As much as I loved Cris Carter when he was making plays with the Philadelphia Eagles and the Minnesota Vikings, he just makes me cringe with some of the things he says at times in his current role.
Of course, hes just doing his job as a commentator for ESPN, the self-proclaimed worldwide leader in sports. If I am certain of anything it is that I cannot hope to match his ability to breakdown Xs and Os pertaining to the game of football and the lifestyles lived by the men who play and coach the game.
But oftentimes it appears as if he says things, pontificating simply for the sake of earning a check. Most recently he took up the nonexistent plight of White wide receivers.
You heard right, White wide receivers.
Apparently, according to CC, White wide receivers dont get the credit they deserve as the athletic equal to anyone regardless of race.
I just don’t think they give them credit,” he said on Mike & Mike. “They make excuses, they say it’s the system, they say it’s the quarterback. But a guy has a certain skill set and that means if he plays outside, plays inside, to me they are very, very good athletes. And they don’t give them credit for their athleticism. Kind of like when Serena (Williams) was always playing tennis and people would always talk about how powerful she was and how her serve was so great, they never talked about her intellect or her strategy, which now has taken her game to another level. But earlier in her career, they never, ever talked about that and I think that had something to do with race.
Additionally, Carters comparison with what Serena Williams faced early in her career is just laughable. Serena Williams was a top five player on the womens professional tennis circuit since she was a teenager. I ask, rhetorically of course, when was the last time a Caucasian wide receiver dominated the game of football in the manner that Serena dominates tennis?
Jordy Nelson and Julian Edelman are great. Eric Decker and Danny Amendola are good, and lest we forget the tremendous heart and guile of one Wes Welker. But to even mention them in the same breath as the best womens tennis player the world has ever seen doesnt elevate them, it diminishes Serena- and were having none of that.
You cant not mention Nelson, Edelman, Deck and Amendola without also mentioning Aaron Rodgers, Tom Brady, Peyton Manning and Tom Brady again.
He also said Cam Newton was being CELEBRATED because of his race. Word? The same Cam that gets hypercriticized for dancing too much? Seriously? All I’ll say is this and 9-0. Period.
Its just a matter of fact that quarterback play has a great deal to do with the success of wide receivers. Case in point, Randy Moss. Considered one of the most explosive wide outs of all time, Moss accumulated a little over 1,500 yards and 11 TDs over a two year span with the Raiders. Enter Tim Brady and he nearly matched his total yardage (1,493) and destroyed his total from two seasons prior with 23 TDs in his first season in New England. True story, bro. .
The immediately discernible difference? Catching passes from an over-the-hill Kerry Collins as opposed to catching them from Tom Brady in his prime. Duh! That’s just off the top of the head. But it’s noted that Moss’ alleged attitude may have been partially to blame.
And, just as sure as Monday comes after Sunday, other journalists jumped in to defend his point of view. Honestly, who in the media uses the term White wide receiver? Nobody that I can think of. However, the term Black quarterback had been coined in the media from the very moment a person of African descent decided he wanted to play from under center. Any attacks on the athleticism of White wide outs could not compare to the voraciousness with which the intelligence and leadership abilities of Black quarterbacks have been targeted.
Again, simply by alluding that these two circumstances are similar in anyway is some straight up B.S.
Yes, people joke about the athleticism of White athletes in general with such phrases as White men cant jump, but its mostly un-athletic White guys lamenting upon Rec. League glory and foolish Black has beens who say such things with any type of seriousness. In the NBA, Larry Legend Bird would torment opponents with his whiteness. Painful but there was a lesson therein. Plainly put, if you were playing White guys that were trash then chances are you were trash, too.
I know the NFL is a different beast but true competitors dont need trumped up pity parties. I would imagine it’s offensive.
Anybody who has ever played competitively on any level above Pop Warner can tell you that underestimating a player based on racial presumptions will catch up to you.
It should go with saying that whomever shares the same field as his opponents is on the same level as said opponent. This is especially so in professional sports, and though some less than stellar gridiron performers slip through via the draft or free agency from time to time, nobody is going to pay millions of dollars to a useless asset. At least not on purpose anyway. Major props go out to Eric Decker, but last years stint with the New York Jets showed that hes no number one option. Jordy Nelson is athletic and skilled but has he ever been the definitive best wide receiver in the game? Some say yes, but most say no.
However, seeing as though there are people in the mainstream media who fall on both sides of that opinion, the whole poor, unappreciated White wide receiver troupe is instantly rendered moot. A contrived controversy if there ever was one. Remember, this is the same dude that said Detroit Lions WR Chris “Megatron” Johnson was “good but not elite” back in 2011 when he was regularly scoring TDs on double and triple coverage.
He would soon retract.
In the end, CCs supercilious soliloquy sounds stupid because it is just that, stupid. We should all remember that the next time we catch our boy Cris Carter being Captain Sav-A-Bro for the feelings of White males.
