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Subject: A Samoan, a Mormon, and a Mexican...
Posted by: Guru
- [330592710] Fri, Jan 04, 2008, 12:18
On Thursday's PTI program, Dan Lebetard was subbing for Mike Wilbon.
The second topic on the show was whether Miami's firing of Cam Cameron was justified. During the banter with Kornheiser, Lebetard was getting a bit more agitated than usual (presumably because Miami is his home turf), and when Kornheiser suggested that Cameron had failed to develop any offense this year, Lebetard shouted back something to the effect of "How many wins do you think Bill Belechick would have gotten with that offense? They had a Samoan fullback, a Mormon quarterback, and a Mexican-American receiver. They had the United Nations in their huddle!"
Kornheiser was clearly taken aback - his eyes bugged out and he said something like "Where are we going with that stuff?" And then, he quickly moved on, no doubt wanting to get past that moment as quickly as possible.
I thought I might see some critical mention of it somewhere today, but so far, I haven't found anything. Admittedly, Dan Lebetard is not a national figure, but PTI is a popular show televised nationally, and I would have expected some sort of backlash - or at least a comment.
Did anyone else see that part of the show? Has anyone seen or heard any comment, either toward ESPN, or even from ESPN? Lebetard isn't an ESPN employee, but he is a fairly regular sub on PTI.
Just curious if the comment will be totally ignored. I know that if Rush Limbaugh had said it, it would certainly be national news today. |
| 1 | I_AM_CANADIAN
Donor
ID: 1361448
Fri, Jan 04, 2008, 13:01
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ROFLMAO! it's always funnier when it's true. ;P
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| 2 | mjd
Leader
ID: 501381415
Fri, Jan 04, 2008, 13:49
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I saw the show, but rarely listen to anything that Lebetard says.
Of all their guest hosts, I don't take anything he says very seriously. In short, I think he's a bit of an idiot.
Bob Ryan is my favorite fill in.
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| 3 | Frick
ID: 5504413
Fri, Jan 04, 2008, 14:04
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Who else is going to carry it? ESPN isn't going to show clips that put them in a negative light. FoxSports isn't going to give attention to their competitor who is completely dominant over them.
ESPN/ABC have had a history of sweeping things under the rug. When Gregg Easterbrook was writing TMQ for them he made a negative comment about Disney on a different channel. His columns were all pulled without a word of warning and every mention of him was erased and forgotten. I wonder if we will be seeing as much of Lebatard on ESPN in the future. If not, I would guess that is probably a reason why.
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| 4 | Slizz
ID: 21733916
Fri, Jan 04, 2008, 14:15
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Frick, great point. To support that, reference Michael Irvin's "Tony Romo is only good b/c his great great ancestors must've got it on w/a slave" garnered ZERO media attention.
Made me pretty much boycott that network. Thank god for NFLN, CBS Sportsline, & Blogs.
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| 5 | C1-NRB
ID: 5932328
Fri, Jan 04, 2008, 15:43
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Maybe win more than one game? My high school alma mater won the Texas state championship this year with more nationalities than that. They took the lead on a touchdown catch by Justin Runningdeer from Denarius McGhee, behind the blocking of Siosaia Tuipulotu and Hopate Sanft.
This the same school featured in the Gatorade commercial with Bill Parcels in the tollbooth. Maybe he sees something that guys like Lebetard can't...
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| 6 | holt
ID: 401157300
Fri, Jan 04, 2008, 18:26
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Michael Irvin's "Tony Romo is only good b/c his great great ancestors must've got it on w/a slave"
wow. never heard that one. what a stupid thing to say. Le Batard's comment is also just stupid. no one really cares what either of them says, so no backlash.
btw, Le Batard is also the guy who was claiming that Nash only won mvp because hw was white.
