Nathan Scandella (personal)

Double Standards

This weekend I busted LeBron's chops for not knowing when slavery actually ended. I'll give some time to the other side of the issue, on a point that's been bothering me for a while. As I've previously blogged, Seattle sports fans are not concerned enough about on-field performance, and too concerned about players' personalities. The support of Seattle fans has at times seemed highly arbitrary.

I'll mention the Seahawks rookie tight end, John Carlson (a white guy from Notre Dame). This guy has been considered one of the few bright spots this year, although I would argue that the Seahawks have been entirely overcast in 2008. In any case, after a strong start, Carlson has "caught" the dropsies that all the other Seattle pass-catchers seem to have (both the ones on the field, and the ones collecting paychecks in warmups each week). It wasn't very long ago, that the Seahawks' top pick was a big, athletic tight end, with a penchant for occasionally dropping a big pass. Jerramy Stevens was basically booed out of town, despite having produced arguably the best season ever for a Seattle tight end. Will Carlson be next for the boobirds? Somehow I doubt it.

Last week, he dropped two or three balls, including one in the end zone. Another drop ended a drive on 3rd down. But, of course, the news on Monday was all about Koren Robinson's dropped ball. Koren Robinson, the most productive wide receiver the Seahawks have this year. Of course, that's saying very little. But, on a per game basis (Robinson joined the Seahawks in mid-season), he's done more than Carlson.

It's also worth noting that Mike Holmgren kept the dunce cap on Jerramy Stevens for quite a while before finally letting him start ahead of the uniquely untalented Itula Mili. When Stevens was finally handed the starting job, he had a fine season. Carlson was given the starting job right out of college, and is on pace to have almost exactly the same numbers that Stevens did in 2005.

If it's simply a matter of John Carlson vs. Jerramy Stevens, it's hard to identify a pattern. But, my feeling is that the Seattle fanbase is giving white players more rope than black ones. While I can't really feel sorry for anyone, white or black, that gets criticized for playing a game badly, while making huge sums of money, a little consistency would be nice.

I'll end by mentioning a couple other examples. Luke Ridnour vs. Flip Murray, and Robert Swift vs. Jerome James. If you ask me, the fan support isn't correlating very well with performance in this city.

Posted at 11:35PM Nov 10, 2008 by Nathan in Sports  |  Comments[0]