Any thoughts on this little tidbit from today's Moss article?:

"The case against a Moss trade: He's a potential cancer on a team that's always thrived on chemistry and character. He's a deep threat with hall of fame skills playing for a franchise that historically has terrible luck with deep threats with hall of fame skills. He's a polarizing African-American athlete playing in a city that usually has trouble being fair to polarizing African-American athletes. "

We're all (I hope by this point) aware of the spotty history Boston has in regards to sports and race, but he is the first person to bring this up as a potential issue. I just don't see it being relevant here; if people were being unfair, why the widespread positivity regarding the trade among Patriots fans? I feel like he throws this in here to lend his column more gravity, but it's really a red herring.

In fact, even considering race, as a con no less, as a basis for judgement on the trade is a little questionable, no?

I read it as being directed more to the local press rather than the fans.

I think he makes a mistake that I know I do from time to time, and that's equivicating the media with the city. Like, later, he mentions the Shank column on Moss (I won't read it, so I take Simmons word for it).

Because of his (Moss') history, he's going to be a target. I'm not sure if it has anything to do with race, but I'm willing to bet he get's a shorter grace period than say...Chris Herren did with the media.

I don't know that I can say, being honest with myself, that the media in this town are mre hostile to black athletes than the fans are. I think there are a few specific media figure who are flat out bigots (Gerry Callahan) and others who are maybe not concious bigots, but are tougher on black athletes than white ones. Surprisingly, I don't thing CHB falls in either catagory. I think he's just a dick.

That said, the fans have our flaws as well. I think we, as a group, do give a shorter (all monkies enjoy a good black and white movie) to black athletes than to white athletes. Correct me if I'm wrong, but didn't DLowe have an incident of hitting Trinka shortly after the Cordero thing? (Yes Cordero's Latin not African-American).

I hear so much thta Gerry Callahan is a bigot. I listen daily for 45 mins or so on my way to work and I have always found Gerry to be an equal oportunity hater, he hates everyone, and I am ceertain it is all schtick.

Can you cite some examples of Callahan's bigotry?

I know recently I was shocked when DJ passed away how Callahan went out of his way to go on about what a class act DJ was. He even quickly glossed over the whoe "DJ holding a knife to the throat of his wife" issue. Now, if Callahan were a bigot, wouldn't he have seized the opportunity to remind all we provincial Bostonians that DJ really was not as much of a "class act" as the medial made him?

Ohh yeah, the racist Boston media annointed DJ, the spouse abuser, a class act. Imagine that.

Lowe's issue was when he was a minor leaguer in the Mariners' system (I think it was 95, but the paper trail has been pretty much sucked dry).

Also, the swear filter made me laugh in this thread.

OK I stand corrected.

As for DJ, he never got a crack at a job in this town after his incident with his wife and it was prominent in most of the tribute columns.

As for Callahan, I have always felt like he is very quick to toss around words like punk and thug for black players, and while he will jump on white players, he takes his sweet time. I can't swear to this, but I remember him being pretty kind to Bill Romanowski for a long time after it was evident that he's the biggest jerk in sports. He eventually turned on him, but it took a long time.

Are you kidding me?
You haven't really been around Boston radio at all, have you?

http://bostonphoenix.com/boston/news_featu...ts/03218005.asp


http://www.bostonsportsmedia.com/archives/...ksgiving_le.php


http://www.bostonsportsmedia.com/archives/...lahan_spews.php

Try to keep up, clownshoes. Literally, just google "Gerry Callahan" "racist". If you're going to argue a point, at least have the common decency to have at least some concept of what you're talking about.

Oh, and learn to proofread. Christ.

Two of those aren't racist. (The last one is.) Specifically, I remember the Metco gorilla thing, and it wasn't racist.

The Metco thing is CERTAINLY racist, Maalox. C'mon. They earned a two-week suspension for it. They compared an ape to a Metco student. How is that not racist?

His ongoing hatred of Muslims (including his belief of not letting them pray on planes) is also apparent.

In fairness, Dennis said the METCO thing.

That may be so, but Callahan wasn't innocent in this.

I don't want to re-hash this whole thing (Lord knows I'm sure it was beat to death the first time around here), but these are the same guys who were worried about the Queen Eye guys being on the field at Fenway - they're racists, homophobes, and sexists.

