The color skin an athlete has should never be used for or against him. Hell, that applies to anyone in society. Seems like pretty common knowledge, right? Treat everyone as you wish to be treated. You learn this kind of stuff in elementary school, and anyone who isn’t an ignorant buffoon applies it to their everyday life and personality. But lately in sports, some athletes have made the claim that their skin color is infact making their jobs different than the man next to them. Now, if this is true, the accused biggots should be made an example of and punished. Let’s take a close look at the 2 most talked about issues where race has been brought up lately: Michael Vick and Donovan McNabb.

Lets start with Vick: a pro bowl quarterback and face of the Falcons was accused earlier this year of running a highly illegal dogfighting ring at his Virginia home. At first, he said he would be proven innocent because he had nothing to do with it. Well, I don’t have to spell it out for you, we all know what happened. Vick’s co-defendants all plead guilty leaving him by himself to battle off horrifying and gruesome details of torture and murder of dogs. But that’s a story in itself. What happened next was truly baffling. In Atlanta, a crowd of a hundred or more gathered to defend Vick (that’s perfectly fine if they choose to, he is innocent until proven guilty) but then whipped out this gem: he’s getting hit so hard by the law because he’s black.

You have got to be kidding me.

I hate revisiting this story because it’s been told and retold over and over again ad nauseam. Vick bet on dog fighting. When the dogs were seen as weak, he electrocuted them, strangled them, repeatedly threw them into the ground, and other inhumane ways to kill defenseless animals. Please, someone tell me where Michael Vick being black has anything to do with this. Do you think someone like Carson Palmer, a white quarterback, would get a slap on the wrist? Hell no. What occured in that Virginia home was a federal crime, and black, white, red, or yellow, you better get ready for jail because that’s certainly your next stop.

Let’s move to McNabb briefly. Long story short: in the city of brotherly love, athletes get no love unless you perform to your full capabilities day in, day out. The Eagles are 0-2, the offense has looked painfully bad, and McNabb has looked off (to put it nicely) in both games. So, after a few days of being hounded by the media for his poor play, McNabb took the low road, something I dont usually see out of a classy guy like Donovan. He pulled out the race card. Speaking on an HBO sports show this week, McNabb stated that black quarterbacks recieve far more criticism than white quarterbacks. He cited the few number of black quarterbacks in the NFL (5), and said that if a Carson Palmer or Peyton Manning were struggling as he is, they would be given more lenience. Now hold it right there. Lets take a quick look at what you’ve done this season Donovan:

vs GB: 15/33 - 184 yards - 5.6 yards per completion -  1 TD - 1 INT - sacked 1 time

vs WSH: 28/46 - 240 yards - 5.2 yards per completion - 0 TD - 0 INT - sacked 3 times

This is the National Football league, Donovan. You’re a 9 year veteran of this league. Any quarterback in the entire league will get absolutely blasted by the local media if your completion percentage is a hair over 50 percent. You will get hounded if you throw 1 touchdown in 2 football games. You will get hounded if you refuse to run, but can’t pass the ball: throwing it over your target, behind your target, and short of your target. You will get absolutely hounded if your average yards per completion is…get ready for it… 5.4 yards!!! Are you kidding me? If Peyton Manning averaged 5.4 yards and threw 1 touchdown in his first 2 games this year, there would be widespread panic nationwide. Gimme a break Donovan, you should know better than that. Don’t bring race into a problem where it has no place. You’ve played poorly in 2 games, take responsibility like a man and a leader of your team and get ready for next weeks’ game.