Michael Vick and the Long Road to Redemption

By Chris Murray

For the Chris Murray Report

Now that Michael Vick has finally found a home with the Philadelphia Eagles, the hard part for the former Atlanta Falcons quarterback is his long, possibly tumultuous road to redemption in the face of a hostile fan base that is not so willing to forgive him for his participation in dogfighting.

Even though Vick paid his debt to society by serving 18 of a 23-month prison sentence in a federal penitentiary and losing millions of dollars in salary and endorsements, he has no illusions that fans are going to welcome him here with open arms. For him, the process of moving forward could be a long, grinding process.

A good example of that was outside the Eagles Nova Care practice facility last Friday during Vick’s press conference, protesters, including some accompanied with dogs, held signs protesting the Birds choice to sign Vick. One sign read, “Hide your beagle, Vick’s an Eagle.”

On local talk radio, the viewpoints seemed to be divided along racial lines with African-Americans saying that Vick deserves a second chance while white listeners were saying that Vick’s acts of cruelty to animals were so heinous that forgiveness is out of the question. One local radio host even suggested that Vick stay away from children.

When Vick takes the field in the Eagles third exhibition game and for that matter throughout the season, he will no doubt hear a crescendo of boos and fans will wave signs branding him as a dog killer whether he’s at Lincoln Financial Field or Fed-Ex Field in Washington. Outside of the ball parks, you will probably see groups like PETA (People for Ethical Treatment of Animals) carrying signs branding Vick as a murderer of dogs.

Vick said he understood why fans might have a hard time of getting past his crime of killing and torturing dogs. He said the only way he can prove himself to fans that he has true remorse for what he has done is by getting involved in the animal rights movement through groups like the Humane Society.

“I was wrong for what I did, everything that happened at the point in my life was wrong. It was unnecessary,” Vick said during his press conference last Friday. “For the life of me, I can’t understand to this day why I was involved in such a pointless activity and why I risked so much at the pinnacle of my career. But I figure if I can help more animals than I hurt, then I’m contributing and doing my part.”

Meanwhile, Eagles owner Jeffrey Lurie made it clear that Vick’s time with the Eagles will be judged by his actions off the field even more so than what he does on the field.

“Frankly, the legend of Michael Vick will be determined, as we go forward, it won’t be determined on the field of football,” Lurie said. “He will never be able to recover from what he criminally and murderously took part in, but he has an opportunity to create a legend where maybe he can be a force at stopping the horrendous cruelty to animals in dogfighting.”

Lurie said the move to bring Vick to the Eagles required a lot of soul searching on his part because he himself is a dog-lover and was appalled at Vick’s behavior. He described the move to bring the former Virginia Tech star as “counter intuitive” to what he believes in as an owner. Another way of saying it was that this move was against his better judgment.

But Lurie said he met with Vick extensively to gauge his level of remorse and said after meeting with Vick that while he was satisfied that the left-handed quarterback has shown remorse for his actions, he still has a long way to revamp his image.

“In spending the time with Michael, I think he deserves that opportunity,” Lurie said. “He’s going to have to prove it in action and not in words. I can only read his eyes so much. I can only read his emotions so much and the words. He’s going to have to prove to Philadelphia, to the United States, to the National Football League, to human beings and to animals everywhere that he’s committed as he said to me and publicly, to save more animals than he’s responsible for eliminating.”

Lurie said one of the principle people, along with head coach Andy Reid and NFL Commissioner Roger Goddell responsible for convincing him to give Vick a second chance with the Eagles was former Indianapolis Colts head coach Tony Dungy, who was Vick’s mentor and spiritual advisor throughout this process of reinstatement.

Dungy said he prepared Vick for the possibility of not only the reaction to his return, but also for the chance that he may not get the opportunity to play in the NFL at all.

“We talked a lot of about the fact that he may not get a chance. It was never a given for me that he would get another chance in the NFL, so what happens if you don’t how are you going to be out in the community and proactive even if you’re not playing this year,” Dungy said. “There are going to be people that are going to be skeptical, some people aren’t going to forgive you. We’ve had a lot of those conversations.”

Dungy said he would be available to Vick throughout the course of the season and during the process of healing his image and reputation with the general public.

Even before Vick was released from prison, he had agreed to work with the Humane Society of the United States on their anti-dog fighting campaigns, which will include working on programs that prevent dogfighting and working young people who have been involved in dogfighting in urban areas. Wayne Pacelle, the president of the Humane Society met with Vick back in May while he was still in prison in Leavenworth, Kan. He said he’s willing to work with Vick and thinks he would be a powerful ally in the cause of stopping dogfighting.

“Sometimes folks who are reformed can be strong advocates,” Pacelle told the Associated Press. “We need to be creative in addressing that problem, and Mike may be able to help us. We agree he’s got to his boots and hit the issue hard and do it over a long time.”

And so now that he’s wearing an Eagles uniform and after all the rhetoric from press conferences have died down, everything will be on Vick’s shoulders from this point forward to not only make a difference on the field as a football player, but to redeem himself from an unspeakable act.

“I think my actions will speak louder than my words. To be proactive and to be involved in the community, people will see that in due time,” Vick said. “I’ve partnered up with the Humane Society and we’ve constantly been working hard to reach out to certain inner cities and certain communities to make sure that we attack the problem.”

The Mouse Attack on Black America: ESPN casts Black Athletes in a Negative Light

By Gary Norris Gray

For the Chris Murray Report

It is very sad to see the changes in television sports network programming and the way they currently report the news; with a specific reference to ESPN.

Provocative stories sell, sex catches your attention; a racially-tinged story sells; football player Adam Jones making it rain at a strip club is a story. Oh — for those who don’t know what “making it rain” means, throwing money at scantily clad women.

Michael Vick’s arrest and imprisonment for dogfigting. Michael received his first day of freedom on Monday July 20, 2009; and lastly, the murder-suicide of Steve McNair by his white 20-year-old girlfriend.

The recent reports of McNair’s blood alcohol count last week, which had nothing to do with his death, only sought to further defame McNair.

All of these men are African Americans and they were the lead stories on this network. What scares me about this kind of reporting is that other local news networks are beginning to follow suit. There is a constant droning drum beat coming from the studios of Bristol, Connecticut against African American athletes.

For those who don’t know what The Mouse means, it’s ESPN, which is owned by the American Broadcasting Company and the Walt Disney Corporation– thus “The Mouse.”

Do your homework for the next two weeks. Listen to the words of each broadcast on The Mouse, then make your own decision.

The drum beat is loud and clear.

The Mouse is fulfilling its agenda on America airwaves constantly attacking prominent African American athletes. This covert action by this network is not fair, or right. Why? It’s because Americans get most of their sports news from this network. It is not fair because there is not an objective equivalent television sports network to rival or refute The Mouse when they are incorrect.

ESPN has a monopoly in the television sports industry even to the extent that their own ABC local stations only give the scores of their local teams. Now that is complete power and complete control. Undoubtedly, there is a need for a web site similar to Black Athlete Sports Network. Writers would be unable to write an article like this and most newspapers or magazines would not print it.

In the past, race and sports were not an issue. Sports fans could enjoy watching their games without thinking about anything political, it was fun. Well, my fellow Americans “The Mouse” has drastically changed that.

Now it’s about steroids, contracts, conduct, and the way you look or what the Black athlete did after the game. Too much information, just too much information. Just report on the score of the game and the strategies of the game, please. The most recent example is Brett Favre, former quarterback for the Green Bay Packers and New York Jets. The 40-year-old Favre should have retired two years ago. This year he is trying to tender another contract with the Minnesota Vikings. This was a non-story until The Mouse created this story this spring and they praise him every week.

When the Mouse airs a story on a white athlete it’s seldom reports a negative comment. Can you imagine what The Mouse would be saying if Brett Favre were African American?

