Bryant Gumble...IDIOT!!!

Bryant Gumble is a total fool, an idiot for which the word “idiot” was created. In his monologue during the show, “Real Sports with Bryant Gumble” on HBO, he had this to say about the Winter Olympics…

"Finally, tonight, the Winter Games. Count me among those who don’t like them and won’t watch them ... Because they’re so trying, maybe over the next three weeks we should all try too. Like, try not to be incredulous when someone attempts to link these games to those of the ancient Greeks who never heard of skating or skiing…Try not to point out that something’s not really a sport if a pseudo-athlete waits in what’s called a kiss-and-cry area, while some panel of subjective judges decides who won ... So if only to hasten the arrival of the day they’re done, when we can move on to March Madness — for God’s sake, let the games begin."

Fine. I’m no fan of the Winter Olympics, either. I’m just not a fan of those kinds of sports, perhaps because I’ve never played them. But there’s nothing “pseudo-athletic” about weaving your way down a mountain at 60 mph on a set of ski’s. I could care less about figure skating, but the skill and athleticism it takes to compete at that level is awesome. I don’t particularly care for classical music, but that doesn’t mean a concert violinist is a “pseudo-musician” simply because I don’t have an ear for that kind of music. You don’t have to enjoy watching a sport to be able to appreciate the talent it takes to play it. Bryant Bumble showed no respect for these athletes and the hard work it takes to make it to the Olympics. In essence he said, “I don’t like the sports you play, so that makes you a “pseudo-athlete”. He makes it sound like every athlete at Turino is a curler. How ignorant can one man be? If there were an Olympics of Journalism, Bryant Bumble wouldn’t even be there. That’s why he’s on HBO, sandwiched between Taxi Cab Confessions and re-runs of Weekend at Bernies.

Oh but it gets better. In his mindless rant he served up this little nugget…

“So try not to laugh when someone says these are the world’s greatest athletes, despite a paucity of blacks that makes the Winter Games look like a GOP convention.”

For all of us southern redneck conservatives who don’t use fifty dollar words to experess our uneducated opinions, I looked up “paucity”. It means “lack of participation”, as if you couldn’t determine that by the context of his statement. This is to be expected, though. If you put a liberal in front of a microphone or a camera for more than 30 seconds, they’ll play their race card.

I’d like to ask Bumble, “Would putting Michael Jordan on skis make the Winter Olympics watchable for you, or would it make Michael Jordan a “pseudo-athlete”? How would he ‘splain dat?

Let me get this straight. Bryant Bumble hates the Winter Olympics, won’t watch them, questions the merit of the events, refers to the participants as “pseudo-athletes”, and characterizes figure skating as a “kiss-and-cry-sport”. And in the same breath indicates his displeasure that there aren’t more blacks participating in what he refers to as “pseudo-athletic, kiss-and-cry” sports. I wonder what Debbie Thomas and Robin Szolkowy (figure skaters), Herschel Walker, Lascalles Brown, Vonetta Flowers, and Morgan Alexander (boblsed), Shanni Davis (speed skating) and Jerome Iginla (hockey), etc., would have to say about Bumble’s reference to them as “pseudo athletes”. Based on his comments, I can only conclude that Bumble would call these athletes “sell outs” on the scale of Condoleeza Rice and Colin Powell. That’s how people like Bumble work. They’ll call your organizations, sports, and institutions racist, but the minute a black person succeeds in one of those “racist” areas, they will be labeled as Uncle Tom sellouts. Bryant Bumble is no friend of blacks, especially those who enjoy success outside of what he thinks is the boundary for black participation.

The point I’m trying to make is this. I have no problem with Bryant Bumble’s ignorance, racism, and disrespect. He’s entitled to be an idiot. That’s his problem, not mine. I could care less. I have a problem with the double standard that exists in the sports media. Bob Costas would be fired on the spot, stripped naked, and burned on the hood of Jesse Jackson’s car if he had said, “the paucity of whites in the NBA makes that league look like an NAACP Convention”.

Think about it.

NCAA Mascot Ban

To kick off the online celebration of J-79, I’m going to revisit to a subject I addressed last August, the NCAA mascot ban. It’s in the news again, but J-79 had this pegged from the get go.

