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| McNabb Responds To Mondesire’s Criticism |
Eagles QB Donovan McNabb “reacted with disappointment to criticism” from Philadelphia NAACP President J. Whyatt Mondesire, who wrote recently in the Philadelphia Sun that McNabb “was trying to conceal his mediocrity behind ‘some concocted reasoning’ that African-American quarterbacks who run are somehow lesser ‘field generals,’” according to John Smallwood of the PHILADELPHIA DAILY NEWS. McNabb: “When someone of the same race talks about you like you’re selling out because you’re not running the football, it goes back to: What are we really talking about here? ... If you talk about my play, that’s one thing. When you talk about my race, now we’ve got problems.” McNabb was also “chastised by Mondesire for not offering to give up some of his money to” WR Terrell Owens (
PHILA. DAILY NEWS, 12/13).
OUTSIDE REAX: Univ. of Southern California professor Todd Boyd called Mondesire’s comments “completely ridiculous” and said they were made by a “frustrated fan.” Boyd: “I wouldn’t put a lot into what this guy said because it makes no sense.” Boyd, on McNabb: “You have to look at this guy as being somewhat different than the image that a lot of people have of contemporary black athletes. A lot of contemporary black athletes are represented as being from the hood — from the ghetto — and in a lot of ways sports has become a perfect indicator of climbing the ladder to success in American society. ... Donovan’s a middle-class black guy and I think a lot of people have had a problem with the fact that he doesn’t fit the stereotype” (ESPNews, 12/14). ESPN’s Michael Wilbon, on Mondesire: “He’s the worst kind of racial crusader in that only he can define blackness. I find him and his piece distasteful, hateful and sleazy” (“PTI,” ESPN, 12/14).