A Black Favre would be a self-centered egotistical player, A Black Favre would not be a team player, and A Black Favre would be aloof in the locker-room. Actually, Brett Favre could be called all of these things but you will never hear this from mouth of The Mouse of Bristol, Connecticut.

The current Favre story just makes many football fans frustrated. Come on now lets be honest; would a professional football team want a 40-year-oldquarterback black or white with a recurring shoulder injury, playing on artificial turf?

As John McEnroe would scream, “You cannot be serious!” Yet, Brett Favre is the little darling of The Mouse. Most knowledgeable football fans know that Tarvaris Jackson, who is Black, should be the starting quarterback for the Minnesota Vikings this year, not Favre.

Jackson can run faster, throw farther and is much stronger than Brett. Also, Jackson carried the team to the playoffs last year while Brett Favre and the Jets stumbled into an early winter vacation.

NFL statistics state that Brett Favre is only nine games away from surpassing Jim Marshall-an African American defensive lineman who also played for the Vikings, for the most consecutive games played. Interestingly, there are probably bonuses in his contract if Favre breaks the record.

This network has not been honest.

The Mouse gave a pass to Olympic Swimmer Michael Phelps  who was  caught smoking a bong this past winter. The Mouse gave a pass to WNBA Phoenix Mercury star Diana Taurasi who was  drinking and driving this past week, in addition it gave star quarterback Tom Brady of the New England Patriots a pass twice, one having a baby out of wedlock a few years ago and the other the shooting incident last summer at a wedding party in the islands.

Now think about this – if any one of the three incidents mentioned above had been committed by an African American athlete what would “The Mouse” broadcast?

The drum beat would be loud and clear.

This year before the NFL National Football Draft, The Mouse reporters were grading players. When a black player was the subject, the African American player was incompetent. These reports would state that the Black player can’t do this or he can’t do that. Or he is too selfish, too short, does not understand pro style offenses or defenses, or that he simply can’t catch the football. A lawsuit is not far behind.

The NFL teams listen to this nonsense and usually drop the African American player down in the draft to the lower rounds, costing this player hundreds of thousands of dollars. When that same player mentioned by the Mouse should have been drafted in the first round, the team drafting this player saves big money.

The constant drum beat goes on and on, Black athletes are not good enough and yet they keep playing and keep winning games.

While this phenomenon has being ongoing since ESPN’s existence, clear evidence of this came to a head in 2003 when the Mouse hired Rush Limbaugh to fill the set on “NFL Countdown” Sunday mornings. It would not be long before Limbaugh would speak his mind.

Limbaugh stated that Donovan McNabb of the Philadelphia Eagles was an overrated Black quarterback and that the liberal media was babying these new Black quarterbacks and they are not good enough to start.

Rush overlooked the clear fact that McNabb took the Eagles to two consecutive NFC East titles, two straight National Conference Championships and two Pro Bowl appearances to that point in his career. So what was your point again, Rush? And The Mouse knew that he would pontificate on the issue of Back quarterbacks. The Mouse did not expect the national reaction to his comments. Limbaugh would resign a week later.

In Major League Baseball, The Mouse started this scenario seven years ago with Barry Bonds and the BALCO Steroid Scandal in the Bay Area. Bonds became the poster boy for The Mouse and steroids. The year that Bonds went for the home run record the Mouse wanted to broadcast many San Francisco Giant games to keep track of Bonds chasing Henry Aaron’s homerun mark but whenever The Mouse showed up at A.T. & T Park, Bonds was a no-show.

Let be it said that Barry Bonds did this on purpose as a silent protest of the way he was being portrayed on this network. Barry Bonds never forgot the way the media treated his father Bobby Bonds and wanted no part of this circus.

The Mouse finally got wise and stopped broadcasting Giants games resorting to network cut-ins when Barry Bonds would come to the plate. The Mouse never questioned Baseball Commissioner Bud Selig nor have they questioned the owners, trainers, or managers about their knowledge of steroid use by the players. Major League Baseball continues to pick and choose which player will be outed from the secret and confidential 104 player list.

The drum beat has been steady and constant through the years. Another example could be Harold Reynolds, a man that has earned the respect of the fans because he is a knowledgeable man; an African American male that played professional baseball.

Reynolds had been broadcasting the College World Series for The Mouse for many years. During one of the semi-final games, Reynolds made a statement that there were not many African American baseball players on college diamonds and that it troubled him. Within that same year, Reynolds was released by The Mouse because of an alleged sexual harassment complaint by a female employee.

This drum beat continues. On ESPN2’s First Take, columnist Skip Bayless makes outlandish statements to get a response from the guest panelist. If the guest is Black and gives a logical, intelligent and forthright answer to the question, he would not be seen on the show again, but if he played the game with Skip Bayless would be invited to return. Bayless continues to disrespect LeBron James by calling him prince instead of king which he is known. Bayless does not like Kobe Bryant, calling him a selfish and self-centered player. Kobe has won four NBA Championships. Bayless has called Shaquille O’ Neal lazy and Shaq is the only center in the NBA that has stayed healthy for the most of his career. Shaq also has four championship rings, Mr. Bayless.

Bayless has been critical of Donavan McNabb, and Terrell Owens. The last time I checked neither player has played on a losing team.

Bayless has also criticized Manny Ramirez, Barry Bonds, Alex Rodriguez, Miguel Tejada, and Sammy Sosa for steroids use; all of these men are of color. When was the last time Mr. Bayless criticized Mr. Mark McGwire? Didn’t Mark also take a performance-enhancing drug? The drum beat continues with the show called “Around the Horn” A show of competitive banter with four guests from different newspapers across the country. Anyone who watches the show one can decipher a pattern. The African-American guest wins showdowns only on Thursday or Friday. For 14 weeks, this has happened with a few exceptions.

The drum beat marches on with “Pardon the Interruption” or “PTI” hosted by Michael Wilbon an African American. During the 2009 Wimbledon Championships in London, England, Mr. Wilbon stated that he would not watch the remainder of the Women’s Finals after Russian blonde, blue-eyed bombshell Maria Sharapova lost in the quarterfinals.

Hold up, Wait a second – didn’t African Americans Venus and Serena Williams play in the finals and didn’t the the Williams Sisters win the Doubles Championship for the fifth time? How very discouraging hearing this from an African American man. There was a void of praise for his African American sisters of great talent.  It is incomprehensible how self hatred is imposed on Blacks by Blacks. The Mouse exploits this with their Black reporters.

The drum beat continued last week with the airing of the 1979 Disco Demolition Night at Old Comiskey Park, Chicago. When will this nonsense end? How can The Mouse continue to insult the intelligence of African Americans, as well as other American sports fans?

My question to the Mouse and the American Public is: why did the Chicago White Sox and the Chicago Police Department never pressed charges against station WLUP, the disc-jockey, or the participants for the destruction of property back ? What if African-Americans had an anti-soft rock or hard rock night at any ball park that promoted the destruction of records by Aerosmith, Abba, Linda Ronstadt, Fleetwood Mac, etc? There would have been tear gas in the Chicago air. Baton swinging men in blue hitting anything human that moved. Chicago jails would have been filled with Black people. White Middle America would have been furious.

There is an obvious double standard in this country and there always will be because we don’t respect each other. Americans dishonor each individuals’ talent or special skills. The Mouse uses this wedge to their advantage as they advance their hidden racial agenda; all to gain ratings as they play to the basest of stereotypes.

On Sunday July 19, 2009, the Mouse maybe called a temporary truce by airing a feel-good story about recent nominee to the Hall of Fame Jim Rice, of the Boston Red Sox. Rice is an African American. Rice saved the life of a nine-year-old boy’s life after he was struck by a line-drive foul ball.

Rice jumped into the stands, grabbed the boy and took him to the Red Sox’s training room where the team doctor examined him and treated him for a fractured skull. The young Red Sox fan was then transported to the local hospital for a speedy recovery. Rice’s actions saved the youngster’s life.