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| 7 | sarge33rd
ID: 99331714
Fri, Jan 04, 2008, 18:29
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Wasnt Jimmy the Greek fired for basically saying the same type of thing as Irvin apparently said? (re Black athletes in general)
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| 8 | Frick
Donor
ID: 3410101718
Fri, Jan 04, 2008, 19:21
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Yes he was. Actually IIRC it was about slave owners breeding the best slaves and we now see the result as better athletes. But yes, it goes along the same line.
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| 9 | KrazyKoalaBears
ID: 421148121
Fri, Jan 04, 2008, 20:47
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Your backlash is only as big as your popularity. Honestly, there are too many examples of this being true to even start a list.
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| 10 | Guru
ID: 330592710
Fri, Jan 04, 2008, 22:14
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Lebetard did apologize on today's show.
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| 11 | Ref
Donor
ID: 539581218
Fri, Jan 04, 2008, 22:30
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Dodgers GM Al Campanis was attempting to state what he had heard as factual in an interview saying that there weren't a lot of black swimmers because they have less body fat and they can't stay on top of the water as easy as whites. His comments were deemed so racist and offensive that he was rode out of town on a rail.
That seemed to be right after the Jimmy "The Greek" comments in the 80s.
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| 12 | Species
Dude
ID: 07724916
Fri, Jan 04, 2008, 22:44
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Wow that is really lame and insensitive.
I seriously thought this thread was a joke "A samoan, a mormon and a mexican walk into a bar......" or the like.
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| 13 | holt
ID: 401157300
Sat, Jan 05, 2008, 19:35
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re. campanis, wasn't he trying to make some kind of point to explain why blacks might not be as good GM's or managers as whites, using the logic that we are just different in some ways? I can't remember exactly.
this also reminds me of the time that Howard Cosell said something like "look at that monkey run!". can't remember what the situation was on that either.
Intellectually, you can't defend guys like Jimmy the Greek, Cosell, or Campanis in any way, but still, you gotta understand that they grew up in different times and that way of thinking was just the reality that they understood, so I can at least have some kind of empathy for them. BUT, Le Batard! Damn dude. No excuse. You, my friend, are an idiot. If you want any future in the media at all, why say crap like this? frontal lobe damage?
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| 14 | Chuck
ID: 151133021
Sat, Jan 05, 2008, 21:09
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link
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| 15 | Donkey Hunter
ID: 12671919
Sat, Jan 05, 2008, 23:02
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ESPN.com currently has an ombudsman who addresses issues such as this. I am sure she will have something to say.
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| 16 | donk44
ID: 42611019
Sun, Jan 06, 2008, 12:38
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The Cosell monkey comment making such a stink (and ultimately getting him fired) was actually quite silly. He had a bunch of grandkids he would play with, and he would often call them his "little monkeys". That's where the phrase came from. Him calling a football player the same thing he called his grandkids certainly couldn't be construed as a racial comment. But in the era of political correctness it ended up costing him his job.
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| 17 | holt
ID: 401157300
Sun, Jan 06, 2008, 13:35
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I never heard that explanation before. Hopefully it's true, but, it's easy to construe "little monkey" as a racial comment. I mean I always liked Cosell, but it never dawned on me that "little monkey" could be anything but a racial comment.
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| 18 | holt
ID: 401157300
Sun, Jan 06, 2008, 13:38
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from wikipedia:
The "little monkey" incident
Cosell drew criticism during one Monday Night Football telecast in September 1983, for stating "look at that little monkey go," when he referred to a play by black receiver Alvin Garrett of the Washington Redskins regarding a run after a reception. While some saw "little monkey" as a racial slur, others who knew Cosell were quick to point out that he used this term routinely in an approving way to describe quicker, smaller players of all ethnicities. Among the evidence adduced to support this claim is video footage of a 1972 preseason game, between the New York Giants and the Kansas City Chiefs, during which Cosell refers to Mike Adamle, a 5-foot-9-inch, 197-pound caucasian male, as a "little monkey."
