Whitlock Haters - Heee's Baack

[orange]

Back writing on a national venue, that is:

http://msn.foxsports.com/cbk/story/7127682?MSNHPHMA


Real Talk: We're back ... and just in time
Jason Whitlock
FOXSports.com, Updated 8 minutes ago



I'm sorry. I apologize for taking the summer off.

We've missed Real Talk, the column I started over at America Online a year ago, the column that I'm now bringing to a new home here at FOXSports.com, the column that is a mix of sports, entertainment, culture and unbiased, agenda-less opinions.
Man, we need the Real Talk now more than ever. We need a place to aggressively and unapologetically discuss the most controversial and sensitive sports topics of the day.

For those of you unfamiliar with Real Talk, let me give you a quick primer on its history and points of emphasis:

1. Real Talk is a must-read for any hardcore football fan. No one in America writes more provocatively and intelligently about football than yours truly. Football is in my blood.

2. If you have a closed mind or agenda when it comes to American race issues, you will not like Real Talk. I love to write about race. It's a pervasive issue in the sports world and should not be ignored. My opinions on racial matters are unpredictable. Black or white, liberal or conservative, you should leave your expectations at the door. I'll disappoint you.

3. The AOL version of Real Talk gained national notoriety when I exposed NBA All-Star Weekend in Las Vegas for being the gangsta paradise, Black KKK rally that it was. Real Talk became a world-wide playa when I dissed Al Sharpton, Jesse Jackson and Vivian Stringer for turning Don Imus' inappropriate attempt at humor into a national pity party/recruiting video/marketing tool for their individual cause$.

So it only makes sense to start Real Talk's resurrection from exactly where it left off.

We learned Wednesday that one of Nelson Womandela's Rutgers basketball players — center Kia Vaughn — has filed a lawsuit against Imus for defamation of character.

Yes, it seems that C. Vivian Womandela's players learned the exact lesson she taught throughout the Imus fiasco: play the victim for all the money and fame that it's worth and ignore the price others may pay for your selfishness.

Again, let me restate for the record my opinion on the Imus fiasco. Don Imus was wrong. He needed to be punished with a suspension. Sharpton, Jackson and Stringer milked Imus' mistake for personal gain, and at the end of the day put the Rutgers' players in harm's way (opposing fan backlash, death threats) over a minor incident.


Kia Vaughn is now following the example of her fearle$$ leaders. She wants her piece of the pie. She doesn't care that her lawsuit will undermine the credibility of her former teammates and make the Rutgers women look like money-grubbing, attention-starved opportunists. Vaughn watched Womandela cash in with a book deal and new contract, so why shouldn't at least one of the allegedly highly offended players get in on the score?

Even though hardly anyone in America knows who she is — and those who do, only know her as one of the "classy and intelligent" Rutgers players — Imus' stupid words supposedly damaged Vaughn's character and reputation to the extent that she needed to file a lawsuit to recover her good name.

What are we teaching our young people?

Last week I spent six hours in a law office with Big John Thompson, John Thompson III, Ronny Thompson and a lawyer. They tried in vain to convince me that Ronny Thompson, Big John's youngest son, quit as Ball State's basketball coach after 15 months because he worked in a racially hostile environment. They wanted me to write the story that they later got my friend Mike Wilbon to pen in Tuesday's Washington Post.

Wilbon is one of the most skilled sports journalists in America. He's extremely fair-minded. And I have a great deal of respect for him as a friend and a man. However, his column on Ronny Thompson was irresponsible, filled with blatant inaccuracies told to him by Thompson and an embarrassment to The Post. The column painted Muncie, Ind. and Ball State as a hotbed of seething racial animosity where no black coach could hope to survive.

During my meeting last week with the Thompsons, guess who Ronny referenced several times as a confidant? Vivian Stringer.

Hey, she probably had nothing to do with what the Thompsons are doing. But it's difficult for me to believe that her Imus payday didn't in some way inspire Ronny to quit, play the victim and plot a lawsuit.

Now, I'm a former Ball State football player and a 1990 graduate of the school. I have strong ties to the university and athletic department. I've known Big John Thompson for 15 years. I talked with Ronny several times throughout his brief tenure.

He did not in any way fail at Ball State, post a school-record 22 losses and get accused of a couple of NCAA infractions because he worked in a racially hostile environment.

He bombed because he was too immature, too soft and too arrogant to deal with working in a poorly run, dysfunctional athletic department. My alma mater hired a horrible athletic director, Tom Collins, shortly before Thompson was hired as basketball coach. Collins has no leadership skills. People within his own department don't respect him or like him. I've met the man. He's unqualified for his job.

The turmoil within the athletic department and Thompson's total lack of people skills combined to throw the basketball program into chaos. Thompson has claimed that the rampant stories about his poor relationships with longtime boosters, trainers, secretaries and other Ball State coaches are all exaggerated, distorted or a byproduct of racism. It's just not true.

