Colin Cowherd finally apologized. On air. It drew gasps, and came only after passionate hectoring by arguably the most famous person in sports media. You can see the reluctance on Cowherd’s face as he says the words: “I apologize right now to John Wall.”
And so ends the extended pillorying of Wall, an ascendent NBA superstar, by Cowherd, one of the loudest voices in sports-talk radio.
Maybe. At least for now.
But this isn’t really about Cowherd and Wall. Wall could have been anyone. Cowherd’s words — repeatedly painting Wall with tired stereotypes and using them to draw vast generalizations about his character — represent much more.
Cowherd’s obsession with denigrating Wall offers a gives a look into how norms and boundaries along racial lines are policed in America. It’s a wide open window offering a glimpse into how sports are used to enforce larger societal prejudices for personal gain.
It’s also an entry-level course in how words that ostensibly mean one thing are used to convey another for personal gain. In a whacked-out election year, there’s more than a whiff of familiarity to all this.
Yes, we’re looking at Donald Trump.
Cowherd, now with Fox Sports, first fixated on Wall during the player’s rookie season in 2010, back when Cowherd was at ESPN. Wall had the temerity to dance (aside: remember “The Dougie”!?) during pre-game intros. Cowherd’s had an obsession with Wall ever since.
After being pestered this week by Bill Simmons, a guest on his show, Cowherd finally offered a public apology to Wall following years of abuse.
Soon after Cowherd’s apology Keely Diven of CSN Mid-Atlantic compiled a list of some of the radio host’s rants against the Washington Wizards point guard and three-time All-Star. Here’s a small taste.
First, the “Dougie” rant that started it all in 2010:
Before the game started, he spent 34 seconds doing the Dougie. That tells me all I need to know about J-Wow. Then he opened his mouth later and confirmed it: not a sharp guy …
J Wow’s 37-second ‘Yo dawg look at me I’m the man [dance]’, and his wild, out-of-control style … He’s gonna end up on the Iverson, Francis, Starbury: great stats, nine All-Star teams, never play with good smart players and an elite head coach. He’s gonna drive people nuts.
It’s not robbing the bank, it’s that you planned it. It’s not just doing the Doggie [sic] for 35 seconds, it’s that you really thought before the game, this is gonna be super cool and people will like me. The wrong people …
My daughter’s 10. Ten years old. She knows the difference between right and wrong … The haves get it early, the have-nots never do
Now here’s another from the same year.
I’m a big believer, when it comes to quarterbacks and point guards. Who’s your dad? Who’s your dad? … Strong families equal strong leaders. Talent? Overrated. Leadership? Underrated …
(Wall’s father, by the way, died of cancer when Wall was eight years old. Wall is by most accounts a good and hard-working professional from a tough background.)
Not all of Cowherd’s barrages against Wall were so obviously tinged with racial undertones. But, as Diven correctly notes for CSN, the worst of Cowherd’s reasoning “force-fits one of the league’s most dynamic figures into a lazy, racist trope of the black player who is physically superior but intellectually flawed.”
Let’s widen the lens
Wall at a press conference this season.
Image: Nick Wass/AP
Meanwhile, America’s through-the-looking-glass election cycle this year has cast a new spotlight on an old phrase: Dog whistling.
It’s saying one thing to the population at large while delivering a coded message to a smaller group. It’s speaking in general terms, while “winking and nodding,” as MSNBC’s Joy Reid phrased it in March, to your true intended audience.
It’s Donald Trump lamenting “you can’t have a rally in a major city in this country without violence or potential violence” — but really vilifying urban-dwelling minorities to his largely white supporters.
It’s Cowherd calling Wall “not a sharp guy,” putting the words “Yo dawg” in Wall’s mouth, baselessly bringing up Wall’s father to spotlight supposed shortcoming as a player, implying the adult Wall can’t match Cowherd’s young daughter when discerning right from wrong, et cetera and so forth. It’s saying all of this supposedly about Wall, but really ascribing to him tired stereotypes that have been used to smear black men.
This isn’t to say Cowherd himself is a racist, although you can bet a segment of his audience is racist. (His show, by the way is called “The Herd.”) Cowherd is a professional provocateur. He hates on many people — hating is his thing, his schtick.
Maybe that’s a fine schtick — it’s “just sports,” right? But when racial dog-whistles and stereotypes that have been perversely baked into the American psyche for centuries are employed to stoke passions and boost ratings, there’s a problem.
Just sports, or something more?
Wall took his mother to the White House Correspondents’ Association Dinner in April.
Image: Evan Agostini/Invision/AP
Sports as an arena for policing cultural boundaries is hardly new or exclusive to the Cowherd-Wall dynamic. Acknowledged openly or not, there are racial undertones to so many sports stories — from the NBA dress code, to Jose Bautista’s bat flip in last year’s MLB playoffs and far more. But Cowherd railing against Wall for years at seemingly every opportunity brings the issue into unique focus.
Also worth noting is that Cowherd’s treatment of Wall fits into a behavioral pattern for the radio host. He was widely criticized last summer for remarks about Dominican baseball players, for example. For further reading, click over to a Deadspin post also from last summer called “Remember All Those Other Times Colin Cowherd Said Racist Shit on ESPN“?
But let’s bring our attention back to this week. Cowherd has apologized to Wall, for what nothing that’s worth. His bizarre one-man crusade against one of the NBA’s brightest young stars appears to have ended.
But Cowherd will likely fixate on a new target sooner than later. Because this isn’t about John Wall. It’s about saying one thing and meaning another. It’s about policing false boundaries and perpetuating specious stereotypes. It’s about stoking fear and loathing to pull more angry people into your fold.
Does that sound familiar, America?
Maybe this story isn’t “just sports,” after all.
One election from the presidency.
Image: Michael Snyde/AP
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