There is much to admire about Jesse Jackson, preacher, lifetime civil rights activist and former presidential candidate. Yet it’s more than passing peculiar that this renowned minister insists on sticking his nose into matters about which he knows less than nothing.
Case in point: Jackson’s recent mention of Michael Vick’s name in the same breath or two as that of Jackie Robinson. When it comes to a reach, the Rev seemed to be striving for a spot in the Guinness Book of Records - and then some.
You probably already have an opinion of Jackson because nobody is neutral about him. I wouldn’t suggest his motive is impure - merely inane. Either his knowledge of sports history is flawed or he needs to find some new advisers. Maybe both.
In an interview with the New York Times, Jackson said that in some ways Vick’s battle to re-enter the NFL was similar to Robinson’s integrating major league baseball with the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1947. He also raised the question - Jackson is very good at raising questions, worthwhile or otherwise - of whether there has been collusion among NFL owners to keep Vick out of the league.
“I want to make [this] an issue,” Jackson said. “I want teams to explain why they have a quarterback who has less skills but is playing, or at least is on the taxi squad, and a guy with more skills can’t get into training camp.”
Come again? Or even the first time? Do you think the reluctance of most teams to add Vick just might have to do with the torturing and murder of animals, who after all are God’s creatures, too, as Jackson is surely aware? The Eagles finally took a huge PR gamble last week by signing him to back up Donovan McNabb, although commissioner Roger Goodell might not let him show his face in a game until mid-October.
Regardless, making even the most tenuous link between Vick and Robinson, other than the fact that both are famous athletes who happen to be black, is ludicrous and laughable. You might as well link the names of Babe Ruth and Baby Ruth. Or maybe those of Sinatra and Manilow, Olivier and Pee Wee Herman or Golda Meir and Goldie Hawn.
Go ahead - draw up your own set(s) of unlikely pairings. It’s fun, even if Jackson’s pathetic ponderings weren’t.
Let’s look at the record, as Al Smith (the former New York governor, not the ex-major league outfielder) used to say.
Vick recently left home confinement after serving 23 months for participating in an unlawful dogfighting ring and at least acquiescing to the drowning and hanging of canines who didn’t measure up in combat.
Nobody disagrees that such behavior was horrific. The question was whether Vick deserved to play in the NFL again after being conditionally reinstated by Goodell.
Yes: He has done his time, paid the price and shown the proper remorse.
No: His actions were so unconscionable as to stamp him forever unfit to make millions as an NFL quarterback and parade as a prominent if besmirched role model.
At this late date - 62 years after Robinson’s debut with the Dodgers, 53 after his retirement and 37 after his death - there should be no need to remind anyone of his talent and courage. Except, apparently, Jesse Jackson.
During a social era when much of America was segregated, Robinson withstood the slings, arrows and spikes of outrageous bigots to emerge as one of baseball’s best, most exciting and most admired players. Nowadays his No. 42 is displayed in every major league ballpark as a poignant reminder of his travails and triumph. And, as a further tribute, no future player will wear that number.
Despite the positive blatherings about Vick by Eagles coach Andy Reid (“He deserves a second chance. He has proven he’s on the right track,” etc.) the quarterback is a questionable commodity on both competitive and moralistic fronts. Plus, his former efforts on behalf of the Falcons strongly suggest he should be a running back, although most leather luggers are on the downside or headed there at age 29.
Meanwhile, Robinson’s place in history is etched in stone as well as horsehide. He took a big advance step for the civil rights crusade of the 1960s that transformed our country, Jesse Jackson, another leader of what has gone down in history simply as “the movement,” knows that.
When it comes to equating the burdens borne by Jackie Robinson and Michael Vick, he should know better.
And take his foot out of his mouth.
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