I like Rush Limbaugh, although I haven’t listened to his show in years. Still, I tend to read news articles about him, and you’re probably aware of the fuss there was this week because of what he said on “Sunday NFL Countdown:”
“I think what we’ve had here is a little social concern in the NFL. The media has been very desirous that a black quarterback do well. There is a little hope invested in McNabb, and he got a lot of credit for the performance of this team that he didn’t deserve. The defense carried this team.”
Naturally, the remarks generated a controversy, with many calling the remarks racist. Since then, Rush has resigned from the show, in order to spare ESPN from the backlash.
I don’t think Rush was being racist when he said that, but I think he was wrong to say it, and I think he was wrong.
Let me deal with the latter point first. Rush was wrong. Yes, McNabb has been having a poor season this year. But I play fantasy football, and I tracked the statistics pretty closely. And last year in my FF league, McNabb scored more points per game (only ten games, due to injury) than any other player, barely edging out Priest Holmes.
And I can assure you, that does not happen because the defense is carrrying the team. He got points for offense — for yards gained and scoring — and he got more of them per game than anyone else in the league. He was 14% better than the second-best QB, Rich Gannon.
So yes, based on his performance so far this year, he was overrated by people who thought he would be performing at that same level. But they were predicting he would be good based on last year’s performance, not based on his race.
But even if Rush were correct in his analysis, I still think he should not have said what he did. I got to think about it after watching last night’s Law & Order, which dealt with the idea that affirmative action might attach a stigma to those it is supposed to be helping.
I think our society has enough racial polarization already. If we are ever to get to the point where skin color doesn’t matter any more than eye color, then we’ve got to get away from the habit of seeing everything through the prism of race.
With affirmative action programs, there are people who are being discriminated against because of their color: they are excluded from schools or jobs because of their race. That’s an injustice which should be corrected, and so conservatives are justified in bringing up the race issue in that context.
But who was really harmed if, as Rush claimed, the media overrated McNabb because they hoped to see a black QB succeed? It’s not as if McNabb was keeping some good white quarterback out of a starting job — because I doubt Eagles Coach Andy Reid would be starting McNabb if he thought Koy Detmer would be doing a better job.
So, what good did it do for Rush to say what he did? Why bring up the race issue at all? Unless there’s an injury being done to someone that should be corrected, conservatives should just leave the race issue alone.
Liberals should, too.
(Note: This entry was originally published on my now-defunct political blog, Attilathepundit.com.)