Perhaps due to the strain of this controversy, Cosell left Monday Night Football shortly before the start of the 1984 NFL season, claiming that the NFL had "become a stagnant bore."[citation needed] His duties were then reduced to only baseball, horse racing, and a sports news program called Sportsbeat. Howard Cosell never got a chance to commentate a Super Bowl, as by the time ABC finally got into the Super Bowl rotation with Super Bowl XIX, Cosell was already gone from Monday Night Football.
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| 19 | Balrog
Dude
ID: 02856618
Sun, Jan 06, 2008, 14:14
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Comparing Cosell to Lebetard is like comparing Abe Lincoln to that guy who ran for city council but didn't quite win. What Cosell said was news because he was Cosell. What Lebetard says is barely relevant outside of a Lebetard family reunion.
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| 20 | Ref
Donor
ID: 539581218
Sun, Jan 06, 2008, 14:44
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Alexander Sebastian Campanis (November 2, 1916 - June 21, 1998) was an American executive in Major League Baseball. He had a brief Major League career as a second baseman, playing in seven games for the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1943. Campanis is most famous for his position as general manager of the Los Angeles Dodgers from 1968 to 1987, from which he was fired as a result of a high-profile incident in which he made racially insensitive remarks during a live interview on April 6, 1987.
He is the only player in Major League history born in Kos. [1]
Controversy
Campanis' infamous remarks took place on the late-night ABC News program Nightline, coinciding with the 40th anniversary of Jackie Robinson's Major League Baseball debut (April 15, 1947). Campanis, who had played alongside Robinson and was known for being close to him, was being interviewed about the subject. Nightline anchorman Ted Koppel asked him why, at the time, there had been few black managers and no black general managers in Major League Baseball. Campanis' reply was that blacks "may not have some of the necessities to be, let's say, a field manager, or, perhaps, a general manager" for these positions. Elsewhere in the interview he said that blacks are often poor swimmers "because they don't have the buoyancy." Koppel says he gave Campanis several opportunities to clarify ("Do you really believe that?") or back down on his remarks but Campanis confirmed his views with his replies. A protest erupted the next morning and he resigned two days later.
The controversy was especially heated when it was pointed out that Campanis had participated in the decision over who would replace Walter Alston as the manager of the Dodgers. It had been a choice between the two coaches at the time, Tom Lasorda and Jim Gilliam, and it raised the question of whether Gilliam had been passed over because he was black.
In an interview the next year, Campanis attempted to clarify that he was referring to the lack of African-Americans with experience in these areas, rather than their innate abilities. He also said that he was "wiped out" when the interview took place and therefore not entirely himself. Many other figures in baseball, such as fellow Dodgers manager Tom Lasorda and former Dodgers player Don Newcombe, have also spoken in Campanis' defense.
Trivia
In one of Campanis' first trades as general manager of the Dodgers, Campanis traded his own son, Jim Campanis to the Royals for two minor leaguers. [1]
In the book Baseball's Golden Greeks by Diamantis Zervos, Campanis' son, Jim, relates one of the big moments in his life which he called "a Greek moment in Cincinnati in 1967" when Jim was batting against the Reds, Alex Grammas was coaching third base, Chris Pelekoudas was umpiring behind the plate and the Reds' pitcher was Milt Pappas.[2]
Al Campanis was the scout who discovered future pitching great and Hall of Famer Sandy Koufax.
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| 21 | Seattle Zen
ID: 529121611
Sun, Jan 06, 2008, 16:02
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Just out of curiosity, Ref, since that post looked to me like a defense of Campanis, are you defending him?
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| 22 | Slizz
ID: 011282816
Sun, Jan 06, 2008, 16:31
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SZ, its just ref pasting the wikipedia page...giving full disclosure :)
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| 23 | Ref
Donor
ID: 539581218
Sun, Jan 06, 2008, 17:59
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As Slizz said, it's a copy and paste. Purely informational.
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