But Donovan McNabb is not Rex Grossman!

That's really the crux of my whole counterargument every time somebody takes the "lots of white QBs get criticized, so it's not racism" angle. While I agree with just about everything you said in that post except for the Grossman comparison -- the Manning and Favre comparisons function on a lot of different levels, and could each be entire posts in themselves, but I don't really want to devote the time to writing them -- I just really don't think you can compare McNabb to any of the white QBs who've gotten ripped like he has. (Especially because, really, only Rex Grossman can claim anything near the treatment McNabb's gotten.)

You (and a lot of others) point to Grossman. In a comment to my first post, C mentions Eli Manning, Grossman, Matt Leinart, and Chad Pennington. The criticism of those white QBs means nothing whatsoever relative to Donovan McNabb. Let's take a look at that list:

Matt Leinart -- has not yet started a full season's worth of NFL games, and has never done anything of particular note as a professional.
Sheli Manning -- has gone to two playoff games. In the first one he threw three picks and the Giants lost 23-0. In the second one he played adequately and the Giants lost again.
Chad Pennington -- well, at least he's been to a Pro Bowl, which gives him the honor of being the only one of the bunch remotely appropriate to mention in the same sentence. Then again, that was before those two major shoulder surgeries that made his arm so weak he can't throw a football forty yards.
Rex Grossman -- has thrown less TDs in his career than INTs. Has posted a quarterback rating of zero multiple times. Career QB rating is 69.3. Won two postseason games in his career despite having a career postseason QB rating that's even worse, at 67 and change.

And then look at McNabb. Five-time Pro Bowler. Finished second in MVP voting during his second year in the season, and again in 2004. Career QB rating of 85.5. Has the highest winning percentage of any active quarterback with 95 or more starts. Has more playoff wins (7) than any QB in Eagles history. Has the second-highest TD/INT ratio in NFL history. Holds both the first and second longest strings of consecutive completions, and actually once completed 25 straight passes against the Chargers, but was disqualified for having to spike the ball. Has rushed for nearly as many TDs in his career as Grossman has passed for. He also once threw for four touchdowns on a broken leg, something Tom Brady would be bronzed for doing, although you'd never hear about that in all the fragile talk.

Not to mention that he single-handedly reversed the fortunes of a miserable franchise. He got drafted by a 3-13 team and took it to the NFC title game two years later, and for three more years thereafter. And -- not that you'd ever hear this from anybody -- he was actually pretty fucking good in that Super Bowl, throwing for the third-highest yardage total in SB history and three TDs. They lost by three points, folks. There's no good reason to call McNabb a choker for that performance -- it's not like he pulled a Hasselbeck.

So, do white quarterbacks get criticized? Yes! Nobody ever said they didn't! Especially bad white quarterbacks! But no white quarterback who accomplished what Donovan McNabb has would ever get treated like he does by the Philly fans, the Philly media, and the national media at large. It just wouldn't happen. Peyton Manning prior to last year is the only ballpark comparison, and the only shit I ever heard him take was from Pats fans like Simmons -- his hometown papers weren't roasting him for every press-conference slipup. He was an icon in Indy.

And then there's what none of our regular readers (except for B, I would imagine) seem to understand, nor would you have any reason to or way of doing so, since none of you have spent significant time among a major East Coast fan base. In places as segregated as Philadelphia and New York, sports teams become emblems for the racial tensions of the city. I have personally heard Donovan McNabb called the n-word in public by Philly fans. (I'm not even going to mention what I've heard Giants and Cowboys fans call him.) I've heard him called a spook. I've heard it insinuated and said outright that the reason he hasn't succeeded as a quarterback -- because apparently he hasn't, in the eyes of many -- was because he was black. A guy at the Bar once started talking to me about Philly sports and then said, "Well, just look at the numbers. How many black quarterbacks have won a Super Bowl? One? And how many white ones have? I'm not racist, I'm just a realist."

But when he brings up race, white people across the country get up in arms and start pointing to Rex fucking Grossman as if he's a token of their own cultural sensitivity, instead of just a bad quarterback who gets rightly criticized. Because that's what white sports fans do: they claim racism isn't a concern, or at least not when it comes to them. They claim mentioning race is like playing a card, as if nation-building slavery and separate but equal were just game pieces used by blacks to move up a space. Well, in this case, the comparison just doesn't hold up. If you want to convince me that D-Mac is wrong, you're going to have to do a hell of a lot better than Rex Grossman, or even Peyton Manning.

If you want to read a couple of pretty interesting articles from other people who agree with him and know a thing or two about the Philly sports culture, click here and here.