You know I really don't follow football as a sport. I watched the Super Bowl in 2007 when the Giants waxed the Patriots in a surprise victory over a team that had zero losses their whole season. That was just historic and I'm glad I can say I watched that game. So I really had no skin in the game when I heard Seattle was going against Denver in the big game until I saw all the hate and racism spewed against Richard Sherman after a well publicized rant after his victory in a decisive game.
The young man was in a tight game for a place in the Super Bowl where he produced in a clutch moment. He was unarguably amped and hyped to the max in a post game interview with a white female reporter who seemed afraid of him. Let's get it straight- he's in an aggressive contact sport where men always trash talk. Period. I happened to watch it as it aired and his interviewer acted as if she was put off by his passionate demeanor, loud voice and braggadocio. Maybe she shouldn't be on the field interviewing men at the height of their aggression. Or was it the unbridled black male masculinity that bothered her? His conduct shouldn't surprise anyone, yet even a fellow black footballer tweeted a comment saying he was setting the race back ten years. Who the hell made him the arbiter of black conduct, especially the conduct of someone in a violent sport. I mean the brother couldn't get a break. He was called every manner of disrespectful racial diatribe on twitter, and a loudmouth and a thug by the press for the unpardonable offense of being ramped up or "passionate".
Everyone seemed to forget he graduated from Stanford University with honors and started a master's program there as well. A native of Compton, CA and a renaissance man as an athlete and a scholar he was reduced in a moment to a "thug". Meanwhile just two days later, a US Congressman (appropriately named Grimm representing Staten Island, NY) threatens to throw a reporter over a balcony and no one in the media calls him a thug or even anything derogatory at all.
So for a chick that ain't really into football or Super Bowl Sunday, I'm right in front of my tv cheering for the top cornerback in the sport. Tonite as I type, they're going into half-time with the Seahawks at 22, Denver 0. That just warms my heart and I hope that Sherman makes stunning, re-defining plays all nite long. I want them to embarrass Peyton Manning and Denver. Maybe I'm just an eternal cheerleader for the underdog, maybe a fan of passionate athletes who aren't shy about proclaiming their supreme prowess, maybe I'm expressing racial pride and love for a brother who no matter what he's accomplished and overcome is diminished and reduced to a racial stereotype in a moment's passion. Spectator sports in America have always had the subtext of race all over it. Jackie Robinson in baseball, hell the move of the Brooklyn Dodgers to Los Angeles was about race. Whatever, I hope Seattle gets them a ring and a talented, dark skinned, dread locked, smart, fearless brother from Compton makes this a night to remember.
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