Enough is enough

Some journalists write for nothing more than shock value or to relieve themselves of their own angst in a rush of verbal diarrhea.  Others, like FoxSports.com's Jason Whitlock, do both in an ignorant, race-baiting manner.  Despite the fact that this blog exists as a vent for me on all things good and bad about the state of sports in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, every now and then I, too, need to release my own angst.  I do, however, try to keep proper perspective, something that is lost on modern journalists en masse and is one of the main reasons why I abandoned long ago my pursuit of a career in journalism.

Although I could peruse the Whitlock archives for roughly 17 seconds and find at least a handful of articles in which he plays the race card -- because, well, that's pretty much what he does -- I am going to use his latest Messterpiece as a launching point for a grander tirade.

For those of you who aren't going to read the article, here is the gist: Roger Goodell has abused his power as NFL Commish to become the sole unit of justice within the league.  That, in one quick sentence, equals precisely everything I have, and likely will, ever agree with Whitlock on.  I am fully aware that disagreeing does not make him wrong.  His misplaced sense of justice does.

In the article, it is pointed out that the NFL (read: King Roger) punished former Ohio State quarterback Terrell Pryor, who is black, for NCAA indiscretions by suspending him for six games.  Harsh?  Perhaps.  Wrong?  I still haven't decided.  But the moronic part is when he points out that Goodell ruined his credibility when he opted not to punish Pryor's former college coach, Jim Tressel, who is white, for his own indiscretions (assumed to be mostly a knowledge of Pryor's violations without reporting them).

For the record, both Pryor and Tressel were to be suspended for half the collegiate season.

But here is where the problem lies: Whitlock claims the reason for the decision was entirely about race.  He completely ignores the abundance of other variables:

• Pryor is a player, and is part of the product the NFL is selling; Tressel is a gameday replay assistant
• Pryor's employment is mostly out of his hands; he and his agent negotiate payment terms but he is limited in his ability to choose who he plays for; Tressel's employment is determined by private terms negotiated bilaterally between himself and for whomever he chooses to work
• Pryor is bound exclusively by the collective bargaining agreement, which is determined through negotiation between players and the NFL, with the league, teams and players ratifying the agreement collectively; Tressel is bound by whatever terms are agreed upon between himself and the Indianapolis Colts and is by and large not governed by the collective bargaining agreement except in the few areas where his job is affected by it, such as replay rules
• Pryor entered the NFL Supplemental Draft to escape his punishment as an unpaid college player, leaving what was supposed to be a non-profiting role for a profiting one; Tressel voluntarily resigned a paid position within the university and searched for employment elsewhere, undoubtedly taking a massive pay cut as a result

The bottom line is that the two people in question, races aside, are two very separate entities performing two very different roles in two very different capacities under the governance of two very different authorities.  Outside of league-wide regulations, Tressel is in the employ of the Colts as a private entity, while Pryor is in the employ of the Oakland Raiders which operates as a franchisee of the NFL, because Pryor exists on the side of a franchise that is league-facing.

Goodell is, of course, trying to take credit for the fact that the Colts are voluntarily suspending Tressel for six games in a likely effort to stave off any sort of backlash before it has a chance to start, by indicating that the league would have done something if the team had not.  True or not, it is not within his purview to punish a non-player/non-coach employee of a franchise unless there is some fine print within the CBA regarding replay assistants, which I highly doubt.

But, as much as I despise the job done up to this point by Goodell -- I believe Paul Tagliabue has been turning laps in his grave for years -- this is not about him.  This is about Jason Whitlock and his constant playing of the race card to make it seem like those poor black multimillionaires in the NFL, NBA and other sports leagues are getting the shaft when they are actually living in the lap of luxury the other 99.9999999% of the US population could only dream of.

Believe it or not, Jason, race is rarely the reason black players get punished in numerous ways.  Ninety-nine times out of a hundred, it's because they comprise the majority of professional athletes and rich idiots do idiotic things, and because the modern black culture glorifies violating mainstream laws and rules (listen to most rap today and count the instances where it is bragged upon to have broken the law).  Of course, I'm sure you would find a way, no matter how invalid it would be, to blame white people for that, too.