Fair or foul? 49ers suspend analyst for saying Lamar Jackson was good at fakes due to "dark skin color with a dark football"

FFF wrote:

MNF during the 70s had comments like this every series.

And I'm not saying John Madden said anything this offensive, but I wouldn't bet against it.

Ryan shouldn't have said that, but all he did was say what a lot of people were thinking anyway. Don't be so dumb.

I watched MNF during the '70s and don't remember such comments. I do remember Cowell taking some heat for calling a black running back a "little monkey".

I doubt if anyone besides Ryan believes Jackson benefits from having a black face and hands. I don't know if it warranted punishment, but it was a bizarre thing to say.

It is totally irrelevant to this discussion if this analyst was correct or not in his opinion. This discussion is whether or not this comment reflects any racism and whether the analyst should be punished and should have his reputation tarnished for making a racist comment. This should have been dealt with privately. I don't think This discussion is about which camp you belong in, those who tolerate racism and those who fight racism. I don't tolerate racism, but this is in no way racism. Let's not give ammunition to the racists who will now say see how we are treated.

LetsRun.com (Rojo) actually wrote:

It appears no one tried to determine if their was any factual basis to what Ryan said about the skin color of Jackson, the Ravens jersey and Jackson being similar.

Are you implying he was simply calling a spade a spade?

What does this have to do with running? The comment by the analyst is simply asinine. Mostly, it lacks common sense. Why even bring up skin color? A professor could not even bring up a name yesterday without the republican echo chamber and its carnival barkers at the House of Representatives losing it. Just stick to running unless you are simply doing it for the clicks or to trigger people or pretend you are some social justice warrior hunter. Stick to running.

The clickbait game is strong at LRC and it sadly worked on me. This is a running website. You're putting this here and doing a both sides thing to get views. This isn't what your website should be. The comment that guy made was trash. Intent doesn't always matter. The guy wasn't trying to be insensitive or whatever but it comes up short/weak/full of bias.

My solution, in general, is to get younger commentators/announcers/analysts. Major sports are dominated by younger, non white athletes. Yet, every person on tv is old & white. I'd like to listen to a 25 year old on the radio or on tv. We're only hearing games through one lens.

So much for elevating the conversation here on the message boards. Jes*s Chr*st. YOU TRULY DO NOT GET IT.

The only way for this site to improve is for the Brojos to both resign

History wrote:

rojo wrote:

Even if it is true, I imagine most of it was a) his skill and b) the jersey and not his skin color but so what? If someone's skin color gives them an advantage at being an NFL quarterback, then good for them. I mean plenty of people have an advantage at being in the NBA due to their height. I think something like 25% of 7 foot people in the world are in the NBA. Is it insulting to point out that most NBA centers are very tall?

No, it’s not insulting. Just ignorant and irrelevant. There’s no history of slavery and genocide against tall people.

The world has history of slavery and genocide that spans across various time periods, races, and geographic locations. It's not unique to individuals based on physical characteristics, skin color or otherwise.

For centuries in Europe during the feudal age serfs and their posterity lived out their lives in servitude to their "lords" their posterity doomed to the same fate. During the protestant reformation, those who expressed views contrary to the church were murdered and prosecuted to the tune of 50 million deaths. Many of these europeans fled to America to escape religious prosecution.

Unfortunately our history is full of injustices. The majority, if not all could trace back their roots and find egregious and inhumane treatment perpetrated against their ancestors.

Wanted to include one more thought.

It's amazing how far we've come over the last 150 years.

But dismal to see people all in arms over petty things today, because of unwillingness to let go of egregious happenings in the past instead of appreciating how much progress mankind has made in the recent past.

under a bridge wrote:

rojo wrote:

It's comments like this that show you why he was suspended. People are assuming that the person who posted this thread is racist when that's not true at all. I posted as it I thought it was fascinating.

Nowhere did I say that I thought you were racist or even imply as much you race-obsessed bum. I stated that it was obvious who started the thread (you) because this is the trash you think is “fascinating”.

I call foul on you calling Rojo a "race-obsessed bum."