These are the kinds of stories the Mouse should be broadcasting. Don’t hold your breath because this was a once in a life time moment. It is so easier to trash somebody or trash a culture. America loves a train wreck no-matter how bad it looks, no doubt the continuous Drum Beat will return Monday morning.

Broadcasting the ESPY’s Sunday night July 19, 2009 with Black host Samuel Jackson does not give you a pass because within 24 hours it will be business as usual.

Just as expected The Mouse’s slow drum roll started again on Tuesday afternoon July 21, 2009. This Network spent a half hour on the aspects of dog fighting and the life after jail with Michael Vick. However, The Mouse did not spend a second on the latest breaking story of the day the alleged rape charge of Pittsburgh Steelers starting quarterback Big Ben Roethlisburger in Lake Tahoe, Nevada.

This past Wednesday afternoon reporter Lloyd Vance stated that ESPN sent an email to all sports news agencies to crush this story. Can Janet Jackson sing “CONTROL”? Thursday morning, three days later the smoke had cleared The Mouse decided to mention it.

This was after the report that Lake Tahoe Police would not be pressing charges. Again, if Big Ben were African American it would have been the lead story all week long instead they (The Mouse) crush the story not knowing the outcome.

Like my parents stated many years ago you can’t change a dog’s spots(pun intended) and The Mouse will always play this nasty game with African American athletes.

ESPN please stop the hidden racial hype, you maybe gaining ratings,  but you are distorting and destroying young African American lives with this antic.

Sotomayor’s Truth Speaks Volumes

By Wendell P. Simpson
For the Chris Murray Report

I have to wonder when the truth stops being subordinate to politics.

Judge Sonia Sotomayor’s confirmation to the Supreme Court should have been a cakewalk, but it wasn’t. That’s because (surprise) conservative Republican members of the Senate selection committee had some misgivings about Sotomayor’s ability to adjudicate based on the law and not on her personal, subjective views (read ‘liberal bias’).

Let’s ignore, for a second, the utter absurdity of Republicans castigating anyone else for having a biased agenda, or the fact that there was no basis in the record of her decisions that justified their enmity. The inquisitors based their concerns mostly on a 2001 statement the esteemed jurist made that suggested a wise Hispanic woman’s experiences might enable her to make better jurisprudential decisions in some cases than a white man.

I guess that left the congress of poor, disadvantaged white men feeling a little marginalized, and Sotomayor was oh-so-delicately denounced as a reverse racist and an activist jurist.

The Republicans, in trying to censure Sotomayor, took the kindler and gentler approach. They knew they had to walk on eggshells—they certainly didn’t want to further distance a Hispanic constituency that had already flagged them for Obama.

But Sotomayor hedged anyway, cautiously distancing herself from the remark, calling it a “rhetorical flourish”.

Now we all know that people of color are always forced to make concessions to the truth, but that was one sister Sotomayor did not have to make, because here’s the pragmatic truth: in an America that’s 30 % non-white, 35% non-Christian, 6% gay, and 54% female, there are a whole lot of ‘truths’, and a whole lot of experiences white men aren’t going to know a whole lot about.

Sotomayor knows something about those perilous, uneasy corners of America that don’t show up in travel brochures, tourists’ maps or real estate brokers’ handbooks. She’s experienced an America where there are no manicured lawns, no three-car garages, no Rotary Club, no champagne liberals, no country club, Polo shirt-wearing scion of social privilege wiling away their off-hours on the golf course, and no soccer moms in sparkling new hybrid mini-vans transporting their brood to and from the neighborhood’s state-of-art recreation center.

She knows something about the jungle, all concrete, broken glass and instinct, where mother wit is often the only line of protection between you and an inglorious demise; where poor Puerto Rican, Dominican and African-American mothers are forced to make something out of nothing; where a bag of rice, a satchel of beans, a half pound of day old ground beef and a box of Hamburger Helper become a family’s feast; where everyday, women of color fend off poverty’s disrepair with a screwdriver, a wrench and a ‘don’t-f*ck-with-me’ attitude and mend the egregious harm visited by an indifferent world with a box of Band-Aids, a mother’s kiss and a prayer.

She knows that her man is often the last one hired and the first one fired, or denied promotion because of the color of his skin, and that the only thing standing between succor and an explosion of long-repressed rage is her tender touch and her knowing, understanding, tempering whisper.

She’s heard the awful wail of sirens announcing to the neighborhood that one of its own has fallen by violence or drugs or police brutality; she knows that a job—any job—is the difference between survival one week and homelessness the next; she knows that for far too many people, there no bootstraps, only tenacity and determination. She knows all of the things that Clarence Thomas has either forgotten or chosen to run away from.

But more importantly, she knows that justice sometimes turns, one way of the other, on an accent, a name, gender, or belief in an ‘alien’, unpopular religion. She knows that Obama’s remarkable ascension has not spelled the end of discrimination or inequality, and she knows, in her gut, in her heart and in her mind, that the law isn’t inflexible, intransigent or inexorable, but moved by the zeitgeist, the popular whim, and the jurisprudence of sages with the courage and the wisdom to do the right thing.

That’s why we’ve seen in our history Supreme Court decisions as varied and polar opposite as Dred Scott v. Sanford and Brown v. Board of Education.

There was no reason for Sotomayor to be remotely apologetic about the truth as she sees it, because, in the end, justice is about empathy—and a wise Hispanic woman who knows all those things will be able to deliver lawful and just respite to those who occupy the forgotten places where less astute white men, for far too long, have dared not tread—or even bothered to notice.

Dios bendiga al pueblo y Dios bendiga hermana Sonia Sotomayor!

In his own words: A Conversation with Negro League legend Buck O’Neil

By Chris Murray

Editor-in-Chief of  the Chris Murray Report

When I was a sportswriter/columnist with the Philadelphia Tribune back in 2005, I wrote a series of articles on the plight of African-Americans in baseball. One of the stories that I wrote focused on the impact that former Negro League players had on Major League Baseball once the game was integrated. One of the people that I interviewed for this series for this series was legendary Negro League manager the late John Jordan “Buck” O’Neil (born:November 13 1911-died: October 6, 2006).

O’Neil was Satchel Paige’s roommate on the road during the course of their barnstorming throughout the country. He shared the stories of Paige’s exploits in a number of documentaries including Ken Burns acclaimed PBS series, “Baseball.”

Among baseball historians and well-wishers, he was the unofficial ambassador of the Negro Leagues. O’Neil was the griot of the Negro Leagues who regaled Americans, regardless of races, with the tales of Josh Gibson, Judy Johnson, and “Cool Papa Bell. Even beyond Negro League Baseball, O’Neil was a student, if not a professor, of baseball history in general.

And by the way, O’Neil wasn’t bad as a player either. In the 1942 Negro League World Series against the Homestead Grays, he batted .353 as the Monarchs came away with a four-game sweep. He played in three East-West All-Star Classics. He also won the All-Star game four times as a manager. O’Neil also won four league titles as a manager of the Monarchs.

In 1956, O’Neil was hired by the Chicago Cubs as a scout. Two of the three his prized pupils—Ernie Banks and Lou Brock became legends and Hall of Famers. Joe Carter, another O’Neil recruit, hit the decisive home run to help the Toronto Blue Jays win the 1993 World Series. O’Neil was also the first African-American coach in the major leagues.

I had the pleasure of meeting O’Neil back in 2004 at a Black Tie dinner to raise money for a Negro League monument in West Philadelphia. During that dinner, O’Neil showed the people gathered at that event his ability to bridge the gap between by having them hold hands while he led everyone in song. During the course of that discussion, he had nothing but good things to say about his experiences in the old Negro Leagues.

My interview with O’Neil took place on August 15, 2005 for the Tribune’s Blacks in Baseball supplement. We talked about the impact Negro League players had on baseball once the game was integrated, but we talked about other subjects as well.

