Headquartered in South Florida, with no experience covering an NFL team as a journalist and no discernible football career beyond an Xbox controller, it’s rather impressive how ESPN’s Bomani Jones has put our nation’s capital on trial for racism in regards to Kirk Cousins and Robert Griffin III.
The buildup for this battle started on Jones’ Twitter feed years ago. It was on Twitter that Jones first started policing the treatment of black NFL quarterbacks with a Ta-Nehisi Coates-stylized shtick of seeing white manipulation at the root of every incompletion or interception. Jones never gave his movement a hashtag, but the appropriate one is obvious: #BlackQBCareersMatter.
Jones’ obsession with Cousins heated up in August, when Jones attacked via Twitter a white D.C. radio host, Grant Paulsen, for committing the crime of believing Cousins was the Redskins’ best option at QB.
Now Jones has set the city on fire. Last week Washington Post columnist Dan Steinberg conducted a long Q&A with Jones exploring his carefully worded insinuation that the D.C. media are softer on Cousins than Griffin because Cousins is white. Jones’ narrative is now dominating radio discussion in D.C. Black and white hosts are frustrated by Jones’ tasty word salads that include analogizing 37-year-old, at-the-end-of-his-Houston-career Warren Moon to RG3 and Cody Carlson to Kirk Cousins.
The *sh$t* is crazy, man. And impressive.
The Vegas over-under on the number of times Jones has held a notebook inside an NFL locker room is probably 2.5. I mean, you think Skip Bayless’ trolling of LeBron James is one of the greatest feats in media history. LeBron James is a superstar, a global icon. Most NFL fans couldn’t recognize Kirk Cousins in a police lineup with the Wu-Tang Clan, and yet Bomani has spun this mediocre QB into a meal ticket.
If Bayless pulled the stunt Jones is pulling, the blogosphere would ignite in outrage. Instead, the D.C. media are left to fend off Jones’ attack alone.
The Washington QB situation is difficult. RG3 isn’t a viable option for a variety of reasons, including the fact he lost the support of his (black and white) teammates with his off-putting personality. The ‘Skins are refusing to play Griffin because they want to avoid him getting injured this season and then being on the hook for $16 million next season. Colt McCoy isn’t any good. Brandon Weeden beat him out in Cleveland. Cousins isn’t any good, but he’s the best of the three options.
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The difference in how Kirk Cousins (left) and Robert Griffin III (right) get treated boils down to expectations.
The media in D.C. are soft on Cousins because they have very low expectations for him despite the hyperbole spewed by coach Jay Gruden and former coach Mike Shanahan. Jones finds it odd that the Washington Post published a big spread on Cousins at the start of the season. Newspapers in football towns publish optimistic stories about starting NFL quarterbacks. There are only 32 starting NFL quarterbacks in the world. Whether they’re any good or not, the guy who starts the season is generally treated like a big deal by the local newspaper.
If the starting quarterback is humble and makes the job of the local media easy, the local media bend over backwards in an effort to keep lines of communication open.
There’s no racist conspiracy working for Cousins and working against RG3.
Expectations were extremely high for Griffin because he won the Heisman Trophy and was a high draft pick. It’s the same formula that polarized football fans about Tim Tebow. Anyone remember Bayless’ obsession with Tebow’s NFL career? It was a lot like Jones’ current obsession with Griffin.
Now, I just happen to think Griffin has more football upside than Tebow. I’ll be interested to see how Griffin performs when he’s in a new environment. He’s going to get another chance to prove his critics wrong. I hope he does well.
But he’s never going to escape the curse/blessing of high expectations.
It’s actually a compliment to Griffin’s skill and level of accomplishment that people are harder on him than Cousins. I apologize up front for going here, but this is my blog and I can keep it 100: The reason so many people in the media hold me to a standard of perfection is because my record of achievement is so high. I embrace the high standards placed on me because they keep me sharp, motivated and ascending. No one makes excuses for my failures because no one expects me to fail.
The people who cover the Washington football team are not surprised by the failure of a fourth-round pick. They’re still shocked RG3 imploded. That, far more than anything else, explains the difference in criticism. Expectations dictate happiness.
Race and racism are woven into the American fabric and the history of a football team with an insensitive nickname and a shady history with some of its greatest black players. I’m sure race and racism play a tiny role in the Cousins-Griffin saga. But Jones has forced a conversation that makes it appear they’re the driving force in this narrative. Not true.
Football is cruel. The Packers cut ties with Brett Favre. The 49ers moved Joe Montana. Jim Harbaugh benched a concussed Alex Smith in favor of Colin Kaepernick. Hell, Mike Tomlin had washed-up Michael Vick playing ahead of Landry Jones as the Steelers tried to survive without Big Ben.
The game’s the same, just got more fierce.
http://j.school/post/131695758830/ta-ne ... l-coverage
