Selfish Athletes: The Real Issue

Barry Bonds is selfish. T.O. only cares about himself. Ron Artest would rather make a rap album than play basketball.

People read these statements over and over in the nation’s newspapers and websites and view it on television in what seems like a non-stop loop (especially on SportsCenter). Reporters set up camp at Terrell Owens’ house. Pedro Gomez follows Bonds around looking for stories. It is difficult to go anywhere and not read about the selfish attitudes of today’s athlete. Check that, today’s black athlete.

Did you see a two week long SportsCenter special about how selfish Roger Clemens acted in signing with the Yankees? No. The story remained how great of a pitcher he is and if he will really help the Yankees on the field. In fact, the first time I saw the issue addressed was today on ESPN’s Page 2 in an article written by Scoop Jackson. Of course Scoop is a black writer. It would be too much to ask a white writer to address this issue. It is complete crap.

Another article written on ESPN today notes how Brett Favre is selfish. Again very true. Again written by a black writer, Jemele Hill. Why does it take a black writer to call out the selfish white athlete? In a profession absolutely dominated by white men, no one can see this discrepancy? In fact, look at how many writers and editors are white. From the University of Central Florida:

“For nearly two decades, sportswriters and columnists have reported on Richard Lapchick’s studies examining racial and gender diversity in professional and college sports.

Now the director of the University of Central Florida’s Institute for Diversity and Ethics in Sport has turned his attention to racial and gender diversity among newspaper sports editors and staffs. The results show that editors, columnists and other newspaper sports employees are overwhelmingly white and male.

The inaugural Racial and Gender Report Card of the Associated Press Sports Editors, which was released Thursday, reviewed the staffs of more than 300 newspapers that are Associated Press members. More than 5,100 newspaper employees, including reporters, copy editors, page designers and clerks, were reviewed for the study.

Lapchick’s study concluded that 95 percent of sports editors, 90 percent of sports columnists and 87 percent of assistant sports editors and reporters were white. Also, 95 percent of sports editors, 93 percent of columnists, 90 percent of reporters and 87 percent of assistant sports editors were men”.

Yet we continue to get stories about Barry Bonds, Kobe Bryant, Gary Sheffield, Terrell Owens, Manny Ramirez, Alex Rodriguez, and Ron Artest being selfish overpaid athletes. No one writes about Clemens or Curt Schilling. No one dares touch the immortal Brett Favre.

In a search for articles about Clemens being selfish, four came up within the first few pages of a google search. Three of the four were written by black writers (Scoop Jackson, Steven A. Smith and David Steele of the Baltimore Sun). The only white writer came from the hometown of New York (thank you Wallace Matthews). When the same method was used for Brett Favre, more hits came up for blogs about how Brett Favre isn’t selfish despite claims from the media (addressing Michael Smith on ESPN, a black man).

Does this mean that Bonds and T.O. aren’t selfish? Not in the least. They continue to provide material that proves otherwise. But is Brett Favre’s decision to not decide whether to retire or not each year any less selfish than T.O.? Or his call out of Javon Walker for sitting out for more money? Or when Mike McKenzie did the same? When T.O. complains, he is selfish. When Favre does it, he is a leader and wants to win.

Some articles touch on Clemens just doing what he can get away with and working the system. They blame Major League Baseball. They blame the Yankees like Mike Vaccaro did in the New York Post. Fine, but let’s blame the Cowboys then instead of Owens. Let’s blame the Kings instead of Artest. Let’s blame the Red Sox instead of Manny.

Until the predominantly white media starts writing the same articles and filming the same pieces about white players as they do black players, the “selfish” athlete is a mere fallacy.