A few months ago the NCAA bowed to the gods of political correctness when they made the decision that any university with a Native American mascot would not be allowed to host postseason NCAA events, effective February 2006. February is here, and just last week Miles Brand came out in defense of this policy, saying, “One of the values we hold dear is respect for everyone.” How sweet.

What you read in the next three paragraphs was written by J-79 five months ago when this mascot ban was first made public.

Excuse me, but I missed the sensitivity seminar that declared naming a sports team after a native culture was disrespectful. Personally, I think it is an honor to have a symbol of your heritage adopted by a pro or college team. To me it reflects admiration and respect. What higher honor can you bestow upon a group of people than to name something in their memory? In every American institution except sports we have what amounts to a religious ceremony whenever a city, park, street, dam, school, building, forest, interstate or monument is dedicated to or renamed in the memory of an Indian tribe or ethnic group. Hell, in Chattanooga you can’t sling a dead cat without hitting something named after a Cherokee (Cherokee Hills, Cherokee Heights, Cherokee Forest, Cherokee Lane, Cherokee Road, Cherokee Street, Cherokee Apartments, Cherokee Middle, Cherokee High, Cherokee Liquors), but by damn UT-Chattanooga better think twice before they name themselves the Cherokees…makes no sense. Why are sports teams somehow different?

Of course this makes no logical sense whatsoever, but let’s dive a little deeper into this issue and see it for the danger that it is. First of all, anyone born in America is by definition a Native American. Webster defines “native” as, “belonging to a particular place by birth; grown, produced, or originating in a particular place or in the vicinity.” I’m not just simply dissecting semantics here. On the surface we interpret this rule as a ban on tribal symbols, but there’s a difference in the word “native” and “tribal”. The Law is all about language, and if you word your laws or rules vaguely you open the door for the future expansion of the law. The use of the word “native” gives the NCAA (or whacko civil action groups) the wiggle room to expand this into other areas beyond what the rule appears on the surface to prohibit. Allow me to elaborate…

The Seminoles, Aztecs, Braves, Chippewas, Illini, Indians, Redmen, etc., aren’t the only ones who fall under the language of this legislation if you go by the definition of the word “native.” Does the word “Volunteer” not suggest a “native” heritage, according to the definition? What about Corn Husker, Ragin Cajun, Mountaineer, Sooner, Rebel, Flying Dutchmen, Fighting Irish, or Yankee? You see where we’re going here. This rule is the beginning of removing any sort of cultural, ethnic, or regional identity from sports teams for the sake of not offending someone. This ruling opens the door to all sorts of garbage, and all it takes is for some crackpot lawyer or activist to act on the literal definition of the word “native”. You probably wouldn’t have to look far to find someone who would contend that the Volunteers killed Mexicans at the Alamo and that Davey Crockett owned slaves, thus the name “Volunteer” should be banned. Ole Miss Rebels?…they’ve been fighting this battle for years. Fighting Irish? What’s the difference between that and the Fighting Illini? If you don’t see this coming you better wake up.

What you read in the last three paragraphs was written by J-79 five months ago when this mascot ban was first enacted.

What I said would happen is happening. The wheels are turning. This mascot ban is dangerously close to expanding beyond Indian mascots into the territory of cultural and regional identity. Just last week, someone asked Miles Brand, “Why is Fighting Irish acceptable?” To which he responded, “We've never had any Irish people come to us and say they find that offensive.” STOP THE PRESS!!! Lets take a close look at Miles Brand’s choice of words, particularly the word, “offensive”.

If the honest end goal of this legislation was to eliminate “Native American” mascots, why didn’t Miles Brand simply answer this question by saying, “There’s nothing Native American about the Fighting Irish, and thus they don’t fall under the jurisdiction of this ruling.” Yet he chose the word, “offensive”. THAT’S WHERE THIS IS HEADED! He has opened the door to the expansion of this rule into the realm of anything deemed to be “offensive”. He said it himself, and I told you five months ago this would happen. I know how these people work. If left to run its natural evolutional course of political correctness, this rule will be the end of any mascot with cultural, regional, ethnic, or religious identity.

This is liberalism and political correctness at work here, folks. These people are absolute moonbats. In their world you can portray cowboys (no less “native” than Indians) as a couple of poo-stabbers, but by God you better not offend an Indian by waving a tomahawk at a Florida State game. Give me a break. By the way, does anybody know how many Academy Awards Humpack Mountain got? I heard it was a “butt-load”.