However, I'm sure 100% of the regular readers of this board had the same immediate thought when reading this: it was obviously Rojo who posted this. Even without his usual number of typos and misspellings it was obvious.

I agree he posts a ton of threads about race, but it is among other non-running topics not related to race. Calling him "race obsessed" implies to most people that you really mean racist. I'd say Rojo is more "PC" obsessed. Racial issues is just one part of that category.

At least Rojo is willing to leave posts like yours that are clearly attacking him on the website. I'd say that is to his credit. I'm not confident that I'd be big enough to do that.

Looks like the players are trying to conciliate the situation.

Yes, Rojo is a hero for starting a bullsh*t thread and then not deleting the reasonable criticism that questions the validity of that thread. Of course he doesn't delete the criticism, which only fires up his base. It's all about the clicks and about filling that void deep inside.

What's wrong with:

"Lamar Jackson is an excellent player and his play fakes are so good that they cause defensive players to hesitate on a regular basis."

According to the suspended analyst I guess there are no white quarterbacks who make good play fakes due to the constrast of the ball on their skin. And all black quarterbacks must be great at making play fakes. Stupid observation whether it offends anyone or not.

So much blather about this player. He is a running QB and will be crushed and wrecked within a season or two. QBs who run don't last in the NFL, period. He's the latest shiny object, that's all.

Michael Smores wrote:

So much for elevating the conversation here on the message boards. Jes*s Chr*st. YOU TRULY DO NOT GET IT.

Michael Smores wrote:

The only way for this site to improve is for the Brojos to both resign

Michael Smores wrote:

Yes, Rojo is a hero for starting a bullsh*t thread...

What do you mean by "elevating the conversation here on the message boards." your tone and language seem to be hell-bent on degrading the discussion.

FightFor15 wrote:

The clickbait game is strong at LRC and it sadly worked on me. This is a running website. You're putting this here and doing a both sides thing to get views. This isn't what your website should be. The comment that guy made was trash. Intent doesn't always matter. The guy wasn't trying to be insensitive or whatever but it comes up short/weak/full of bias.

My solution, in general, is to get younger commentators/announcers/analysts. Major sports are dominated by younger, non white athletes. Yet, every person on tv is old & white. I'd like to listen to a 25 year old on the radio or on tv. We're only hearing games through one lens.

People want me to resign because I find this newstory to be interesting? And wondering if there was any merit to what the guy said? And wondering if there is merit to it, how should he have phrased it without upsetting people?

Well Richard Sheman - one of the 49ers stars - talked about it yesterday and he largely defended Ryan .

“I know Tim personally, and I listened to the dialogue and saw it written, and honestly I wasn’t as outraged as everybody else. I understand how it can be taken under a certain context and be offensive to some. But if you're saying, this is a brown ball, they're wearing dark colors and he has a brown arm, honestly, sometimes we were having trouble seeing it on film.

“He's making a play fake, and sometimes he's swinging his arm real fast, and you're like, Ok, does he have the ball? And you look up and [Mark] Ingram is running it. So it was technically a valid point, but you can always phrase things better. You can always phrase things and not say ‘his black skin.’ ”

Why did you post this picture? They are just women cyclists.

Rojo, you need to ask yourself why starting a thread, and continuing to write, about black bodies ON A RUNNING WEBSITE is so important to you. All under the guise of "just starting conversation." No, you know exactly what you're doing, which is deliberately causing controversy, and it's disingenuous to say otherwise.

I didn't say you should resign because of this. I said that it's clear that until you resign that the so-called improvements you and Wejo speak to won't occur, because you are clearly unwilling and/or unable to change.

Prove me wrong.

Jesus H Christ, Michael Smores, please, PLEASE STFU.

Michael Smores wrote:

Rojo, you need to ask yourself why starting a thread, and continuing to write, about black bodies ON A RUNNING WEBSITE is so important to you. All under the guise of "just starting conversation." No, you know exactly what you're doing, which is deliberately causing controversy, and it's disingenuous to say otherwise.

I didn't say you should resign because of this. I said that it's clear that until you resign that the so-called improvements you and Wejo speak to won't occur, because you are clearly unwilling and/or unable to change.

Prove me wrong.