In the craft of journalism, we like to write glowing prose about interesting people we interview. But there are also times when it is necessary for us to get out of the way and allow our sources to have the floor. And so to quote the Staple Singers, let us get out the way and let the gentleman do his thing. Buck O’Neil in his own words:

What Jackie Robinson and other Negro League players brought to Major League Baseball:

“Actually, Jackie Robinson took Negro League baseball to the Major Leagues. It was a different brand of baseball. Babe Ruth came, Babe Ruth hit the homerun. That changed baseball altogether, everybody was waiting for somebody to hit the ball out of the ball park. But in the Negro Leagues, you hit and run. You bunt and run. You stole the bases. You did these things and so this is what Jackie took the major leagues. Yeah, see they hadn’t seen anything like Jackie Robinson. Uh-huh. Jackie changed the way they played baseball. I remember the time before Jackie Robinson, a guy was on third base, the pitcher was going to wind up and pitch. But after Jackie, they had to come to the set (stretch) position because Jackie would steal home and would catch them winding up there. That changed baseball.”

On the intensity that Negro League ball players brought to the game

“They sure did. Didn’t nobody want Jackie to beat them and so they had to change the way they had been doing things. They used stand back, way back in deep shortstop. Uh huh…deep second base, third base, first place. Jackie came and the Negro League ball players came and you had to take a couple steps in because we brought quickness to baseball, that we brought to basketball, we brought to football ….uh huh. We brought a quickness that hadn’t been known in baseball.

“Negro League ball players going into the major leagues, he had to be better. If he wasn’t better, there ain’t no way for him to take a white boy’s job. You (MLB) were taking the cream of crop. You’re going to take the cream and that’s just what was happening. You were picking the best athletes in the world.”

“The Black ball player was accustomed to hustle. They wanted to be and they had to be the best that they could be to compete at this level because the whole country put their arm around say a Lou Gehrig. But that wasn’t the same thing with a Jackie Robinson, or a Frank Robinson and a Larry Doby.”

African-American ball players and the importance of education and historically Black colleges:

“The Negro League Ball Player…this was an intelligent man. In the major leagues, during my tenure, one percent of major league baseball players were college men. The major leagues wanted them right out of high school. Soon as the they got of high school, they put them in the minor leagues. In the Negro Leagues, 40 percent of Negro Leaguers were college men, man. We always spring trained in Black college towns. That’s who we played in spring training. We played the college ball club. When the college season was over, they would come and play baseball in the Negro Leagues. When the season was over, they’d go back to school, go back to teaching. Oh man, that was the Negro League Ball player.”

Why the American League was slow at bringing in Black baseball players:

“The Yankees didn’t need no Black ball players, Boston didn’t need no Black ball players, they were filling up the ball parks. They filling up the ball parks. … They were slow in doing it, the American League was drawing the people. If you think about it now, before integration the American League was winning the majority of the All-Star games, but when they come and put that Black power in there in the National League, (American League) couldn’t beat them.”

Jackie Robinson, Philadelphia and Southern players: “Of course, you had a lot of Southern players on that Philadelphia ball club. When you think about it, the majority of the baseball players at that time were from the South. These are white guys and they were strictly segregationists. …

We’re (Kansas City Monarchs) playing in Yankee Stadium and Branch Rickey called me and said ‘Buck come out—[this is Jackie's first year]– and bring the team to see Jackie.’ During batting practice, I went down on the field. I’m talking to Pee Wee Reese and the second baseman and I said, ‘is Jackie going to make it? And they said, ‘we’re going to see that he makes it.’And these are Southern boys. You know down there in Cincinnati they’re booing Jackie and that’s when Pee Wee came and put his arm around Jackie’s shoulder. That stopped the booing and he’s a Southern boy.”

On Robinson congratulating the 1950 Phillies for winning the National League Pennant after their harsh treatment of him:

“Jackie was so much bigger than many of those people. Another thing, too. What you got to realize and a lot of people don’t realize…the people that was booing Jackie wasn’t baseball fans. This was the Klan. This was the haters who might not have gone to a ball games in their life. That’s what they came to do—Hate. But the real baseball fans, can you play?”

His concern about the lack of Africans-Americans in baseball and his view of how it happened:

“Of course, but we’re changing that now because of the RBI (Reviving Baseball in the Inner City) program and they’re bringing baseball back in the inner city. They moved baseball out of the inner city to the suburbs. When I came along, all of the churches had baseball teams and baseball leagues. In the inner city, all the kids played baseball. They played baseball and baseball was actually a way out for the Black kids. What happened was the Black kid started taking over basketball, taking over football, so they wanted a spot for the white kid, so they moved baseball out of the inner city and they put up basketball courts in the inner city so kids can shoot the baskets and they can shoot baskets all night long if they wanted to. It kind of backfired on them because now the Latin kids are taking over baseball and the kids from foreign countries are taking over baseball. I remember the times when the middle infielders were white kids—5-foot-10, 170 pounds. The middle infielder, the centerfielder—that’s the Latin kid now because he brings that quickness and that strong arm to baseball. That little white boy was good, but what he’s doing now he’s going to soccer and things like that. When you look at ball clubs now, the winning ball clubs, you see these Latin players on the team.

“Right here in Kansas City, we’ve got 400 kids playing baseball and softball in the inner city. They got 1,000 kids in New York City doing that, Chicago, Atlanta, Los Angeles, St. Louis. Wait until about 10 years from now, you’re going to see a lot of Black kids back into Major League baseball.”

The hostility that young Black players faced in the minors in the South during the early years of integration:

“It was terrible, it was terrible. Jackie played in Montreal. That was a different story than playing in Savannah, Georgia. What these guys had to put up with was tough. But we had the same spirit that our forefathers had when they got out of slavery. You know what I mean. This was baseball. We are the greatest survivors that ever lived. They learned to survive even before they integrated baseball.”

Don’t Believe the Hype: Countering the Madness of Sports Media

By Chris Murray

For the Chris Murray Report

After observing the coverage of this week’s events in the sports world by the mainstream media, I now know why I believe that sports journalism is headed down the path of day-time talk shows like Jerry Springer.

Watching the talking heads on networks like ESPN or reading other pundits on websites like FOXNews.com is just like watching a bad car crash, you want just want to see how bad it’s going to really get.

But when you hear the symphony of overly sanctimonious media pundits spouting their mindless, biased rhetoric to go along with their endless clichés, I also feel compelled the shut if off completely because it’s often nonsensical.

This week, I was watching coverage of Manny Ramirez getting ejected from the Los Angeles Dodgers 8-0 win over the New York Mets this past Wednesday. Ramirez struck out on a ball that was clearly out of the strike zone. Of course, Manny threw his bat and his elbow pad in disgust and was immediately tossed out of the game by umpire John Hirschbeck. Of course, the ESPN punditry chided Manny for not helping his team by being ejected—even though he drove in three runs and never mind that Hirschbeck’s call was clearly wrong and wreaked of anti-Manny bias in the wake of his recent suspension.

In other words, Ramirez is on double-secret probation for the rest of the season and for that matter the rest of his career because of his possible use of steroids and for the way he left his former team, the Boston Red Sox. If Manny blows his nose the wrong way, you can rest assured some pundit is going to cry outrage.

Then there was that magnificent purveyor of hot air FOXNews.com columnist—Jason Whitlock whose most recent rantings have said Serena Williams and her 11 Grand slam in women’s are an example of “under achievement” and that folks should stop calling the late Steve McNair a “hero” for fooling around on his wife in one breath and then condoning it as a “man thing” in another breath. Wow.

The problem that I have with all the hot air that I see, read, and hear in sports is that it has nothing do with keeping the public informed, but instead it’s about showmanship. It’s about getting people on a panel so they can yell and scream at each other. It’s about who can be up and arms with some faulty premise that is outright racist, sexist or offensive enough to get people going so the  big networks can rake in all the ratings. It screams for you outrage, so you can keep watching .

