Mike Celizic

Donovan McNabb is in hot water again, and it’s for all the wrong reasons. He’s done a sit-down with HBO’s Real Sports in which he says that because he’s black, he’s been put under a microscope and subjected to criticism that white quarterbacks don’t have to put up with.

I think it was a senseless thing to say, but not because I don’t think it’s true. I just think it’s pointless.

Right now, McNabb is being singled out in Philadelphia for one reason only: he’s 0-2 on the season and he’s never won a Super Bowl. That’s not based on his ethnicity but on his results, and it’s the same for everyone.

Ask Eli Manning, who’s been more closely examined than an imam’s carry-on at Hartsfield International. Ask Peyton Manning, who McNabb thinks gets a break, who was called a choking dog nearly daily right up until the moment he hoisted the Vince Lombardi Trophy back in February. Ask every player in every sport who’s ever struggled in the clutch.

Winning fixes everything for everybody in his business. It’s that simple. You don’t want to hear the shots, win the damned game. And if someone’s still not happy, screw ‘em; they’re not worth your time or your attention.

McNabb is certainly entitled to his opinion, which is based on his own experience. As I’m not black, I can’t speak to that perception other than to say that his opinion is commonly held among African-Americans I know.

They don’t feel that way without reason. Blacks are treated differently than white males in our society. It’s not like the old days of segregation and a lot of people are pretty fair, but there’s a lot of racism, both subtle and blatant, still out there, and it’s not just white people who are guilty of it. A lot of African-Americans are taught as children that they are going to be treated differently; some — I have no idea how many, but it’s not an insignificant percentage — are taught that they can’t trust white people to treat them fairly.

I know that’s true because I see it all the time. The instant I write one critical word about an African-American, I’m going to get e-mail from other blacks telling me I’m a racist. It’s the same for black writers who say critical things about whites — they’re racists, too. And black writers who criticize other blacks are going to learn that they’re Uncle Toms.

So what McNabb is saying is true, but it’s also counterproductive. No one ever got anywhere by playing the victim, not in a meritocracy like professional sports, at least. You might get away with it in real life, but in sports, there’s only one criterion by which people ultimately are judged — results.

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McNabb tells HBO that people didn’t want blacks to play quarterback, which is like telling us that the United States used to be a colony of Great Britain. It’s a historical fact. He also says there aren’t a lot of black quarterbacks in the NFL today, and to tell you the absolute truth, I was grateful the Associated Press story about him listed the six African-Americans starting at quarterback in the NFL today because I had no idea how many there were. It wasn’t anything I ever thought about or cared about because it’s no longer an oddity.

And if African-American quarterbacks are held to different standards, why is Atlanta bringing in Byron Leftwich to replace their white starter? It isn’t because there’s a different standard, I can tell you that. It’s because the standard is winning.

What McNabb and all others who play the victim card don’t get is that unless you’re one of the ruling elite in your walk of life and thus don’t care what anyone thinks, you’re going to be singled out for special treatment by someone for something. You can’t escape it. It’s the way we are.

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