Daily Kos Writer Thinks Forbes Disliked Athlete List Racist

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I came across a post written by Ambrose Burnside of the Daily Kos suggesting the results of Forbes magazine’s list of Most Disliked Athletes were racist.

For those of you that may not have seen the Forbes list, Michael Vick topped the recent poll with 72% of respondents expressing a dislike for the former Atlanta Falcons quarterback.

The top 10 most disliked athletes making Forbes list based on data compiled by E-Poll were as follows:

1. Michael Vick – 72%
2. Manny Ramirez – 57%
3. Alex Rodriguez – 53%
4. Terrell Owens – 45%
5. Kobe Bryant – 42%
6. Allen Iverson – 38%
7. Isaiah Thomas – 36%
8. Stephon Marbury – 36%
9. Nick Saban – 35%
10. John McEnroe – 31%

Burnside noted that 80% of those making the top 10 were composed of minorities, suggesting the results were racially-based. Burnside had this to say when he attempted to support his position:

“Would this list include so many minorities if not for the election of Barack Obama, our first black president? I have no idea, but the way the “birthers” have taken a hold of the Republican Party, it’s a fair hypothesis. I mean, we saw the race-based criticisms of Hispanic Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor, so why not now of minority athletes?”

“Post-racial society, my ass.”

I sense Burnside isn’t a big sports fan. Those of us that follow athletics can easily identify why all of those listed in the top 10 were among the most disliked.

And it has nothing to do with race.

Vick’s place at the top of the poll was sealed after he was convicted of animal cruelty and sentenced to 23 months in federal prison. The Dodgers’ Manny Ramirez is less than one month removed from a 50-game suspension as a result of violating MLB’s performance enhancing drug policy.

This past week, Ramirez and former Red Sox teammate David Ortiz were two of the 104 names on the now famous – and supposedly anonymous – list of MLB players who tested positive for PED’s in 2003 according to a New York Times report.

In February, news broke that the Yankees’ Alex Rodriguez was also among the names of the 104, later confessing to using “a banned substance” during an interview with ESPN’s Peter Gammons.

Buffalo Bills’ wide receiver Terrell Owens, released from the Dallas Cowboys’ during the offseason, once intimated former San Francisco 49er teammate Jeff Garcia was gay.

During the 2005 season, Owens was suspended and later released from the Philadelphia Eagles for conduct detrimental to the team after a very public feud with quarterback Donovan McNabb.

Several players not making the list include Adam “Pacman” Jones, Roger Clemens, Tank Johnson, Ray Lewis, Plaxico Burress, Jayson Williams and Barry Bonds, all of which have been involved or have on-going legal issues.

Active or recently retired players aren’t the only ones that have been singled out in the minds of fans. Many will remember the trial of former Carolina Panthers wide receiver Rae Carruth, who was sentenced to 18 years in prison after being convicted of conspiracy to commit murder in 2001.

I could go on and on, but by now you get the gist.

All of those on Forbes list have at one time or another drawn the ire of fans for any number of reasons, usually involving off the field incidents or in Major League Baseball’s case, at the center of the PED’s scandal.

Ironically, Burnside issued a public apology to Cambridge, Massachusetts police officer James Crowley after his nationally publicized incident with Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates, Jr.

Burnside admitted that, “when I first heard the details of the story, I was suspect of your reasoning and figured bias may have played a large role in your decision to arrest Gates, but it seems nothing could be further from the truth.”

The Crowley-Gates incident was exacerbated when President Obama referred indirectly to Crowley as acting “stupidly” during a press conference in which he admitted not knowing all of the facts.

Even more ironic was how Burnside suggested the Forbes list was racially-based by pointing to Obama’s election, only to have the President fan the flames of the Crowley-Gates incident into a mass conflagration with his own words.

While recognizing he rushed to judgment in the Crowley matter, Burnside doesn’t appear to have learned a lesson from it.

Since all the facts in the Crowley incident have now come to light, you would think Burnside wouldn’t be so quick to point a finger at the Forbes list, suggesting it was racially biased.

Yet, that’s exactly what he’s done less than one week after posting an apology to Crowley.

With the massive media coverage the major sports receive each day, and particularly those players who bring about the biggest headlines, it’s no wonder that fans dislike Vick, Ramirez and Rodriguez based upon their involvement with various incidents.

It’s no different when politicians like South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford or other public figures find themselves at the center of controversy. The breadth of media coverage will be wide and deep, at least until public interest wanes and we await the next hot button issue.

In the end, race isn’t the real issue. Race is just a by-product of the reason why an individual story made headlines, and those headlines are generally created when someone, regardless of their skin color, does something sensational.

Just as President Obama referred to the Crowley incident as a “teachable moment,” perhaps Burnside may want to take the same approach and post an apology for wrongfully suggesting the Forbes list was racially motivated, when reality clearly shows it was individual action that landed those listed among the most disliked.