Just your basic Friday. My truck caught on fire. Two black women helped me put it out and there virtually was no damage.
One of the black women said, “Your truck appears to be on fire underneath. Here…we’ll help.” The fact this act of kindness took place from two black women in Edmond just floors me. This was an epiphany of sorts for me. There is goodness in the world.
This was clearly some sort of sign from God. There is kindness in Edmond, Oklahoma despite some of the things I’ve seen.
I’m a little animated in that I just concluded a national telephone poll on education and politics. The young man was a Latino from Houston named Miguel. Quite frankly– I went completely off script and started asking him questions in regards to the human junk bond rogue grifter Trump and the legitimacy of the upcoming election as per his life.
We talked almost thirty minutes. I don’t think he’d ever polled anyone like me before. We became friends. I need a song.
In January of 1988 a first happened in the history of the Super Bowl. That being a black starting quarterback led his team to the Lombardi Trophy.
Doug Williams led the Washington Redskins past John Elway’s Denver Broncos in a lopsided rout.
Three black quarterbacks have now won Super Bowl championships… Williams, Russell Wilson, and Patrick Mahomes. Six different black quarterbacks have started in the Super Bowl…Williams, Wilson, Mahomes, Steve McNair, Colin Kaepernick, and Cam Newton.
The misnomer that blacks lack the mental capacity to play the position has been laid to rest.
The same trend has evolved at the college level as well with Cam Newton, Jalen Hurts, Cardell Jones, DeShaun Watson and Tua all winning national championships.
The notion non-white quarterbacks can quarterback championship teams is a thing of the past.
Tom Brady and Aaron Rodgers are no longer the best in the NFL. Those two slots are now solidly occupied by Patrick Mahomes and Russell Wilson.
Both OU and O State will have black starting QBs this season with Spencer Rattler and Spencer Sanders.
The probable leading candidate for the Heisman is a black quarterback in Columbus named Justin Fields.
Even though the world under Trump has revolved back to the early 60’s racially—football has evolved and progressed.
My son was born that very January of 1988. Twenty years later Barack Obama was selected as the Democratic nominee at the Pepsi Center in Denver. If you would have told me then America would have regressed this much racially since the election of Donald Trump I would have said no way.
But here we are pretty much back like the racially charged days of LBJ, George Wallace, and Richard Nixon.
You know why this trend in black quarterbacks isn’t going to revert?
Simple. NFL general managers and scouts want to give their teams the best chance to succeed.
The NFL is about winning. Tiger Woods in his day had an even larger impact perhaps in golf.
But sports are about winning…not about the color of your skin and ingrained bigotry.
Very, very tough news for Oklahoma State basketball as the NCAA hammered the program with a three year probation and a ban from next season’s post season tournament. All of this in relation to the Lamont Evans scandal while he was at the school steering players towards certain agents in lieu of bribes.
I would think this will send a chill towards the Kansas Jayhawks and Bill Self who have also been investigated in this scandal.
Cade Cunningham would have been the most ballyhooed recruit to ever play at Oklahoma State. Gerald Green back in the Eddie Sutton days signed with the school, but never played in Stillwater and was drafted in the first round round by the Boston Celtics.
What are Cade’s options?
His brother was just hired as an assistant at O State under Mike Boynton so I guess he could stay at O State for one season and not play in the NCAA Tournament.
He could now sign with Kentucky who was second on his list of schools.
He could go straight to the G League or he could play over seas for a season and then be a lottery pick in the NBA.
Cade was only going to play one season of college ball even before the sanctions as many see him as the possible No. 1 pick in the draft after this basketball season.
Just a another very tough blow at Oklahoma State in the post Eddie Sutton years. Cade Cunningham was ostensibly going to be Mike Boynton’s breaking out party as a DI coach coach in a Power 5 conference. Instead–another negative as the post Eddie Sutton era now in its fifteenth year has but one NCAA tournament win and its fourth coach.
I actually like Boynton. I think he’s a sharp dude and a solid coach. But I think what this shows is hard it is to draw elite black players to a place like Stillwater, Oklahoma without a national marquee coach like Eddie Sutton in place.
Best of luck for Cade Cunningham as he makes his decision on where to play next season. Good luck to Mike Boynton as well. I’d love to see him coach at another school where could have more at his disposal as far as talent on the roster. The guy can coach. Maybe an elite mid-major would be the right landing spot for Mike Boynton.
