Tag Archives: ESPN

Stephen A. Smith pokes fun of black football player talking about hockey. Seriously?

21 Saturday Apr 2018

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If ignorance is bliss, then ESPN talking head Stephen A. Smith must truly be in a happy place.

He once again displayed his sports knowledge on the Worldwide Leader’s “First Take” by ragging on University of Central Florida linebacker Shaquem Griffin for talking about the Stanley Cup Playoffs and his beloved Tampa Bay Lightning on the show.

“Well, first of all, he deserves a lot of credit – he’s a black man talking hockey. Congratulations,”  Smith responded to Griffin’s hot take that the ‘Bolts will win the Cup. “Let me tell you something  -you certainly ain’t going to get me to do it. So congratulations. The versatility, my brotha. You probably got a job here once your playing career is over based on that take alone.”

Lovely.

I understand  that shows like “First Take” are more about entertainment than sports – remember, ESPN stands for Entertainment Sports Programming Network – and that Smith is the top carnival barker for that circus.

Smith’s hockey rant may be schtick. But it helps a demeaning stereotype stick. For the record, quite a few of us talk about hockey, and we’re quite black.

Let’s see. There’s Popeye Jones, a former National Basketball Association center and current Indiana Pacers assistant coach, talking hockey and his son, Columbus BlueJackets defenseman Seth Jones.

There’s NBA Hall of Famer Charles Barkley who, for the second-post season in a row, said he’s watching the Stanley Cup Playoffs.

There’s Karl Subban, a retired Toronto-area school principal who shares knowledge about raising three sons who are playing hockey at the highest levels. You might have heard of them.

There’s John C. Brittain, a distinguished civil rights attorney who may have been the first black player to captain a high school hockey team in New England in the early 1960s.

There’s Lt. Col. Ralph Featherstone, a U.S, Marine Corps aviator who was the first African-American to captain the U.S. Naval Academy’s hockey club.

There’s Thurgood Marshall Jr., son of the late Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall. Oh, and there’s a hockey-related college scholarship program that carries the late justice’s name.

There’s Damon Kwame Mason, director of the award-winning black hockey history – yes, Stephen A., we have a hockey history – “Soul on Ice: Past, Present & Future.“

There’s David Amber, Kevin Weekes, Anson Carter and Tarik El-Bashir, who actually talk about hockey on television for a living.

There’s Lil Johnand Snoop Dogg, rappers who’ve wrapped their arms around the Stanley Cup.

There’s Angela James, Canada’s “female Wayne Gretzky” and the first black woman to be inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame.

And then there’s me.

So if Smith doesn’t like hockey, that’s cool. But his making light of black people who do isn’t.

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What’s it like to be young, gifted and white in the NBA? ‘The Undefeated’ explores

26 Wednesday Oct 2016

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We at the Color of Hockey are dedicated to chronicling what it’s like for minority players in a majority-white sport.

But what about the flip side? What’s it like to be a white athlete in a sport dominated by minority players?

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ESPN’s The Undefeated, a platform dedicated to the intersection of race and sports, explores the question in a wonderful read by Marc J. Spears on the paucity of American-born white players in the National Basketball Association.

White American NBA players appear to be going the way of the water buffalo. The bulk of the league’s Caucasian talent hail from European countries – think Dirk Nowitzki or Dario Saric.

There used to be lots of white American NBA stars – Larry Bird, “Pistol” Pete Maravich, John Havlicek, Bill Walton, Jerry West, “Thunder” Dan Majerle, Kevin McHale. Today, not so much.

Anyway, take the time and give The Undefeated article a read. Then come back to hockey.

 

John Saunders, ESPN broadcaster, hockey player, dies at age 61

11 Thursday Aug 2016

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I didn’t know John Saunders, the popular ESPN broadcaster who recently passed away,  particularly well. But every time I saw him, it felt like running into an old friend.

We were in Baltimore together in the 1980s- Saunders a popular sports anchor for WMAR-TV and me a reporter for the late, great Evening Sun newspaper. When we saw each other at functions or games, we’d speak a language that few, if any other, black folks in Baltimore spoke: hockey.

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We’d briefly chat about what was going on in the National Hockey League, even talk about the doings of the minor league Baltimore Skipjacks hockey team.

Saunders knew his hockey history because he was part of it. Born in Canada, he was an all-star defenseman in Montreal’s junior hockey leagues. He played for Western Michigan University in the 1970s before he transferred to what’s now called Ryerson University in Toronto.

He played briefly with his brother, Bernie, who went on to play 10 games for the NHL’s Quebec Nordiques, now the Colorado Avalanche, between 1979 and 1981.

Hockey helped lead John Saunders to Ryerson, the place where he fell in love with broadcasting. He developed into one of broadcasting’s best with an easily recognizable voice and easy on-air style that made TV viewers feel as comfortable as their favorite couch.

He was a versatile, knowledgeable presence on-air whether it was anchoring ESPN’s “SportsCenter,” working NCAA college basketball contests, doing WNBA games, hosting Stanley Cup Playoffs coverage, or moderating ESPN’s “The Sports Reporters” show.

“John was an extraordinary talent and his friendly, informative style has been a warm welcome to sports fans for decades,” John Skipper, president of ESPN and co-chairman of Disney Media Networks, said in a statement. “He was one of the most significant and influential members of the ESPN family, as a colleague and mentor, and he will be sorely missed. Our thoughts are with his loved ones at this extremely difficult time.”

NHL Network analyst and former New York Rangers General Manager Neil Smith – the mustachioed hockey player pictured with John and Bernie Saunders in the Western Michigan hockey photo -took John Saunders’ death especially hard, tweeting that “Life will never be the same” with his passing.

“One of the saddest days of my life today as I grieve suddenly losing my best friend of 42 years, John Saunders,” Smith tweeted.

The cause of Saunders’ death was unknown Wednesday. Although he traveled to Washington last week for the National Association of Black Journalists convention, the Saunders family said in a statement that “John wasn’t feeling well physically in recent days and sadly, he was unresponsive earlier this morning.”

“We appreciate all of the thoughts and prayers for our cherished father, husband, brother and uncle,” his family said.