Lay It on the Line: The Casey Combest Story

It airs SATURDAY at those times.

This should actually be really interesting. Definitely gonna be watching.

Thanks for posting this, I have always been interested in this guy since his ridiculous run indoors back in 98-99. Last thing I saw was this article a while back

http://sports.espn.go.com/espnmag/packagestory

Looking forward to catching up on 'white lightning'.

is this on right now? is espnc on regular cable?

BUMP. DANG.

I'm sorry, why is this man at all admirable? Interesting that the same people on here that will call a Black athlete a thug for merely making a gesture after a race have nothing to say about a white dude who actually sold drugs and went to prison. And who foolishly did drugs while training - yet is somehow hailed as an amazing comeback story, and not an idiot who threw away a career for nothing. And given that his father is even in the picture, and coached him through high school no less, it seems he has much less reason for his behavior than kids that are far more disadvantaged. This guy is a fool, and it's only made worse by his wigga posturing.

How many documentaries have there been about black sprinters who had one excellent high school indoor season and did nothing after that?

The New uncleB wrote:

How many documentaries have there been about black sprinters who had one excellent high school indoor season and did nothing after that?

Until a couple years ago you could say the same thing about white sprinters. You're taking a snapshot in time. You don't know if there will be one of a black sprinter in a few years, just as no one probably would have expected one about combest back in 2005 to all of a sudden come out. Also, wasn't combest a back to back indoor national champ? I know his big year was his sr year, but i thought he also was national champ his jr year. He didn't come entirely out of nowhere.

I could see one about the 400 guy who's name now escapes me who kept getting in trouble.

Not sure if Obea has ever had a documentary, but he's def had a lot of articles each time he's tried to make a comeback. (Not saying he only had one good HS season).

I think the answer you are looking for is NONE. ZERO. There have been NO widely distributed documentaries about any of the several great black high school sprinters who did nothing after high school. Meanwhile, the ONE great white high school (indoor only!) sprinter has such a documentary. Clearly both Obea Moore and William Reed were far more accomplished high school performers than Combest was and neither has ever had -- or ever will have -- a documentary on them shown on ESPN.

The racism that permeates our society is just overwhelming

[quote]Mrr82 wrote:

You're taking a snapshot in time.

Yes, the present

After 10 minutes, I'm wondering if I make a documentary about myself, if ESPN will air it?

That appears to be what happened here.

The New uncleB wrote:

I think the answer you are looking for is NONE. ZERO. There have been NO widely distributed documentaries about any of the several great black high school sprinters who did nothing after high school. Meanwhile, the ONE great white high school (indoor only!) sprinter has such a documentary. Clearly both Obea Moore and William Reed were far more accomplished high school performers than Combest was and neither has ever had -- or ever will have -- a documentary on them shown on ESPN.

The racism that permeates our society is just overwhelming

I think as track fans people would be more interested in Obea or Reed. I'm sure if you did a poll on here you'd get a similar answer. I like many other got excited every time we heard about an Obea comeback and read every thing about it we could.

My point was that until now, you could say the same thing about a white sprinter. Yesterday you would have no comment about the specific issue, and now it's racism....

The two documentaries in America about 10k runners that come to mind are Geb and Mills. Nobody sits there and says, that's racisit...there have been great white 10k runners in the past who don't have documentary movies about them! People thought they would be interesting (and they were right) and made the movies. Instead people who think like you would probably claim it's racist because they made the movies and focused on them only because of where they came from or their race.

There's no winning with mindsets like yours.

So why don't you go make a documentary about Obea Moore? Nothing stopping you. The filmmakers picked someone they wanted to work with.

Combast = Hillbilly. White Trash.

This is an ignorant post. If someone were to produce a documentary on Obea Moore (and it was well done), I'd definitely think that ESPN would be interested.

The fact that someone did a documentary on Casey Combest attempting to make a comeback is racist?

I suspect that this post came from a white person who thinks that they are 'enlightened,' but instead they come off as ignorant and foolish.

Put your money where your stupid mouth is and track Obea Moore down for your own doc. It would probably suck and no one would watch it, but at least you could cry 'racism' and ignore your lack of competence.

...white sprinters are interesting.

1975 TFN interview with Houston McTear

Are you really trying to claim that the interest in Combest has nothing to do with his being white when in the very article posted we learn that he is coached for free because Graham wants to show that a white sprinter can be great? And the article itself makes very clear that he is a white person who grew up in the "projects" and that he speaks in black slang, etc, etc. The entire article is premised on his race and makes multiple references to the fact of his whiteness - do you believe race is only at issue when it's Black people? The article was specifically about a white sprinter who is receiving help and interest due to his whiteness, yet you're trying to claim people are reading race into this situation? Go back and read the article and see exactly how many times the fact of his whiteness is described and mentioned and then try to claim that people are just making up issues and that race has nothing to do with this.

And I'm not even talking about the documentary being made - that wasn't my point. My point was that Black athletes are regularly derided on here for inconsequential behavior, and here we have a real criminal who sold drugs, who dropped out of school for no apparent reason other than he wanted to sell drugs, who did drugs while training which affected his ability to get the grades for college, who brags about selling drugs - and who is nonetheless being trained for free and given the chance at a comeback, and nobody on here has anything to say about unfair advantages, or taking personal responsibility, or being a thug - yet will post these things all over this board about Black people.

So you can conclude that racism plays no part in ESPN airing a documentary on Casey Combest and never airing a dcoumentary on one of a myriad of wonderful black high school sprinters. That I would suggest that racism might be a factor in this happening makes me suspect. But you, who definitively rules out racism as a factor, are beyond reproach.

And you have the blinding ignorance to question my mindset. This weird combination of ignorance and arrogance that persists into the 21st century is truly sad