Washington Support for McNabb

The Washington Post’s Michael Wilbon comes to Donovan McNabb’s defense about #5’s recent HBO remarks with a nice historical perspective on the NFL, QB, and race and some very strong words about the hostility McNabb faces from his own fans. He ends with a rebuke of the historical ignorance of the younger black QBs in the league and plea for them to take a stand just like – or even express appreciation for - their predecessors.

 

Writes Wilbon: “Thankfully, Donovan McNabb had the guts to stand tall in the pocket with critics trying to knock his head off. Thankfully, McNabb, at 30, has some sense of the NFL beyond his own participation. Most celebrity athletes talk only when paid to talk, and usually about something benign if not downright useless…

 

Anybody who doubts McNabb needs only to walk around one of the upper-concourse areas of Lincoln Financial Field late in a game when, as several white friends have told me, the frequent use of the word "nigger" preceding McNabb's name during a losing performance is so casual it sickens them. Rex Grossman, just to name one white quarterback who has to deal with daily criticism, doesn't have to be on the wrong end of that kind of hateful venom, even though he'll never be half the quarterback McNabb has been.”

 

Note: I have witnessed similar epithets used to describe McNabb at the Linc, and it similarly sickens me.