Back on topic, other than Carl Everett, I'm not sure I can even come up with an example of a "polarizing African-American athlete" who's played for a Boston team over the past 20 years. I guess it depends on your definition of polarizing. For example, was Ty Law supposed to be polarizing?

If polarizing is supposed to be a synonym for self-centered, then I'd argue that there have been plenty of "polarizing African-American athletes" who've been accepted in Boston, though perhaps not embraced because they never won anything here.... Dominique Wilkins, Ricky Henderson, and Ricky Davis all had relatively uneventful stays in Boston.

Antoine Walker.

Carl Everett, I agree. He pit the evolutionists against the creationists. Very polarizing.

Some had it out for Mo Vaughn. Maybe that was just The Duke, though.

Antione's game was polarizing, not his behavior or demeanor (Initial repulsion to the wiggle aside). His name can instantly begin 35 page threads in the Celtic forum right now. I can't imagine an athlete who will stir more emotion from fans just based on how they play a sport.

He was during his first tour. Just ask Bob Ryan.

I was touched by that.

Latin players are the ones that seem to have been singled out more than others of late; I think even the Boston media are savvy enough to attempt to be somewhat pc when it comes to African Americans.

Shaugnessey and others of his ilk act outraged that these foreigners drive fancy cars and act like 'divas'.

Athletes in general now are so successful and so wealthy that I think reporters like Dan S. are extremely jealous and resentful of their achievments. My impression is that the writers are especially envious of latino athletes, and that surfaces in the constant digs and whining about their affluent lifestyles.

I don't really have much to add except that this was very funny.

I've seen the shitbox that Dan drives and really can't blame him.

Yo beat me to it. Walker was given a raw deal. If a white guy did what he did, I have a feeling the white guy would have gotten off easier.

EDIT: And like someone else said, Waker was definitely a polarizing presence during his first tour, particularly the early years.

This is true, there are some members of the media that target Manny, go after Pedro (I literally heard John Dennis on Monday morning insinuate that Pedro was faking his injury), even Ortiz got shit when he came here (Shank leading the charge).

I'm not sure about Lugo. Reporters asked him about the Houston incident, but I think that they felt they "had" to ask that question. No one's really glommed on to it though, however whether that's because the fans don't give a shit is another question.

But I don't think that all media members have it in for a certain race or ethnicity, I think that there are a few (Dennis, Callahan, Shank, Donaldson at the Projo) that just like pushing buttons, and these are the easiest buttons to push because: a. there aren't as many Latin talk radio show callers/listeners and b. aside from Pedro, most of these guys don't give a shit enough to fight back.

Yeah but would the reaction to Walker's antics -- which actually seemed pretty muted, though that's easy for me to say now that I live in NYC -- been any different if he played in New York or Philadelphia?

I don't think fans anywhere have much tolerance for showboating when the showboat takes 30 shots and only makes 10.

The fans basically loved Walker. It was the media that didn't.

I think Simmon's point was excactly that. The media may not be kind to Randy Moss if he is a polarizing African American player, the fans may love him, but the media may try to rake him over the coals.

Overall, I thin it was a good article for Simmons, especially the part where he quickly dismisses the Yankee comparisons because there is a salary cap in the NFL. Good point there, you can't just buy players at will, and even if you play too much with the cap, you will pay for it later. The 49ers played fast and loose with the cap for years and when new ownership decided to get responsible it took them years just so that they could start signing new players again.

I wonder if this has something to do with the general resentment of the Pats that bubbled over after the Moss signing. Right now, THIS is the place where talented vets who've made their money come to get a ring (aside from the Lombardis, this is maybe the most stunning change from the bad old days) To top it off, even the problem children seem to straighten out and fly right when they get here.

Back on topic, I agree that Simmons' comment seemed directed at the local media. What I'm wondering is whether the fact that most of the "Middle Aged White Boston Media" are holdovers from the era when minority athletes really didn't want to come here has anything to do with it. Maybe they haven't figured out that their prejudices, both subtle and not so subtle, aren't kosher anymore.

Or maybe, as one poster pointed out about CHB, they're just douchebags in general. Simmons took some crap in years past because a lot of his early schtick was bashing the mainstream media types who put down the internet. The Boston media, however, keeps proving him right.