Pat Forde of ESPN.com today writes this of LeGarrette Blount’s written apology published in the Eugene student newspaper last week:
(LeGarrette Blount and ESPN.com’s Pat Forde)
“While Blount’s letter follows all of the dos and don’ts you can find at www.perfectapology.com, it also carries the unmistakable whiff of a ghostwriter. Call The Dash cynical, but the likelihood that Blount was the solo author of that letter is roughly the same as Rice’s chances of earning a BCS bowl bid. (”Agony of defeat”? Now there’s a phrase on the tongue of every college kid. If this were the 1970s.)
Nobody here is naive enough to think Blount wrote the entire letter on his own.
But if Forde’s so sure Blount didn’t write the letter, why didn’t he contact Blount and ask him? Or Blount’s coach Chip Kelly? Or Blount’s “legal representation”? For Forde’s comment to be as brassy as that, wouldn’t you think he would’ve at least lined up some material evidence to support his aggresively condescending assertion?
Apparently not.
If the same apology came from Tim Tebow or Colt McCoy or Todd Reesing or Matt Barkley, do you think Forde would be so patronizing?
In my opinion, probably not.
So can one reasonably conclude that there could be a “whiff” of (unwitting?) racism in Forde’s statement? Perhaps.
I don’t disagree with Forde that an apology for a college kid with a history of unthinking behavior like Blount that reads as if it was written by Grantland Rice is ridiculous. In some ways, it does more harm than good.
But Forde’s overreaction is telling as well.
The fake-author alert went on for all of us when we read the first line of Blount’s apology letter, so why is Ford so intent on hitting us over the head with it?
4:00 pm on October 6th, 2009
Just because Forde implies that Blount is stupid, ignorant or even illiterate, how is that racism?
4:07 pm on October 6th, 2009
Read the post. Again. Not what I wrote.
We all know Blount probably didn’t write the apology letter. EVERYONE knows.
So why is Forde so off-the-charts patronizing about it?
4:35 pm on October 6th, 2009
Not sure what racism has to do with this……slow news day I see.
4:35 pm on October 6th, 2009
I see it more as a statement about “student-athletes” who don’t quite get the “student” part. The NCAA is full of idiots who wouldn’t be near a college if they didn’t play a sport. Blount’s actions on the field that night don’t exactly show the workings of a brainiac. But hey, he’s black, so criticism must be racist! And you can’t prove a negative, so until those other players you mention do something as stupid as Blount did, you are off base. Tebow has 3.7 GPA by the way, so I’m sure he could write his own letter. What’s Blount’s? (Oh better not ask that, that’s racist too!)
4:44 pm on October 6th, 2009
brooks, you’re at it again, huh! first with black sportscasters, now a columnist questions the word choice of an athlete and he’s a racist? Can’t a student/ athlete - black or white - be stupid, porrly educated an unlikely to use certain wording? in other wods, more athlete than student.
4:58 pm on October 6th, 2009
1000% no, there was no subtle racism in Forde’s assessment of Blount’s apology, though I’d like 1000 eyeroll smileys for this ridiculous post by Brooks.
6:15 pm on October 6th, 2009
“Read the post. Again. Not what I wrote.
We all know Blount probably didn’t write the apology letter. EVERYONE knows.
So why is Forde so off-the-charts patronizing about it?”
No Brook. Your voting poll asks a yes/no question to is it racist or not. When you put it in your title and then put a voting poll on it, it becomes the central theme of your posting - not that Forde is off-the-charts. That has become a secondary issue and really does not deserve much thought. He didn’t bring up the race issue, YOU did.
6:17 pm on October 6th, 2009
No Racism,
100% of all the apologies we’ve heard in recent years by public figures aren’t written by them, including ones written for the past six presidents of the U.S, I think the ONLY apology that was actually written by the person that said it was David Letterman.
hey did the the guy that posted before me write…
“be stupid, porrly educated an unlikely to use certain wording?”
isnt that a stupid uneducated way to write poorly?
6:18 pm on October 6th, 2009
“If the same apology came from Tim Tebow or Colt McCoy or Todd Reesing or Matt Barkley, do you think Forde would be so patronizing?”
To answer this question, probably not but he would to John Rocker and his forced reading-off-a-card-avoiding-most-eye-contact apology or if John Daly wrote it.
7:24 pm on October 6th, 2009
Forde is from Louisville and a local elite… racism.
9:18 pm on October 6th, 2009
Once again, anytime ESPN can be attacked by Brooks, it will be. This is such a non story……
9:52 pm on October 6th, 2009
Brooks, blacks are already WAY to fast to throw the tattered Race Card. You just acted as another facilitator. And you probably wonder why people who think President Barry is leading the country to Socialism with this Healthcare plan are labeled racists. Too funny.
Maybe Forde has the tone he does because the dumbass sucker-punched someone, then wanted to fight his own teammate and coaching staff, then wanted to go up in the crowd and fight all comers. He basically went berzerk. And he’s already learned his lesson (after other behavioral issues)? And Tebow and McCoy could pull off that apology without help - haven’t heard the other two talk enough. Sorry if the truth hurts.
1:14 am on October 7th, 2009
West Coast is amusing. One of those guys who has defined racism in specifically narrow terms so that people of color can always be accused, and people of entirely european decent can never be questioned. “blacks are already WAY to fast to throw the tattered Race Card.” Yes. Every time the guy at Starbucks gets my order wrong, I say it’s because I’m black. Sometimes, for fun, I say I’m “one of the blacks”.
9:26 am on October 7th, 2009
You hate Forde… WE GET IT.
10:23 am on October 7th, 2009
Patronizing, perhaps. Racist, don’t think so. If Tim Tebow wrote a letter like that he may not get the same reaction. But if Tebow sucker punched an opposing player, then tried to fight fans, then wrote the same kind of letter, then yes, it would get a similar reaction.
I think Forde might have been dismissive because he thinks Blount is some punk, but I wouldn’t call it racism since Blount earned that reputation with his actions.
2:19 pm on October 7th, 2009
I wouldn’t be surprised if Pat Forde was a racist
10:57 pm on October 7th, 2009
I’m going off on a tangent.
Wasn’t Blount suspended for the year?
What happened to repercussions for wrongdoings and accountability after the fact.
I guess because Blount’s a great athelete he gets a pass because the team is “too big to fail”.
Did everybody get a “whiff” of the political angle I interjected.