You have to read The Last Pass by Gary Pomerantz. The ‘last pass’ was in essence Bob Cousy in his later years coming to terms with why he and Bill Russell were never close after the incident in Louisville.
Cousy sent Bill Russell a very personal letter asking for a second chance of sorts with their friendship. He admitted if he had to do it all over again he shouldn’t have played in the game in Louisville.
Russell didn’t even respond to the letter for almost two years. Then one evening Cousy got a call and his caller ID showed it was coming from Mercer Island, Washington.
I’m sure Trump never read the book….because he doesn’t read. But evidently Joe Manchin did and that’s a good thing.
I finally finished my first country music hit song. Only in Oklahoma could this yarn between Gundy and Boone have taken place. I don’t even think in godforsaken Alabama this shit would have been allowed. Although Tommy Tuberville versus Jeff Sessions for a U.S. Senate seat is pretty close.
I have to admit… I’ve come to love this song. I live in this Tiger King HOA of dysfunction in Deer Creek which makes Joe Exotic seem tame by comparison. It’s just stunning at times…you just ask God why he put all these white people in Oklahoma together.
It’s all so Oklahoma.
Oklahoma shouldn’t even be allowed to be a state truth be known. The land should be annexed by Texas and put under their tax jurisdiction,
I finally finished the third verse with Boone surrendering to Gundy in the epic country music hit ‘I Saw A Mullet’.
I need to go Nashville and start selling the song.
If you want to read about racism in our sports culture read Second Wind by Bill Russell or The Last Pass by Gary Pomerantz.
The incident in Bill Russell’s career in Boston which he and some other black players left the team in Louisville when they weren’t served in a restaurant is basically the theme in Pomerantz’s book.
Russell and some other black players walked out and went home when they weren’t served in a Louisville restaurant. Which of course made me fondly remember of my father’s similar incident with Joe Carter Sr. in a downtown Oklahoma City cafe. My father would have gone back to Boston with Bill Russell and the black players.
The Boston team as a whole didn’t walk out and played the exhibition in Louisville as a white Celtics’ team with Red Auerbach as head coach.
It forever left a rift in the relationship between Bill Russell and Bob Cousy.
The Last Pass was in essence Bob Cousy late in his life trying to make amends to Bill Russell for not supporting Bill Russell at the time.
But have we really come anywhere since the 60’s? One black president is elected and the response by the GOP is to nominate a person like Donald Trump who basically became the party’s nominee by embracing the doctrine of Birtherism and using southern senators like Jeff Sessions to give his candidacy some legs with rural whites.
If Clay Bennett came out publicly in Oklahoma and said honest things in relation to Trump what would that do to his ticket sales?
We really haven’t come all that far. But to Mitt Romney’s credit late in his life he is the one white Republican senator so far who has said a few things.
Rand Paul…sigh. How Rand Paul didn’t end up in Oklahoma or Alabama is beyond me.
James Lankford could say a few things given that he’s part of a senatorial clique along with Tim Scott who eat lunch together in D.C. But nary a word in public from James Lankford on the racist Trump. He can’t say those words in public because it would be political suicide in Oklahoma much like it was for Mick Cornett.
So if as a public figure in Oklahoma you can’t speak honestly about race then I’d say nothing has really changed.
Nothing has changed in Oklahoma except when you need a touchdown or a basket in a clutch situation. You don’t go to the white guys except when John Stockton doubles down on Michael Jordan.
Amidst all of this the Dow has climbed from a low of 18,500 to just over 27,000 as of Friday close.. Oil has climbed back from the abyss and closed just below positive $40 a barrel on Friday. Unemployment actually dropped to 13.3%.
I hate to write this but in this America it will always be about the economy, stupid.
The plan is too much for me. Too many teams. Too many players being potentially exposed. Just too much.
Go with either a ten or twelve team tournament. Get this thing over in six weeks once it starts. Minimize exposure and minimize the chance of injuring players for next season.
My twelve team tournament would include these twelve teams …Lakers, Clippers, Bucks, Raptors, Celtics, Rockets, Thunder, Sixers, Jazz, Mavericks, Nuggets, and Pacers.
There is no need for twenty-two teams or sixteen for that matter.
Plus, all of sport runs the risk of oversaturation with all of these tournaments in different sports taking place at the same time.
The PGA Championship starts next week. People are going to start getting back into the swing of watching real events again.
This NBA plan is way too much given all the various considerations.
Just have some fun and keep your fans entertained while not exposing too much risk.