Back in 2007 when Don Imus referred to the Rutgers women’s basketball team as “nappy headed ho’s”, Comcast Sportsnet had me on as a guest on Daily News Live to discuss the issue with Whitlock, who saw it as C. Vivian Stringer making herself a martyr of some sort. Of course, I said Imus’s comments were not only racist, but obscured what Rutgers had to go through to get to the National Championship game that season.

The exchange between Whitlock and myself was heated to the point that it became a sound byte on Comcast’s daily newscast- Sportsnight. At the end of the broadcast, I got a big high-five from the host of Daily News Live—not because of the good points I made to counter Whitlock’s silly arguments, but because it was good theater, compelling television. About a day later, one of my friends called me and said that he got a call from another friend to click on Comcast to see the fireworks between me and Whitlock.

Another thing that adds to the show is the creation of good guys versus bad guys. In the whole steroids scandal, the mainstream media demonized the likes of Barry Bonds, Mark McGwire and even Roger Clemens as cheaters, but failed to report how performance-enhancing drugs was a problem through out the sport and that those who run MLB looked the other way and indeed profited from it.

Even with steroids allegations against McGwire and Clemens, Black and Hispanic steroids users Barry Bonds, Alex Rodriguez, and Sammy Sosa are the most vilified in the mainstream media. It’s easy for middle America to hate these guys and you all know why. When you see their images, it’s like the character Goldstein in George Orwell’s 1984 whose image would spark two minutes of frenzied hate.

The bottom-line here is that what you see in the mainstream media today amounts to nothing more than pontification and innuendo. It is all about rhetoric and very little context. It’s not there to inform or to analyze, but to entertain and get ratings, web hits, and boost circulation. In short, there are too many pundits and loudmouths and not enough good reporting. It’s all about the spectacle and the self-serving, self-righteousness of some talking head. Don’t be surprised if you see sports columnists engaging in fisticuffs on one of those panel shows. That will be the next big thing under the sports big top.

I’ve come to the conclusion that the mainstream media is not going to change unless it becomes profitable for them to change or unless people simply stop watching. As a journalist, I don’t get too upset over some of the nonsense that I see in the mainstream media because I have the power of my own outlets including my own blog to counteract the misinformation you see at the so-called major media outlets.

And in this vast information superhighway of the websites, blogs, and podcasts, the major media outlets aren’t the only places where you can get your sports fix. There are plenty of media outlets on the web whether you’re talking about Black Athlete.com or Dave Zirin’s Edge of Sports that often challenge the party line of commercial media.

Even if you’re not a journalist, you can always flood the networks, websites and print media outlets with letters and emails to express your displeasure with what you’re seeing or reading.

If you decide to start your own media outlet because you’re fed up with what you’re getting or not getting from the major media outlets, go after the stories the mainstream won’t touch, challenge their rhetoric not by sanctimonious grandstanding, but by coming out with the facts and reporting things in their proper context.

You don’t have to call anybody names or talk about their mommas in the process because the weight of truth always trumps misinformation and misplaced outrage.

There They Go Again: Baseballl, Steroids and Misplaced Outrage Strikes Again

By Chris Murray

For the Chris Murray Report

I never thought I would see the day where I would quoting Ronald Reagan in any column that I write. But as I listen to the latest round of misplaced outrage at yet another outed steroids user—former Cubs outfielder Sammy Sosa, all I can say is, “There they go again.”

When I listen to the cartoon character media pundits voice their self-righteous indignation about Sosa, Manny Ramirez, or Alex Rodriguez over their use of steroids at a time when Major League Baseball was the only sports institution to not have a policy or testing procedures against performance enhancing drugs, I am simply amazed at the hypocrisy of everyone throwing stones.

While fans and the media are shaking their fists and fingers at the players with a collective “shame-on-you,” the other perpetrators of the steroids era-the owners and principally Commissioner Bud Selig, who lost institutional control over the sport, will be allowed to walk away from the this sorry era in baseball history unscathed and blameless even though they made billions of dollars from it. Thanks primarily to those who cover baseball in the mainstream media who are now serving as Selig’s propaganda police every time we find out that a player once used steroids or HGH.

Selig and friends will ride off into sunset in the way that Arnold Rothstein’s character did in the movie, “Eight Men Out,” when he said, “So long, suckers,” as the Chicago White Sox players from the Black Sox scandal of 1919 were being banned from baseball.

Even though it has been proven time and again that the owners and the commissioner looked the other way as their players were jacking the ball out of the park in record numbers, those who chronicle baseball can only express their outrage at the players—the millionaires—while Selig and the billionaires are allowed to escape without any blame.

I think without any hesitation that Selig should have been fired as a commissioner of baseball. In collegiate sports whenever there’s a scandal, the higher ups in the athletic department—the coach and athletic directors and administrators are called to the carpet and held accountable for their actions.

Not in baseball, though. Even though the facts prove without a doubt that the players weren’t the only ones to blame for the “Steroids Era”, baseball’s pundits are focused on the players rather than looking at the owners and commissioner who enabled it.

The Mitchell Report concluded that “obviously the players who illegally used performance enhancing substances are responsible for their actions. But they did not act in a vacuum. Everyone involved in baseball over the past two decades-Commissioners, club officials, the Players Association, and players-shares to some extent in the responsibility for the steroids era. There was a collective failure to recognize the problem as it emerged and to deal with it early on. As a result, an environment developed in which illegal use became widespread.”

In 1990, then-MLB commissioner Fay Vincent warned the owners about steroids use in the sport in a memo and was subsequently fired by the owners with Selig being included in that mix of ownership. Then there were the comments of former San Diego Padres general manager Kevin Towers, who also admitted the complicity of those who run the sport.

“We went through a real difficult time in 1994 with the strike,” Towers told ESPN the Magazine. “Then some amazing things happened. Homeruns were up. Fans were flocking to the ballparks, lining up to watch batting practice. But we all realized that there were things going on within the game that were affecting the integrity of the game. I think we all knew it, but we didn’t say anything about it.

“The truth is, we’re in the competition business and these guys were putting up big numbers and helping your ball club win games. You tended to turn your head on things.”

The mainstream media also played their part in the whole steroids era. Most notably, we ignored such things as androstenedione sitting in Mark Maguire’s locker during the chase to break Roger Maris single-season homerun record in 1998. When an Associated Press reporter pointed it out, he was roundly criticized by his colleagues.

Even more insane was the media’s reaction to Jose Canseco’s tell-all books about players using steroids. Oddly enough, he was dismissed as a jerk for ratting out his boys by the mainstream media so he could make a few bucks. It’s funny how most everyone that Canseco said was using steroids got eventually outed. But in the eyes of the mainstream media, Canseco is an idiot for doing something the media should have been doing in the first place.

In that 1998 homerun race between Maguire and Sosa to pass Roger Maris and during Barry Bonds quest to pass Hank Aaron, how much money did media outlets like Fox and ESPN make covering their exploits? Billions.

And so now that the big media outlets and MLB owners have made their money of their drugged up millionaires, they throw will throw them under the bus in the same way a pimp discards a prostitute when she outlives her usefulness.

MLB’s newest group of hookers and hos—the baseball writers—will once again do the dirty work by vilifying the players, weakening the MLBPA and letting Selig and the owners off the hook.

And by the way those Hall-of-Fame voters who don’t put Bonds or Sosa in the Hall of Fame are not protecting the integrity of the game, they’re covering their own backsides while doing the bidding of the billionaire owners who put out a drugged up product.

Sheldon Brown on the Clock: Corner’s days in Philly might be numbered over contract dispute

By Chris Murray

For the Chris Murray Report

PHILADELPHIA—For what seems like the umphteenth consecutive year the Eagles will come into a mini-camp of a new season with a disgruntled player unhappy with his current contract. It is almost like watching a rerun of “I Love Lucy.” You always know how it’s going to end.

