SteelClip49
11/30/2007, 03:47 AM
I am doing an annotated bibliography assignment for my Radio & TV Writing course and we need to do this for whatever career we want to pursue and I am aiming toward sports broadcasting. I happened to cite this magazine article and it is a very good read. Enjoy!!
Title: Sports reporting is colorblind. By: Watts, J.C., Sporting News, 0038805X, 11/10/2003, Vol. 227, Issue 45
Database: Academic Search Premier "Sports reporting is colorblind"
Section: KNOW IT ALL
My Turn
By now, you likely have read and heard all you care to regarding Rush Limbaugh's ill-advised comments on ESPN's Sunday NFL Countdown several weeks ago. If so, count me among you. But there is an aspect of this episode that hasn't really been addressed.
A friend asked me if, in the aftermath of the Rush frenzy, I believe black coaches and players receive different treatment in the media — be it either too harsh or too gentle.
In a word, no.
I believe something Rush didn't tune into. The fact is, there is not a more colorblind group in America today than sports reporters. Athletics is one of the few arenas in which people are judged on merit and performance.
The pressing issue the NFL and NCAA need to be concerned with is not the treatment of black coaches and players in the media, but getting more black coaches on the sidelines.
Right now, there are precious few black head coaches, and it saddens me to see how the NFL coaching carousel recycles the same, old names again and again. Unfortunately, this carousel has not stopped for Art Shell, who had a winning record (54-38) with the Raiders but hasn't gotten a sniff at another head coaching job since being canned by Al Davis nine years ago. This, in spite of the fact that Shell's winning percentage with the team (.587) was not much lower than Jon Gruden's (.594).
There are strides to be made when it comes to diversity in coaching. But as far as the media are concerned, I'm convinced they carry no social agenda or racial bias in their reporting.
I think I know a little of what I speak.
When I was a senior at the University of Oklahoma, we had high expectations to compete for a national championship. I was coming off a successful junior season at quarterback and a big win in the Orange Bowl. Momentum was on our side.
But in the first four games, we ran into buzz saws named the Stanford Cardinal, led by John Elway, and the Texas Longhorns. We started the season 2-2. That kind of record in Oklahoma during that era was considered sacrilege. The boo birds were roosting in Norman and raining down excrement from their club-level perches, and my detractors dominated the sports pages. They wanted my scalp. But through it all, the Sooners scribes just considered me a bad quarterback — not a bad black quarterback.
Happily, we put it back together, beat Florida State in the Orange Bowl and ended up No. 3 in the country with a 10-2 record.
I found fans and the media to be equally colorblind when I played in Canada. I believe fair treatment in the sports media is consistent from city to city, toward players and coaches alike, whether they are white, black, brown, yellow or red.
I could rattle off quite a list to make my point. Rams quarterback Kurt Warner was praised, then reviled, in response to his play. Denver media had high hopes for Brian Griese when Mike Shanahan chose him to replace Elway the Great (who took his own hits in the media before he eventually was canonized). Griese was run out of town, and local columnist Woody Paige misses him as much as Limbaugh misses Bill Clinton. Chris Simms rode a four-year roller coaster on the Mack Brown Express in Austin.
Akili Smith, Ryan Leaf, Andre Ware and Rick Mirer. There were high hopes for this Rainbow Coalition of quarterbacks, but their failure to meet expectations was generously reported by the media.
The same holds true with coaches. At my alma mater, Bud Wilkinson, Barry Switzer and Bob Stoops will be remembered forever for their teams' successes. Howard *************** and John Blake are the butts of jokes on The Sports Animal, our local sports radio outlet. Media figures don't view Blake as an unsuccessful black coach, or *************** as a losing white coach. Those guys simply didn't win enough games, so they now are known as former OU coaches.
The bottom line is, whether you win or lose, the sports media are going to tell your story. The hue of your skin became a nonfactor in their reporting long ago.
Athletics is one of the few arenas in which people are judged on merit and performance.
