Rush Limbaugh wants to be a "Color" Analyst

Rush Limbaugh made claims that Donovan McNabb may have been pushed by the media because it wants black quarterbacks to do well, and he is basically overrated. I guess Philly made it to the championship game two years in a row because of Affirmative Action.

http://www.philly.com/mld/dailynews/news/local/6894891.htm

Rich Hofmann | So now he's a color analyst, too
By Rich Hofmann
hofmanr@phillynews.com

Rush Limbaugh says that if you believe Donovan McNabb is a really good quarterback, it isn't because he is a really good quarterback. It's because you have a secret desire to see a black quarterback succeed in the NFL.

Now, who isn't offended by that? Who isn't offended on about three different levels? And when is this nonsense ever going to end?

Limbaugh works for ESPN now, at least on Sunday mornings. He is there to be controversial. This week, as his co-conspirators on the set tried to figure out what was wrong with McNabb following his 0-2 start this season, Limbaugh told them this:

"I think the sum total of what you're all saying is that Donovan McNabb is regressing, he's going backwards. And...I'm sorry to say this, I don't think he's been that good from the get-go.

"I think what we've had here is a little social concern in the NFL. I think the media has been very desirous that a black quarterback do well. They're interested in black coaches and black quarterbacks doing well; I think there is a little hope invested in McNabb, and he got a lot of credit for the performance of his team that he really didn't deserve. The defense carried this team...

"I think he got a lot of credit for the defensive side of the ball winning games for this team."

A short argument ensued on the ESPN set - that's why Limbaugh is there, to start short arguments - but it was a football argument and nothing more. Limbaugh's black-quarterback comments were ignored. His easy dismissal of everything that McNabb has accomplished was not challenged. His cavalier, hurtful words were left to sit there and sting. On the central issue, nobody took the bully on.

And so, on national television, McNabb was allowed to be reduced to a stereotype once again. He lives, he breathes, he quarterbacks - but it has never been that simple for Donovan McNabb and you wonder if it ever will be.

You read the old articles from when he was in high school and you see where colleges that even bothered with him were recruiting McNabb only as an "option" quarterback; code word.

You read the stuff that was written when he was coming out of Syracuse and see countless references to what an "athletic" quarterback he is; code word.

You read the articles today and you see way too many times where McNabb is categorized, unthinkingly, almost reflexively, as a "running" quarterback; code word.

And now this Limbaugh. It is to the point now where it isn't even provocative anymore. It's just tired. It's such an old, stupid song.

If you took 5 minutes to look at the statistics and to study the history of the game, you would see that McNabb is for real. After 2 years as a starter - that's when he built this reputation of being an elite quarterback, before he broke a fibula last season - McNabb's numbers absolutely blew away the early numbers put up by guys to whom he is often compared, guys like Brett Favre and John Elway. The stats aren't even close.

But it isn't even that. It isn't how many games McNabb won, or how many big games. It isn't how he routinely refuses to make the big mistakes - going into this season, his interception percentage was third-lowest in NFL history. It isn't that in the most important quarterback stat - touchdown-to-interception ratio - McNabb was fourth all-time in the league. It isn't that his physical toughness is unchallenged, or that his teammates have followed him from the day he showed up in 1999.

That's football stuff. This is much bigger than that. Because the notion that the media somehow had to invent McNabb's excellence because it needed a black quarterback to portray as successful just mocks the reality of the NFL in 2003.

Look around, Rush. Arguably the best quarterback in the NFL today is Tennessee's Steve McNair - who, the last time anyone looked, is black. McNair is just old-school excellent. He's a technician. He's tough as a boot. His leadership skills are unquestioned. He was a yard short of winning the Super Bowl a couple of years ago, nearly beating what might have been the best offensive team the NFL has ever seen.

And that's just for starters.

As McNabb said yesterday in a conversation with the Daily News' Les Bowen, "What about [Michael] Vick? What does that say for Daunte Culpepper or Aaron Brooks or Quincy Carter? Culpepper is playing really well right now. What does it say about that?"

There are good black quarterbacks everywhere you turn these days, Rush. Nobody has to invent their success for them because they're succeeding all by themselves.

If you want to make a football argument about McNabb, fine. None of us yet knows what his final football accounting is going to be. None of us knows if he is going to win championships. All we know is that there is a stack of numbers that says McNabb has built a better foundation than almost anyone as we enter the prime years of his career.

At one point Sunday, ESPN's Tom Jackson said that the Eagles have made their big-money investment in McNabb and have to stick with him.

Limbaugh replied, "I'm saying that it's a good investment. Don't misunderstand. I just don't think he's as good as everybody said he has been."

But if you disagree, if you think McNabb is a better player than Limbaugh does, he says it must be because you are somehow blinded by the color of McNabb's skin.

With that, you can only wonder about what's sadder: that Rush Limbaugh insists on living in such a world, or that he insists on dragging Donovan McNabb into it with him.