When various Eagles veterans and rookies began streaming in for mini-camp late last week, the buzz among media types was whether or not cornerback Sheldon Brown who is unhappy with his current contract which pays him $3.5 million a year through 2012 , would even show up after asking the team to trade him if they did not renegotiate his deal.

Eagles vice president Joe Banner said the team would not renegotiate Brown’s contract nor would they trade him. Then the Eagles traded for former New England Patriots cornerback Ellis Hobbs presumably as an insurance policy in case they decide to part ways with Brown. That means the clock on Brown’s time in Philadelphia is ticking.

When the ongoing story of Lito Sheppard’s demand to change his contract dragged through the season, he saw his playing time decrease exponentially to the point to where he saw no playing time during last season’s NFC Championship game and he was subsequently shipped off to the New York Jets.

But like Sheppard, Brown did show up for the Eagles three-day mini-camp and like Sheppard, kept a stiff upper lip, answered questions about his plight in the parking lot at the team’s Nova Care practice facility.

“It’s not hard for me to work under these conditions because I understand the business side of the game,” Brown told reporters. “To the fans, I apologize. It’s just business. It’s all business to me. …I know everything that I’m getting myself into before it happened.”

There were two responses or better yet non-responses from Brown that weekend that told you all you needed to know about how veteran players regard the Eagles organization. Upon his arrival Thursday, Brown was asked several times about his feelings toward Banner and each time he responded with a very terse“no comment.”

On Friday at his locker when Brown was asked if his situation is a reflection of how the Eagles organization treats players like Sheppard, Jeremiah Trotter, and Brian Dawkins who dare to ask for more money or alter the terms of their contract, his answer implied that it was the same old song.

“You been around longer than me before my time, so you can speak on some of the other guys, I just know about the guys in my era,” Brown said smiling. “It makes a great story for you guys, it’s always somebody different, sign the next man up …somebody’s going to get lucky.”

Unfortunately, Brown won’t be the guy who will be lucky. He’s had a solid career here, but he’s at the age of 30 where he’s basically expendable to the Birds who have a penchant for unceremoniously dumping players who get beyond the age of 29. Remember the Eagles are the Logan’s Run of the NFL: A place where players who turn 30 are ritually executed.

In the minds of Eagles management, Brown hasn’t been a superstar or a perennial Pro Bowler like a Brian Dawkins or even Sheppard who made two Pro Bowls during his time in Philadelphia.

Look for the Eagles to cut Brown loose if players like Hobbs or Virginia Tech rookie Victor “Macho” Harris have solid training camps. I don’t think the Birds are interested in another disgruntled player spending the season bitching and moaning about a contract that they are not going to alter.

Here’s a lesson for those younger Eagles players-don’t sign a long-term deal before you’re eligible free agency because if do and your performance far exceeds the deal you signed or worse yet when you turn 30 don’t even think about asking Birds management to redo your contract because it ain’t gonna happened.

And if you complain about it, they will reduce your playing time and eventually send you packing one way or the other.

The Eagles quest to be the gold standard, the winners of the “Salary Cap Bowl” has left a bitter taste in the mouths of players who left here feeling disrespected after giving their blood and guts to the organization. Dawkins very bitter departure this past spring was a classic example of that .

Brown is just the latest Eagle unhappy with his contract and the team’s stern refusal to renegotiate contracts and he will definitely not be the last.

The Future is now for Eagles offensive rookies

The Future is now for Eagles offensive rookies
By Chris Murray
For the Chris Murray Report

PHILADELPHIA–Back in 1975, the Dallas Cowboys had 12 rookies—which included Randy White and Thomas “Hollywood” Henderson that not only made the team, but helped take it to the Super Bowl that year.
Flashing forward to the here and now of 2009, the Eagles have on paper arguably the best draft class in the NFL coming into all the minicamps, OTAs (organized team activities) and ultimately training camp.
The Birds are hoping players like rookie wide receiver Jeremy Maclin, the team’s No. 1 draft choice, and second-round draft choice running back LeSean McCoy will develop fast enough to put them into the Super Bowl in 2009 after they fell short last season.
“We’re going to take it all the way through training camp and see how they do,” said Eagles head coach Andy Reid in a press conference after the team’s first day of mini-camp. “If I feel like they’re ready to play, we’ll put them in there. My time line is that you get ready right (to start) now. We’re going to throw a lot of things at them and we’re going to see if they can digest it.”
Maclin’s selection at the wide receiver spot might be like manna from heaven for Eagles fans as well as quarterback Donovan McNabb who have been clamoring for a big play receiver for years. But the reality for Maclin is that he has to digest all the complicated schemes of the Eagles version of the West Coast while learning how to read defenses. That’s something easier said done for most rookies who come into the NFL though not impossible.
“It’s a kind of hard to draft somebody and expect them just to come and start,” said Eagles second-year wide receiver DeSean Jackson, who led the Eagles in receptions as a rookie last year with 62 receptions for 912 yards and two touchdowns while starting in all 16 games. “They still have to prove themselves as NFL players. If all that happens and it falls right, they can definitely do it.”
The 6-foot, 200-pound Maclin comes to Philly with a boat load of accolades from his final season at Missouri. He set a school record for receptions with 102 catches for 1,260 yards and 13 touchdowns. As a receiver, punt and kickoff returner, Maclin led the nation in all-purpose yards with a school-record 2,833.
While the Eagles will no doubt utilize his skills as a return specialist, Reid made it very clear that Maclin is here to give McNabb another weapon in the passing game.
“I didn’t pick him up as a returner,” Reid said on the day he drafted Maclin. “I picked him as a receiver.
“As a receiver he was the most productive receiver in the country, all around I’m saying when you add special teams in there. You look at his hands, his ability to catch football, he didn’t drop footballs. You look at his ability getting in and out of breaks. They have a vertical game that they’ve worked on and then quick hitch routes that they do in their offense. He has the ability to stop and start which is important and the ability to get in and out of breaks, which I think is important as well.”
Meanwhile, Maclin said he feels no pressure to come in and live up to all the billing, but also recognizes that a starting slot on the Birds offense will not be given to him by simply showing up.
“I’ m not going to come here from day one and expect everything to fall into my lap,” Maclin said. “I want to work for everything that I achieve. It’s the kind of situation I want to be in. I want to be a guy that the team can rely on. I definitely think that time will come for me.
“I’m always on toes and always expecting things to happen. It takes a lot for me to be intimidated.”
Another rookie with an opportunity to move into a starting position for the Eagles is second-round draft choice running back and former University of Pittsburgh star LeSean McCoy.
As a runner, the 5-10,204-pound McCoy gained 1,488 yards runs in his final year at Pitt and he also caught 32 passes for 305 yards in the Panthers version of the West Coast offense. What will get McCoy time on the field will be his ability to pass block in an Eagles offense that looks to throw the ball first.
“He’ll need to work on that,”Reid said. “He’ll work on that when he gets in. They asked him to cut block more than what we cut block. That’s part of their scheme. We’ll ask him to stand up and probably have 12 good shots of that on film which we can evaluate, not as much as some of the other guys.”
McCoy said for him it’s just a matter of getting down the basic skills and mechanics. For him a good starting point is simply having the desire to do it. A lot of running backs coming out of college are not too enamored with having to block. It ’s more of a necessary evil.
“I have the heart to do it, I have the passion to do it,” McCoy said “I think me technique is off as far as being able to block people. It’s something that I wasn’t required to do as much, but I’m willing to do it. I’m willing to stick my nose in there and get it done.”
At the tight end position, the Eagles drafted Cornelius Ingram out of Florida who promises to be able to do something that L.J. Smith wasn’t able to do during his tenure here—stretch the field and make catches from the tight end position.
Playing in Florida’s spread offense for three years, Ingram caught 64 passes for 888 yards and eight touchdowns. He missed his senior season because of an ACL injury. Ingram said he’s ready to get back on the field and play football again.
“I just want to show everybody that I’m healthy,” said Ingram, who played quarterback in hig high school. “I don’t want to have to make all these make spectacular plays. I’m just going to relax and soak it all in.”
The Birds are hoping Ingram can make the grade as a blocking tight end as well. He will be competing against Brett Celek, who played well in the second half of last season and during the Birds run to the NFC title game.
“I’m not going to tell you that he is heavy in the tail there where he is going to be knocking guys five yards off the ball but he looked like he was adequate at it,” Reid said. “I think what you get with him is a very athletic receiving tight end who can pull the zone on the line of scrimmage.”
Ingram said he players like himself, Maclin and McCoy know the expectations for them to come in and contribute will be intense, but they are good enough to come in and start at some point this season.
“I hope so, eventually at the end of the day that’s everybody’s purpose,” Ingram said. “I’m just trying to come in and pick up things right away. I know I have a lot to learn and a long way to go, but I don’t mind asking questions and being around other guys and seeing how they do things.”