My first meeting with Ronny Thompson was terrible. He was aloof and short with me and three of my former teammates — all black — inside a restaurant on campus. Two weeks later, Thompson saw me filling in for Wilbon on Pardon The Interruption and he called me enthusiastically, kissing my rear end and asking me to wear a Ball State basketball jersey the next time I was on PTI. I accepted his calls and forged a bit of a relationship solely out of respect to his father and my love of Ball State.

During my meeting with the Thompsons, they acknowledged that Ronny had unconditional support from the school president and athletic director. I know this is true because Ronny's failure and the subsequent controversy have raised considerable questions about their own job security. They needed Ronny to stay and succeed, and they were committed to working through and eliminating the trust issues and alleged racial problems that were hurting Ronny.

They never got a chance to do any of that because, before Ronny quit, he isolated himself from everyone except his coaching staff, secretly tape recorded at least one assistant athletic director and sent a series of carefully-worded emails to the school president that screamed he was preparing a lawsuit.

Try winning a national championship before going Nolan Richardson on a school that hired you based solely on your last name. This is a spoiled, pampered kid of privilege who ran to daddy as soon as things got a little tough.

Did he experience some racial tension at Ball State? Yes, probably. You can find it anywhere in America where the races work together. Any black man in a position of authority is going to have to weather a certain amount of racial backlash. You think Tubby Smith didn't have thick skin at Kentucky? As a sports columnist and media personality, do you think I (or Wilbon) haven't endured some vicious name-calling, threats and petty office politics?

Thompson's whining about racist notes left under a door and an associate athletic director allegedly making disparaging comments about Thompson and his staff sounds like a kid who wanted to take his ball and go home. The whining also sounds a bit hypocritical.

"He told us not to trust in (white people) and that they weren't trying to help us," said Peyton Stovall, Ball State's second-leading scorer. "He told us that on many different occasions. I don't know if he had a reason why, but it just came out. We'd be in a meeting or at his house or something and it would just basically come out of nowhere. I thought he had prejudged everybody before he got there."

Thompson, according to Stovall, was also pretty liberal with the use of the N-word with his team. Thompson's players were all black. He had one white assistant coach.

"Practice, games, normal talking, whatever," Stovall told me. "He wouldn't use it every single day, but if you would just talk to him he'd use it, especially if you used it. It was kind of like he was one of the boys. ... He would tell (the white assistant) to close his ears."


I played football at Ball State in the late 1980s. I enjoyed my time on the campus. It was not perfect, but it was not hostile. I asked Stovall if the campus was racially hostile now.

"It's never been that way and I've been here going on five years," he said. "I've never encountered that. If so, it was nothing to the degree or the magnitude it's being portrayed. ... It's disappointing to hear someone drag your university through the mud. I think it's unprofessional."

I'm sorry, I don't have much sympathy for Ronny Thompson. You don't quit and cry and beg friends in the media to savage the reputation of people you know bent over backwards trying to help you — especially when you know damn well your own actions greatly contributed to your demise.

You don't buckle in 15 months. You stand and fight.

That's Real Talk.

[phisherman]

great article

[siberian khatru]

Wow, that's some hard-hitting stuff.

[Mr. Plow]

Pretty good read.

[Anyong Bluth]

Pretty. damn. good.

Still don't get why so many bash whitlock- you're exactly who he targets when he writes his fluff B.A. Homer, etc. pieces... .

The guy may have a racial focus on some of his takes, but I'd hardly say he takes the expected stance many would figure an outspoken black writer would take.

Dropping JT's son under the bus is quite the bold move, and I don't know how many people would do the same thing? JW has def. taken his share of hits careerwise for being outspoken, albeit, ass at times.

There is more information in this column than about 95% of the other sports crap I read.

[Deberg_1990]

Wow....at least Jason takes a stand and speaks his mind. Im guessing he doesnt get any more interviews with Big John Thompson anytime soon??

[tk13]

The whole Thompson family is garbage. I've lost all respect for them. And Wilbon too. Whitlock had to write this column before the Thompsons and Wilbon turned it into a bigger national story first.

[Deberg_1990]

It never fails to gain attention. Thats why its used so much...

[LOCOChief]

Originally Posted by Cocina_Basement

Pretty. damn. good.

Still don't get why so many bash whitlock- you're exactly who he targets when he writes his fluff B.A. Homer, etc. pieces... .

The guy may have a racial focus on some of his takes, but I'd hardly say he takes the expected stance many would figure an outspoken black writer would take.

Dropping JT's son under the bus is quite the bold move, and I don't know how many people would do the same thing? JW has def. taken his share of hits careerwise for being outspoken, albeit, ass at times.

There is more information in this column than about 95% of the other sports crap I read.

Heh, either your kidding, or you are JW. Fatlock is a shit stirrer with no self respect (that's why he is incapable of giving respect to others who deserve it) Your right though not a bad article, I'd bet a lefty that the next one bash's Carl, Priest, or Herm. He can help it because it's all part of the fatass culture.

[Deberg_1990]

Originally Posted by LOCOChief

I'd bet a lefty that the next one bash's Carl, Priest, or Herm. He can help it because it's all part of the fatass culture.

