I’ll admit out of the box that I did not see the Donavan McNabb interview on Real Sports, but his comment about Black quarterbacks has been swirling in my brain these last couple of days.
As a person who grew up watching the Eagles and was constantly around die hard Eagles fans on both sides of the Delaware, I think that criticism for quarterbacks has more to do with their ability to win games than skin color. I remember the days of Ron Jaworski when he used to get hammered by the local press for blowing games. Same thing used to happen when Randall Cunningham would do the same thing. Now if you went to some bar in Northeast or South Philly back during the 80’s-90’s, I’m sure the talk was much different when Cunningham screwed up (my Philly folks know what I am talking about) But of course when these guys pulled out a “W” for the team, all of that went away. I won’t spoil the moment with any social commentary 
.
Personally, I think MSM is the one blowing this up. I just want to see McNabb take our team to the super bowl AND WIN!
Anyway, I just came across a blog that has a recent interview where McNabb addresses the comments he made in that Real Sports interview. I’ll post part of it.
I thought his responses were pretty good.
From: The Phanatic Magazine
On whether there were any QBs criticized as much as Chicago Bears QB Rex Grossman was last season:
“Off hand, I probably wouldn’t give you that; I wouldn’t know.â€
On whether he was criticized last season:
“Yeah, I was criticized a little bit.â€
[...]
On whether he was criticized more than Grossman:
“I don’t think anybody, especially for me, has been criticized that much. But you know what, early on, no one talked bad about Rex Grossman. It was just late in the year. Rex is a guy that, although he may not have been playing well towards the end of the year, they still finished the season 14-2, 13-3, whatever it may be, and it took for their head coach to say ‘He’s our guy; he’s the quarterback of this team that we’re going to roll with.’ One thing I think that people are trying to dig too deep into this whole situation is that, I wasn’t pinpointing particular people. What I said was, the fact that we [black quarterbacks] have to do a little bit extra. If it’s work on some of our weaknesses, then make them better; whatever it may be. No matter the style of play you’re displaying, there’s always going to be criticism. So, I never said that [Colts QB] Peyton [Manning] doesn’t get criticized; I never said [Bengals QB] Carson [Palmer] doesn’t get criticized; I never said [Patriots QB] Tom [Brady] doesn’t get criticized…because they do. We [black quarterbacks] get criticized a little different.â€
On what questions he’s asked that white quarterbacks aren’t asked:
“You guys [the media] say the questions- the running quarterback situation. No one ever really talked of [former 49ers QB] Steve Young about the running-quarterback situation, [former QB] Jake Plummer, those particular things. If it was, ‘well, he’s not an accurate passer;’ the things go on. I mean, those are questions you guys ask. So, you would know what questions you ask me. Again, I didn’t do the [HBO] interview 30 minutes after the game; I didn’t do the interview before the game. The interview was done weeks before the season started. So, all of a sudden it showed. I didn’t tell them when I wanted [it] to air, and the tease that everybody has seen, they just blew it way out of proportion. Then, when they finally get a chance to see it, obviously they understand what I’m saying.†(more…)
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