Can Josh Freeman be the “Man” in Tampa?

Josh Freeman taking questions from reporters at the NFL Draft April 25. Photo by Chris Murray

By Chris Murray

of the Chris Murray Report

New York—If former Kansas State quarterback Josh Freeman had played a couple of BCS bowl games and had a winning record during his tenure as the Wildcats signal caller, he would have most certainly received just as much hype as Detroit Lions draftee and designated franchise “Savior” Matt Stafford and New York Jets “Chosen One” Mark Sanchez.

Competing in the quarterback rich Big 12 Conference with guys like Oklahoma’s 2008 Heisman Trophy winner Sam Bradford, Texas’s Colt McCoy, Texas Tech’s Graham Harrell and Missouri’s Chase Daniel, some might argue that Freeman is not as good as those guys.

Despite coming up with identical 5-7 seasons in his last two seasons as a collegian, the 6-foot-5, 248-pound, boyish -looking Freeman apparently had enough upside and potential to be the third quarterback taken and the 12^th pick overall by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in this year’s draft.

Unlike Stafford and Sanchez, no one is expecting Freeman to be the “Messiah” or the “Savior.” In fact, Tampa Bay fans weren’t necessarily waving palms saying, “Hosanna, Hosanna” when Freeman’s name was called. It was a loud crescendo of boos from Bucs fans gathered at Raymond James Stadium on draft day.

The Bucs organization believe Freeman will eventually be the “Chosen One” for their team for years to come.

“This kid is the ’savior of this franchise,” said Doug Williams, Super Bowl XXII MVP and Buccaneers pro scouting coordinator. “He’s a franchise quarterback. We’re not going to put him on the front line now. Eli Manning wasn’t on the front line, Steve McNair wasn’t on the front line Phillip Rivers wasn’t on the front line—You can name a lot of guys who weren’t on the front line right away.

“It ain’t about the front line, it’s who brings up the rear and ends up at the front.”

Bucs head coach Raheem Morris, who coached Freeman as a freshman when he was an assistant at K-State, believes he can be that “franchise” guy the way folks are touting Stafford and Sanchez.

“Anytime you get a chance to get a franchise quarterback on your football team, a guy that creates so much excitement, a guy with a big arm, a guy that’s accurate, a guy that’s got talent,6-5, 250 pounds that can stand in the pocket and deliver the ball and be your guy of the future, you go out and get him,” Morris said.

“You never say when a guy’s going to be a franchise quarterback, he’ll tell you. He’ll let you know. … When you draft a quarterback in the first round, he is the long-term decision. He’s the direction we’re going.”

Oddly enough, Freeman likens himself to Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Donovan McNabb, who was also booed on his draft day. When he was introduced to the Tampa media earlier this week, he was unfazed by the acrimonious greeting from Bucs fans.

“I’ve talked to a number of quarterbacks who are in the league and they tell you the same thing, it’s not about what are people are saying, it’s about the attitude you carry into the office every day and you’re willingness to work,” said Freeman, who played in just one bowl game in three years at Kansas State. “A great example was Donovan McNabb last year. They were ready to bench him and he wins six games in a row and carries them to the NFC Championship game. It’s all about the attitude.”

Freeman will come into his first rookie camps, minicamps, and training camps, not only having to learn the Bucs offense, but he will be competing with veterans like Byron Leftwich, Josh Johnson Brian Griese and Luke McKown—guys who have been around for awhile.

“(Freeman) knows what position he’s in, he knows that he’s under no pressure,” Williams said. “The key for him is to come in, get acclimated and when he’s ready to play, I promise you, he will.”

More than likely, Freeman will be carrying a clipboard on the sidelines rather than being thrown out to the wolves, or more accurately the Panthers, the Saints, and the Falcons right off the bat. Freeman believes he can be the guy for the Bucs for this year.

“I think it’s going to be a great situation with Byron, Josh Johnson and a number of quarterbacks, but I’m just going to go down there and learn from the veterans and at the same time, compete with them,” Freeman said. “It’s definitely going to be a long learning process, you can at last year and see Joe Flacco and Matt Ryan having success. It depends on the approach you take and how hard are you willing to work. I’m going to work as hard as I can to put myself in a position to start.”

The knock on Freeman from all the draft pundits and scouts is his accuracy and his touchdown to interception ratio. In his final season at Kansas State, Freeman completed completed 58 percent of his passes, threw 20 touchdown passes with eight interceptions and passed for 2,945 on a Wildcats team that lacked talent.

“He’s a big imposing guy, stands in the pocket, has a strong arm and he’s tough,” Williams said. “He’s athletic, he shows poise in the pocket and shows leadership on the field. He’s everything you want in a quarterback.”

For his three-year collegiate career, Freeman completed 59 percent of his passes. He threw 44 touchdown passes, but also threw 34 interceptions. The fact that he didn’t complete more than 60 percent of his passes in his career has some wondering about his accuracy.

“I was lucky enough to be there when he came in as a freshman and I watched him lead us and beat teams with him,” Morris said. “We didn’t have a whole of talent around us, but every time he walked on the field, we had a chance to win-no matter who we were playing whether it was Texas or FIU (Florida International University). It didn’t matter.”

A good example of what Morris was talking about came during his freshman year in 2006 when he threw three touchdown passes and ran for another a scoring in the Wildcats 45-42 upset of a fourth-ranked Texas squad that was in line to compete for a national championship.

What stands out most about Freeman is that he has a quiet confidence in himself and his ability as a quarterback. He believes that he is better than both Stafford and Sanchez.

“I think they’re tremendous players, but honestly,it’s my ability to make plays. I only got sacked 13 times and I think it’s due to the fact that I’m a big physical presence in the pocket and when you’re talking about staying in the pocket taking a hit and still delivering the ball, my size and agility often times allows me to escape and make a play down field,” Freeman said.

“I’m a combination of a lot of guys, but if I he to compare I’d say maybe like McNabb with the ability to escape in the pocket and still be a pocket passer.”

Activism and Performance Defined 1968 Olympic Track Team

By Chris Murray

For the Chris Murray Report

If the images of Tommie Smith and John Carlos raising their black-glove fists in protest at the 1968 Summer Olympic Games in Mexico City have lasted the test of time as a symbol of defiance against racism and all forms of oppression, the outstanding performances of the entire U.S. men’s Track and Field team has also transcended the test of time.

In the last 40 years, no other U.S. track team or squad from any other country has come close to equaling the accomplishments of the 1968 U.S. men’s track team at the Mexico City Olympics.

Ironically, what made Smith and Carlos’ protest possible and for that matter powerful was their dominance on the track. Not only did Smith win the gold medal in the 200-meter dash, he set a world-record in the process. Carlos finished third.

Among the many great athletes on that team was the legendary San Jose State “Speed City” squad of Smith, Carlos, 400-meter gold medalist Lee Evans and Ronnie Ray Smith accounted for four gold medals alone.