Umm....Carl, Priest and Herm get bashed on this forum every day. Why should Whitock be any different? Hes just doing his job....

[FloridaMan88]

Originally Posted by LOCOChief

I'd bet a lefty that the next one bash's Carl, Priest, or Herm. He can help it because it's all part of the fatass culture.

Yes it is part of our culture to bash a pathetic loser of a head coach with a career sub-.500 record who walks and talks as if he's Vince Lombardi. And it is part of our culture to be crtical of a GM whose team hasn't won a playoff game in over a decade.

And you act like the Chiefs have never attacked Whitlock. Check out this from the Chiefs' website and ask yourself does any other professional sports team's website in America have this form of personal attack against a member of the media on their official website.

http://www.kcchiefs.com/news/2004/01...fus_dawes_faq/

Q: Why do you have such a fixation on Kansas City Star columnist Jason Whitlock?

A: I believe an argument can be made that he’s lowered the bar as far as media behavior in Kansas City is concerned. He and the nodding sycophants at the various radio stations who have serviced his interests are kings of the low brow and to say the Kansas City Star’s coverage has gone down hill since he arrived in town is like saying Bin Laden has an image problem.

Mr. Whitlock would like for us to believe that he’s a thoughtful columnist with his finger on the pulse of the readers. But he’s more interested in the status that comes with such a position, not on the work itself or the ideas that drive it. It seems pitifully obvious that Jason Whitlock wants to be famous if, for nothing else, being Jason Whitlock.

Columnists are to be admired. Admired and envied. But the columnists who last, the columnists who count, the columnists whose columns are indeed their monuments, not only have an essential benevolence, a fundamental affection for the people and games they cover, they possess a hefty dose of humility. Humble Jason Whitlock is not.

[wutamess]

Originally Posted by KCChiefsfan88

Yes it is part of our culture to bash a pathetic loser of a head coach with a career sub-.500 record who walks and talks as if he's Vince Lombardi. And it is part of our culture to be crtical of a GM whose team hasn't won a playoff game in over a decade.

And you act like the Chiefs have never attacked Whitlock. Check out this from the Chiefs' website and ask yourself does any other professional sports team's website in America have this form of personal attack against a member of the media on their official website.

http://www.kcchiefs.com/news/2004/01...fus_dawes_faq/

Q: Why do you have such a fixation on Kansas City Star columnist Jason Whitlock?

A: I believe an argument can be made that he’s lowered the bar as far as media behavior in Kansas City is concerned. He and the nodding sycophants at the various radio stations who have serviced his interests are kings of the low brow and to say the Kansas City Star’s coverage has gone down hill since he arrived in town is like saying Bin Laden has an image problem.

Mr. Whitlock would like for us to believe that he’s a thoughtful columnist with his finger on the pulse of the readers. But he’s more interested in the status that comes with such a position, not on the work itself or the ideas that drive it. It seems pitifully obvious that Jason Whitlock wants to be famous if, for nothing else, being Jason Whitlock.

Columnists are to be admired. Admired and envied. But the columnists who last, the columnists who count, the columnists whose columns are indeed their monuments, not only have an essential benevolence, a fundamental affection for the people and games they cover, they possess a hefty dose of humility. Humble Jason Whitlock is not.

So he has to be humble to be a good columnist?

[LOCOChief]

Originally Posted by KCChiefsfan88

Yes it is part of our culture to bash a pathetic loser of a head coach with a career sub-.500 record who walks and talks as if he's Vince Lombardi. And it is part of our culture to be crtical of a GM whose team hasn't won a playoff game in over a decade.

And you act like the Chiefs have never attacked Whitlock. Check out this from the Chiefs' website and ask yourself does any other professional sports team's website in America have this form of personal attack against a member of the media on their official website.

http://www.kcchiefs.com/news/2004/01...fus_dawes_faq/

Q: Why do you have such a fixation on Kansas City Star columnist Jason Whitlock?

A: I believe an argument can be made that he’s lowered the bar as far as media behavior in Kansas City is concerned. He and the nodding sycophants at the various radio stations who have serviced his interests are kings of the low brow and to say the Kansas City Star’s coverage has gone down hill since he arrived in town is like saying Bin Laden has an image problem.

Mr. Whitlock would like for us to believe that he’s a thoughtful columnist with his finger on the pulse of the readers. But he’s more interested in the status that comes with such a position, not on the work itself or the ideas that drive it. It seems pitifully obvious that Jason Whitlock wants to be famous if, for nothing else, being Jason Whitlock.

Columnists are to be admired. Admired and envied. But the columnists who last, the columnists who count, the columnists whose columns are indeed their monuments, not only have an essential benevolence, a fundamental affection for the people and games they cover, they possess a hefty dose of humility. Humble Jason Whitlock is not.

So your a fat ass?
Columnists are to be admired? Ok I know your kidding.
Sub 500 coach? takes the Chiefs in his first year to a playoff game, I don't think so, the players certainly seem to respect him, why not give him a chance, or do you know something the players don't? hell I'll answer that for you, you do not.

[RealSNR]

Oh. For a second I thought Jeff George was coming out of retirement