No one has touched on this yet, but I do think it's pertinent. We're constantly reminded about what a great "athlete" someone like Michael Vick is whenever he's on the field (the clear implication being that a Peyton Manning is a great QB, but not a great "athlete". And there's always a clear implication that white players are never as athletically gifted as black players. They're 'smart', they're 'hard workers', but not athletic equals.) Black players and commentators imply this a lot, and marvel at the added dimensions and capabilities these players bring to the position and how they redefine it.

Trouble is, while the impact can be significant in college (running what I call "junk offenses," which basically feature a QB playmaker screwing up a defense's assignments by ad-libbing all afternoon), and offers a program a bit of a quick fix, it doesn't work so well in the pros.

Defenses are bigger and faster and smarter. Within a couple seasons, coordinators start to defense this better and better, and the impact diminishes. I don't know why more young black QBs aren't encouraged to play like white QBs. I suppose it's because they're considered too athletically gifted to confine like that. That seems to be the implication, that asking them to play "white" would clip their wings.

But at the pro level, it seems that the position works best over the long term when manned by someone that has been trained to sit back and direct an offense, not, in effect, be the offense.

This puts the black QB in an untenable position in the NFL, criticism wise. There's huge hype about how these players will change the game, but the game changes them.

Doug Williams played QB like a "white QB". Drop-back passer. The new generation are these "hybrid" run-pass guys epitomized by Vick. I've only seen the guy in Washington once, not sure what he's about.

Anwyay, there's seemingly a "white" style, square and old school, and a "black" style, all NBA street cred. When we get rid of the two "styles" and just have players playing the position the way it's most effectively done in the pros, we'll go some way to redressing different expectations. I guess it's sort of a football cultural war, and race seems to be at the thin edge of the wedge.

I guess I'm saying, in this situation at least, that the players and the hype and everything they nurture and bring with them are partly to blame when the payoff doesn't materialize and the criticism mounts. Maybe McNabb should've "hit that receiver" because Aikman or Montana would've and generally did. And you have receivers for a reason.

QB is one tough position to play, probably the toughest in all of sports. We see all kinds of white collegiate wonderkids flail hopelessly in the NFL. Then there are the Mannings, Bradys, Montanas, Elways, Favres, and Marinos. Tarkenton ran all over the damn place, and never won a Super Bowl.

I'm an Oklahoma fan, and I've never heard any different criticism of black QBs down there. Jamelle, Thomas Lott...They're beloved. And they were effective, they were winners and class acts. True leaders. And everyone was happy to follow. But what they could do in the college game was never going to get them very far in the pros.

Just the way the position works at that level, it seems to me. There may very well be an inevitable Tiger Woods QB coming along. But my guess is that he'll play more like Montana than Vick.

King-

Packer management has said nothing in that regard (Favre holding back the franchise), but speculation has been rampant in the press that he might be in the way of Ted Thompson's plans, and that the pressure to surround him with players to win now has been at odds with how he sees the team needing to go, hence the idea that Favre is in the way, hence the interpretation that TT's personnel moves are signals to Favre to retire. So it's a definite issue, whatever merit it might actually have.

I'm just sick of the whole goddamn thing. I'm sick of American politics. I'm sick of the gutlessness. I'm sick of the American public and their chosen ignorance, and the politicians and their 'calculations'. I'm sick of the Dems, even more sick of the Republicans. I'm sick of the spin. I'm sick of the whole system that behaves like we're playing a football game, with which party will "win". I'm sick of Fox, I'm sick of my relatives who watch Fox and actually believe the bullshit. I'm sick that gays can be a wedge issue, and that the god crap can control our political discourse.

We get the government we deserve. The real story is that the American people are imbeciles. Proof? We re-elected Bush. Or, look at GM and the UAW. Talk about wake up and smell the fucking coffee. Yeah, pension costs suck. But making shitty cars sucks even worse. And thinking that you have a god-given right to a job is just delusional. Does Toyota have these labor problems? They seem to be hiring Americans who are more firmly rooted in reality.

The Republicans get all this, at least. They're cynical. That's why they can criticize Bush and then vote with him without suffering any consequences. They believe we're idiots, and we keep validating that belief.

It's just pathetic, really.

There's obviously something rotten in Denmark, and one hopes the lawsuit will at least re-open Bush's ridiculous Guard service. After the swiftboating and what was done to McCain, this is one area where the truth about Georgie boy needs to come out.