“Think about San Jose State alone, that would have beaten a lot of nations in terms of the medal count,” Carlos said. “We had so many athletes that came from across the United States.”

For the record, the 1968 U.S. men’s Olympic track and field team won 22 medals. They won 12 gold medals and set eight world records in the process. The U.S. team dominated the sprint events winning the 100 (Jimmy Hines), 200, and 400 meter dashes. They won both relays and took gold in the 110-meter hurdles (Willie Davenport). In the field events, the U.S. won golds in the long jump, high jump (Dick Fosbury), pole vault (Bob Seagren), the decathlon (Bill Toomey), shot put (Randy Matson) and discus (Al Oerter).

Track and field historian Derek Toliver said the U.S. team was the best of the nation’s great track and field powers from schools like San Jose State and Villanova, the historically Black colleges and universities and the U.S. military.

“It’s pretty special when you think about the depth and breadth not only from the African-American athlete male and female, you look at all the other guys that were there that got towed along,” Toliver said. “The level of confidence of that team because everybody there truly felt at any given time could be gold medalists and they were all correct. At one time or other if they hadn’t set a world record, whoever won a gold medal they had beaten them or come close to beating them. “

The U.S. also won medals in the distance events with Jim Ryun’s silver medal. Ryun was beaten in the final 100 meters by Kenya’s Kip Keino. The U.S. team also picked up bronze medals from George Young in the 3,000-meter steeple chase and Larry Young in the 50 kilometer walk.

Some experts point to the 1984 U.S. Olympic track team as being comparable to the 1968 team. The athletes who competed in Mexico City that were interviewed for this story said there is no comparison because they were simply better than the 1984 team that competed in the midst of the Soviet-bloc boycott.

“Everybody that was on that line in ’68 was capable of being a world-record holder,” Carlos said. “You can’t say that about the 1984 team. I’m not taking anything way from what Carl Lewis did because what he did was great, but those games can’t compete with the ’68 games.”

On the track, Smith held the world record in both the 200 and 400 meter dash. Even though he had beaten Evans in an event in the previous, Smith said he didn’t have to run the 400 meter dash because Evans was just as good. In fact, the U.S. team won all three medals in the 400.

In a highly-charged racial and political atmosphere in which African-American athletes were under fire and in some cases threatened for considering a boycott of the games, their outstanding performances made it possible for them to use Olympics as a platform to protest racism in America.

“It was for all Black people in America for the struggle that Black people were going through in America,” said Mel Pender, who was apart of the U.S.’s gold medal winning 4×100-meter relay team. “Those medals were won for them. That was my feeling and that was everybody else’s feeling. We were going to show our people just how great we were.”

Prior to the games, there was debate about how the protest would take shape among athletes like Smith, Carlos, long jumper Ralph Boston and sprinters like Pender, all of whom were apart of the Olympic Project for Human Rights.

There were some who wanted to stage a boycott while others wanted to make a statement at the games themselves. According to Harry Edwards, one of the key organizers of the Olympic Project for Human Rights, said there wasn’t going to be a uniform boycott because the consequences would have been dire, especially for the athletes from the military and from historically Black colleges.

“There was not going to be any uniformed or unified boycott,” Edwards said. “The black schools made it very clear that not only were there athletes not going to boycott, but if they were associated with the Olympic Project for Human Rights, they were not only off the team, they were out of school.

“The point was to break this headlock that American society had on Black people in sport and I think they did a hell of a job.”

Oddly enough, Pender, who was a 31-year-old captain in the U.S. Army at the time, said he was called into the office and warned by his commanding colonel not participate in any type of demonstration. He said he was called in because he was one of the spokesman for Olympic Project for Human Rights.

“I told Col. Miller, I understand but I’m Black and these are my brothers and sisters out there fighting for some of the same things I’m fighting for even in the military because there was racism in the military,” said Pender, who was denied the opportunity to go to flight school and ordered to go to Vietnam.

Boston said it was ultimately important for the Black athletes to not only go to Mexico City, but to win and use their victories as a platform to make their statement.

“If (Smith) and Carlos had finished dead last, there could not have been a statement because he couldn’t have been on the victory stand,” said Boston, who won the bronze medal in the long jump. “It was very important to win. It was important to go and compete. It was more important to earn a place, so you can have that soap box from which you can launch yourself.”

When it was decided that each athlete would come up with his own form of protest or expression, Boston said it brought about a sense of team unity and a determination that they were going to put out their best performances.

“Because we could not agree on a common act, I think what they did was to say agree to disagree and go forth and serve,” Boston said. “That allowed you to respect any other athlete who said this is what I want to do. We were together there’s no question about it.”

On the night that Smith and Carlos did their black-gloved protest on the victory stand, Boston and Pender said the team was shocked and stunned by the protest.

“John Carlos and Tommie Smith had no idea that it would become as big as it got,” Pender said.

Meanwhile, Smith said he afraid for his life as he and Carlos raised their Black-gloved fists in the air, but he and Carlos were determined to make their statement against racism and injustice.

“That was the longest national anthem on any planet, my prayer was short,” Smith said. “Of course, I was afraid, I was terrified, but I was a on a mission from a non-secular situation which I claim even today. I believed I was saved because of my belief for others, not necessarily myself, because I am vessel to be used for the betterment of human kind.”

Other forms of protest, though not as spectacular as Smith and Carlos, included some athletes going to the medal stand without their shoes. Some wore black socks and Black arm-bands. Evans, Larry James and Ron Freeman, the three medal winners in the 400-meter dash wore black berets similar to those worn by the Black Panthers and removed them during the playing of the national anthem.

Pender said Smith and Carlos protests obscured the contributions of the other athletes on the team.

“It wasn’t only Smith and Carlos, it was everybody that protested,” Pender said. “They might have put their fists, but everybody did their own thing to show the world that we’re Black and we wanted to be treated the same as everybody. Guys wore black shoes, blacks socks, black ribbons. Everybody wore something.”

One of the most compelling records of the games was Bob Beamon’s record breaking leap in the long jump. His world record leap of 29 feet, 2 ½ inches set the Olympic track and field event on its ear and stood until 1991.

“I thought I was in shape enough to win until I saw 29 feet,” Boston recalled. “When he asked me to convert the distance (from meters to feet), I said that’s more than 29 feet. He said, ‘no it can’t be.’ I said it’s more than 29 feet.”

Boston said Beamon had outstanding leaping ability and could jump with the best of them.

“Beamon was an excitable character with a whole bunch of talent,” Boston said. “He could put his elbow on top of a basketball goal. That’s how high could leap. I heard a story that he could take a block of wood on top of the backboard. I know he blocked one of Dr. J’s (Julius Erving) shots.”

Smith said what made the difference in Beamon’s record breaking leap was his speed. He said Beamon was 9.3 100-meter runner had the ability to be an outstanding sprinter if he had chosen to go that route.

“In about five seconds into his run, I said ‘oh my god, the man was running like I had never seen him run before,” Smith said. “He didn’t even think about coming down. If you look at that jump, he landed on his feet and jumped out of the pit. His heel hit and his butt was over his heel and never touched the sand and had another eight inches.”

If you talk to the athletes about the legacy of the team both on and off the track, they all have different answers about what their 1968 Olympic experience meant. Carlos said not much has changed for African-Americans in the 40 years he and Smith raised their fists in Mexico City.

“When I come home, my eyes are wide open to see that things have not progressed,” Carlos said. “We’re still living the same way, people are still searching for jobs, people are still trying to get an education and people are still live their lives with drugs being in the midst of it all.”

Smith said the outstanding performances of the athletes while standing up for the dignity of African-Americans and the oppressed everywhere around the world made that 1968 track team even more special.

“It polarized us to not melt under pressure,” Smith said. “During that time there was a thought process to believe that if you don’t stand for something, you just might fall for anything. We were that tough. I’m just proud to say that I was a member of that team.”