Race And Sports
What do people in the south think of Tim Brando? I've been listening to him for a while now, and sometimes (even though he's from the south) he kind of pokes at you guys...calls you out. He kind of comes off like he's superior than the average southerner, like he's more sophisticated. Today he called you out by saying the reason college basketball isn't as popular as college football in the south is because of race. In football, fans are rooting for the "armor" of the school: the helmets, colors, uniforms, etc. In baseketball, players aren't wearing all that "armor" and you can see the color of their skin. Some people, he said, can't get past that still.
I don't particularly care for Brando, never really have. I live in N. GA., there are still today some twisted minds out there, no doubt. I don't see how anybody could be a sports fan and a racist, just my two cents.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the response. I think it's possible btw, to be a sports fan and a racist.
DeleteHe's a complete LSU douchebag who's in love with the sound of his own voice & actually believes anyone, besides LSU fans, cares about the diaharia that he drools out of his mouth. He's constantly Skewered on not only his own radio show but anyones he is a guest on.
ReplyDeleteHe does love his voice, which I sometimes kind of laugh at. It sounds like he's get flem in the back of his throat sometimes! Probably an LSU honk because he went to Louisiana Lafayette, and they barely have a football program, so who else is he gonna root for? Tulane?
DeleteThere is some truth to that....how much....i dont know....but there is some
ReplyDeleteI don't like him. Anyone on the CBS college football analyst team I don't like.
ReplyDeleteEven though his show focuses more on pro sports, I still love hearing Cowherd talk about college football. He is an arrogant prick, but he calls it like it is.
ReplyDeleteAgree with both Scott, and AJ.
DeleteCBS should tell him, Daniels & Lundquist to take their circle jerk elsewhere.
ReplyDeleteThere's a lot of truth behind it Scott. He's an LSU homer who's had an axe to grind about Saban from the day he left LSU & it got even worse when he left South Beach for Tuscaloosa.
ReplyDeleteFeinbaum is the worst I have ever heard on the radio as far as being a homer
ReplyDeleteFinebaum's show was originally about Alabama football. Its just so entertaining it became nationally syndicated. Of course it is biased, but I think he is fair to other teams as well. He doesn't belittle other fans for the teams they like, ...and is usually good for conversation with callers that actually are logical and make fair points. His bias only comes out when there is an obnoxious caller. He is one of the reasons I got XM for my car.
ReplyDeleteFinebaum I got a problem with, ever since I saw him on OTL (can't remember the topic but it was probably CFB related) and he was debating with Bomani Jones. Finebaum just looked small time in that, stuck in his ways. He sounds like somebody who doesn't think good college football exists beyond the South, whereas Brando seems like he has more respect for the game, wherever it's played.
DeleteThey play football west of Louisiana and north of Kentucky?
ReplyDeleteI had no idea!
ReplyDeleteI'm not gonna get started with that discussion again, not enough time today!
Deletehaha I kid, I kid
DeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteDon't care for Brando at all. I don't get the vibe that he is talking down to felllow Southerners, and, if he is, screw him. Cowherd is a blowhard, and, not worth listening to. I can deal with Finebaum, although I don't listen all that o...ften.
ReplyDeleteAs for Brando's quip about hoops, it has more to do with what each conference chose. The ACC, upon its formation, decided to focus on basketball as its major sport (save SC and Clemson). The SEC (save UK) decided to focus on football. It really is that simple, IMHO. And, the ACC's choice has been to its detriment.
I enjoy Brando's show during the CFB season... I haven't tuned into his radio show the last 2 weeks & I am glad I didn't listen today.
ReplyDeleteThe thing about what Brando said, is that he's both wrong and right. I grew up in Arkansas. Lived in Missouri, Georgia, and Alabama. Spent time in Carolina and Louisiana. There's still a great deal of racism in the South, but it's not as formalized as I see it in other parts of the country. It's fluid. There are disagreements and fights and hatred, but those things can be set aside when there's an interest to do so. And in my mind, college football has done more than anything else in the South to put an end to racism, at least on some level. You can't have little white ten year old boys idolizing black men and have that not mean anything, in the end. There is an older segment of the population, however, along with a few younger folks who never had any interest in sports, who still retain strong racist sentiments. I do think Brando is right about one thing. It's easier for southern whites to root for black players in football, because it's a sport where there's less individuality. Unlike basketball.
ReplyDeleteI remember some of Pitino's Kentucky teams going into places like Columbia, South Carolina and being called every racist name in the book, even while there were lots of black players on their own team. And I remember how Arkansas (back when they were good, and going to back to back national title games in 1994 and 1995) walking into Rupp Arena and blowing Kentucky out of the building, and how shocked the white folks there were at the quality of basketball played by a bunch of black kids. In basketball, too, there are a couple of other things going on. First, basketball in the South used to be an exclusively white sport and there's still resentment about that, I think. Also, it's more of an individual sport than football, and you can't avoid seeing the faces and reactions of black players on the court. Usually you can distinguish the racists who hate basketball (at any level) because they'll throw around the word "thug" pretty carelessly. A "thug" is always an aggressive black player who is kicking your ass.
So Brando is right and wrong, I think. But in the end he's a decent, thoughtful guy. Finebaum on the other hand is an outright evil prick.
Very insightful thoughts, and I agree on your last part about Finebaum!
DeleteOne more thing. Allen is correct. The SEC has always been a football first conference. To the degree they've supported basketball, it was mostly a "northern" sport dominated by Kentucky, who wasn't any good in football. When football budgets took off in the 1970s and 1980s, the ACC refused to spend the kinds of dollars that were going to be necessary to compete with the SEC. Look at the budgets of the athletic departments at middle-of-the pack to the lower end of the SEC, it's ungodly.
ReplyDeleteFootball is a religion in the South. People everywhere around the country love it. But it's never as important, as critical, as loved as it is in the South. The South has long had an attack-and-die, gladiator mentality when it comes to war and representations of war (like football). It's as much the national sport there as soccer is in Europe.
Last comment:
ReplyDeleteThe ACC isn't really the South, in any meaningful way. Florida State is in the South. Miami isn't. Clemson is. But once you work your way up north to North Carolina, it's really a very different population of people. That stated voted for Obama in 2008 and despite his troubles he's doing pretty well there right now. North Carolina has more of an eastern feel to it these days, than a southern one.
I've heard other people consider D.C., Maryland, and Delaware part of the South also. Interesting.
Delete