to become an NFL commentator, I wasn't surprised that he brought the same willingness to confront sacred cows that has made him such a massive success in the world of politics to the world of sports.

It is shocking, however, that he chose to resign so quickly, rather than force ESPN to show its timorous hand by firing him for daring to speak out on an issue around which the cowardly sports media has danced so delicately for decades. And as a fan of pretty much all of the parties concerned, I thought it was worth examining the facts about the controversy.

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First, there is no question that the NFL aggressively promotes at least one racist agenda. Can you imagine the howls of indignation that would surround the New York Stock Exchange if brokerage houses were fined for a failure to interview a white candidate for an open stockbroker's job? And yet, the sportswriting community not only does not criticize the racist policy requiring interviews for black would-be coaches, it celebrates it.

Peter King of Sports Illustrated, among others, is disingenuous when he claims that the sporting media has no particular interest in black success at quarterback. Anyone who has followed the NFL for a long period of time will remember Joe Gilliam and James Harris, black quarterbacks who played long before the massive hoopla that surrounded the Washington Redskins' Super Bowl win over the Denver Broncos. Doug Williams' monstrous game not only fired up the media's cheerleading for black quarterbacks, but also led to the great Public Enemy line: "We got a black quarterback, so step back!" It also led to what may have been the dumbest question in the history of the sports media: "How long have you been a black quarterback?"

After Williams' success, it was as common to read about the so-called lack of black quarterbacks as it is to read about the supposed shortage of black coaches now. So certainly, there was, and is, a certain amount of media desire for black success at quarterback.

But does that suffice to explain McNabb's superstar status and prove that Rush was right? I don't think so. Donovan McNabb is not the NFL's only starting black quarterback. In fact, there are seven with a reasonable amount of experience. And looking at the career quarterback ratings for these seven starters, it's surprising to note that McNabb is not even in the top five.

McNabb has led his team to the NFC championship game, but so has Culpepper, and McNair has not only been to two AFC championship games, he's actually won one. Is McNabb handicapped by a lack of quality receivers? I don't see that Burress and Ward helped the magic INT machine also known as Kordell Stewart all that much in Pittsburgh.

The answer to McNabb's media fan club is to be found in the league schedule. McNabb plays in the NFC East, home to the New York Giants and the Washington Redskins, and he is televised at least twice a year in each of the two American media centers. He also plays regularly against the Dallas Cowboys, who, despite their currently humble state, are still the beneficiary of more media coverage than most NFL teams, or U.N. member states, for that matter. Meanwhile, Steve McNair – a black quarterback with a comparable QB rating in 2002, who also led his team to the conference championship game – plays in a division featuring teams in Nashville, Indianapolis, Jacksonville and Houston, and did not even make the Pro Bowl.

Bias is to blame for McNabb's undeserved stardom, but not racial bias. In truth, it is nothing more than that old sporting standby, the East Coast media bias. This not only explains McNabb's prominence, but also that of the greatest tight end in the history of football, New York's Jeremy Shockey, who has all of three touchdown catches in his career.

Rush got it wrong, but then, so did his critics. And once again, we see that in the home of the brave and the land of free speech, some things remain unmentionable.