Great SI piece on UCLA's Kenny Washington and Woody Strode, who were shut out of the NFL during their best seasons because of a "gentlemen's agreement" by owners not to sign black players. Their stories and accomplishments--many say Washington was a better baseball player for UCLA than Jackie Robinson--are sadly not known by many people.

sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vault/article/...MAG1161017/index.htm

The league instituted a 20-round draft in 1939, yet no team chose an African-American until 1949. Even with the advent of World War II, when the NFL was so shorthanded that a desperate Halas coaxed Bronko Nagurski out of a five-year retirement and owners considered signing high school players, blacks needed not apply.

The snubbing of Kenny Washington indicts the football establishment more than any other exclusion. Though he led the nation in total offense as a senior in 1939, and played 580 of a possible 600 minutes by doubling as the anchor of the defensive secondary, Washington was relegated to second-team All-America by Hearst, the AP, the UP and Grantland Rice, while the East-West Shrine Game passed him over entirely. Yet when Liberty magazine polled more than 1,600 collegians on the best player they had faced on the field, Washington was the lone man named on the ballot of everyone he played against. It is only fitting that Washington—of whom former UCLA teammate Ray Bartlett once said, "He could smile when his lip was bleeding"—gouged the first bricks out of the NFL's all-whites wall.

The story of the NFL's integration offers no comfort to the league, which would prove notoriously slow to trust blacks with the positions of greatest responsibility, on the field, along the sideline or in the front office. Nor does the story offer the angels or redemptive moments we'd like or expect. "Integrating the NFL was the low point of my life," Strode told SI in an unpublished interview before his death. "There was nothing nice about it. History doesn't know who we are. Kenny was one of the greatest backs in the history of the game, and kids today have no idea who he is.

"If I have to integrate heaven, I don't want to go."

The New York Brown Bombers, an all-black football team, would regularly scrimmage (and beat) the Giants during the 30s and 40s.

It is also interesting to see where my soul will lie today. I truly won't know until the ball is kicked off, even if my gut says Saints at this moment.

Made your mind up yet, JV?

Flacco just out-Favred Favre but the kicker fucked it up. Such a good game but the wrong team won. These Vikings are legit, maybe not on the level of JV's #1 team, but certainly equal to his #2. (BTW JV, that's a huge violation- you can't have two teams, let alone in the same conference).

Well, because of my unholy connection to the Shockster, I found myself definitely saying WHO DAT.

I've come to the disturbing realization that I am a Shockster Fan.

And no, D-Kev, it is not a violation to cheer for more than one team in the same conference, as long as it's not equal. For instance, I'm always loved one team, liked a few, and pulled for the rest. For instance:

Loved
Giants

Liked
Saints
Lions

Pulled For
Packers
Buccaneers

Eh
Vikings
Panthers

Disliked
Cardinals
Seahawks
Eagles

Hated
Falcons
Rams

Pit of Hell
Niners
Bears

The Center of the Pit of Hell
Dallass

Kev is just trying to deflect attention from his team's result against the Raiders.

I still don't like Sean Payton for being a scab, but I'm rooting for the Saints this year.

Jesus. Sounds like fans in DC are just a few steps away from putting Dan Snyder's head on a pike.

So THIS is what it was like to cheer for Troy Aikman, Emmitt Smith, and Michael Irvin. Or Joe Montana and Jerry Rice.

I remember how those Cowbizzle teams would never be out of any game, or how no lead was ever safe.

This Saint team is just incredible. The Shockster is just incredible. Darren Sharper is just incredible.

Whatta year for this team.

Is parity dead?

Great headline, but a little misleading. Look only as far as last years Superbowl. The Cards barely made the playoffs. They are one of the 'have-nots' and made a major breakthrough by getting to the big game. .One of the blow-outs last week he didn't mention was the Bears getting destroyed by the Bengals. Didn't fit in to his thesis, unfortunately. I did agree with the final assessment in the article that well managed teams win. Because of the salary cap, draft and weighted scheduling, you can't buy your way into a championship. You won't see a Man City type thunderbolt hitting the NFL anytime soon, and that's the appeal.
With the NFL playing in London last week Tom Brady got a lot of press. Can you imagine the Ronaldo-esque money that teams would be throwing at a guy like that if there weren't wage restrictions?
The oft pointed out irony of the socialist NFL and ultra free market European football set-up never ceases to shake my head.

Yet another gasbag idiotic article from some fuckface who still hasn't figured out how to use his brain. People need to shut their fucking mouths. I mean I remember an Entertainment Weekly article a decade ago how the X-Files was scarier than the Twilight Zone and Seinfeld was funnier than the Honeymooners. Why do journalists not get the James Bond Casino Royale balls treatment when they come up with asinine articles like this or that ? I mean does that motherfucker still think that shit ?

Just two years ago almost every team was 7-9 to 9-7. The NFL never said no team couldn't dominate, it always said "Any Given Sunday." In other words, you never know when a shitbag team can beat a great one, as what nearly happened with B-more and the Pats 2 years ago.

And quite frankly, it is parity to have a bunch of teams at 6-0 or 6-1. It's just a smaller circle of parity. Watch the fucking tv ratings when the Saints play the Giants or Vikes in the playoffs or the Steelers/Pats/Colts logjam and then see how useless this stupid shit-for-brained article is.

jv....

www.philadelphiaeagles.com/photos/index.asp?section_id=1751

What's the official name of that Eagles uniform colour btw?

Shitty City Loser Green.

JtS......

Kurt, it's called "Midnight Green", and yes, it doesn't make any sense in English either.

See JV, this is precisely why your second team/plan B is a violation.
bah..
Bless you Eli, bless you.
Bring on dem Cowboys.

No it isn't, because that playoff game last year was as vile, bitter, vein-corroding as it gets.

Your final memory of myself as a Giant will be with myself gritting my teeth and banging my head against the wall and kicking holes in the walls. I went out as a loser.

Remember that fat Giant guy crying last year ? That was me. I actually understood everything he was thinking and feeling.

Think of it like when Jim Cornette or Bobby Heenan had one of his wrestlers lose to the local favorite in a loser-leaves-town match, only for that manager to have a bigger and badder villian the next week. Think of me as Ric Flair.