PHOTO (COLOR): The truth about Blake: He simply didn't get it done.
~~~~~~~~
By J.C. Watts
Title: Sports reporting is colorblind. By: Watts, J.C., Sporting News, 0038805X, 11/10/2003, Vol. 227, Issue 45
Database: Academic Search Premier "Sports reporting is colorblind"
Section: KNOW IT ALL
My Turn
By now, you likely have read and heard all you care to regarding Rush Limbaugh's ill-advised comments on ESPN's Sunday NFL Countdown several weeks ago. If so, count me among you. But there is an aspect of this episode that hasn't really been addressed.
A friend asked me if, in the aftermath of the Rush frenzy, I believe black coaches and players receive different treatment in the media — be it either too harsh or too gentle.
In a word, no.
I believe something Rush didn't tune into. The fact is, there is not a more colorblind group in America today than sports reporters. Athletics is one of the few arenas in which people are judged on merit and performance.
The pressing issue the NFL and NCAA need to be concerned with is not the treatment of black coaches and players in the media, but getting more black coaches on the sidelines.
Right now, there are precious few black head coaches, and it saddens me to see how the NFL coaching carousel recycles the same, old names again and again. Unfortunately, this carousel has not stopped for Art Shell, who had a winning record (54-38) with the Raiders but hasn't gotten a sniff at another head coaching job since being canned by Al Davis nine years ago. This, in spite of the fact that Shell's winning percentage with the team (.587) was not much lower than Jon Gruden's (.594).
There are strides to be made when it comes to diversity in coaching. But as far as the media are concerned, I'm convinced they carry no social agenda or racial bias in their reporting.
I think I know a little of what I speak.
When I was a senior at the University of Oklahoma, we had high expectations to compete for a national championship. I was coming off a successful junior season at quarterback and a big win in the Orange Bowl. Momentum was on our side.
But in the first four games, we ran into buzz saws named the Stanford Cardinal, led by John Elway, and the Texas Longhorns. We started the season 2-2. That kind of record in Oklahoma during that era was considered sacrilege. The boo birds were roosting in Norman and raining down excrement from their club-level perches, and my detractors dominated the sports pages. They wanted my scalp. But through it all, the Sooners scribes just considered me a bad quarterback — not a bad black quarterback.
Happily, we put it back together, beat Florida State in the Orange Bowl and ended up No. 3 in the country with a 10-2 record.
I found fans and the media to be equally colorblind when I played in Canada. I believe fair treatment in the sports media is consistent from city to city, toward players and coaches alike, whether they are white, black, brown, yellow or red.
I could rattle off quite a list to make my point. Rams quarterback Kurt Warner was praised, then reviled, in response to his play. Denver media had high hopes for Brian Griese when Mike Shanahan chose him to replace Elway the Great (who took his own hits in the media before he eventually was canonized). Griese was run out of town, and local columnist Woody Paige misses him as much as Limbaugh misses Bill Clinton. Chris Simms rode a four-year roller coaster on the Mack Brown Express in Austin.
Akili Smith, Ryan Leaf, Andre Ware and Rick Mirer. There were high hopes for this Rainbow Coalition of quarterbacks, but their failure to meet expectations was generously reported by the media.
The same holds true with coaches. At my alma mater, Bud Wilkinson, Barry Switzer and Bob Stoops will be remembered forever for their teams' successes. Howard *************** and John Blake are the butts of jokes on The Sports Animal, our local sports radio outlet. Media figures don't view Blake as an unsuccessful black coach, or *************** as a losing white coach. Those guys simply didn't win enough games, so they now are known as former OU coaches.
The bottom line is, whether you win or lose, the sports media are going to tell your story. The hue of your skin became a nonfactor in their reporting long ago.
Athletics is one of the few arenas in which people are judged on merit and performance.
PHOTO (COLOR): The truth about Blake: He simply didn't get it done.
~~~~~~~~
By J.C. Watts