An intelligent T.O. question (no moronic/racist responses please)

WHY IS T.O. SO HATED

The anger this guy seems to attract has never, ever made sense to me.
Can someone please explain this insanity of T.O.-hating to me? He's not
a Randy Moss who had all the talent but gives you a half-hearted effort
ON THE FIELD. He's very much a gamer, going all the way back to his
Steve Young 49ers days. Just look at the guy's body, he's in,
literally, PERFECT shape. He played hurt in the Super Bowl, risking his
career in a league with no guaranteed contracts, had a monster day, and
he's still reviled. But is there really anything different between him
and David Wells? I find T.O. downright refreshing. He gave HONEST
answers to the questions he was asked and is now being punished it.
What a great lesson for our youth, be honest and be told to goose-step
back in line. That's contemporary America for you, though. Don't be
honest, tow the company line, be a yes man, that's how you get ahead.

Is it race? Partly, I guess, and I usually absolutely hate when people
play the race card. I have to start to think so when 80 percent of the
country supports an indefinite suspension. For just opening his mouth?
What happened to all that matters is between the lines? When you pick
teams in gym class, you don't pick the A student or everybody's best
friend or the class president, you pick the kid who can kick that
kickball the hardest. Period. Any sane, logical person would take this
guy on their team any day. He flat out produces. He's one of the best
football players in the league, not just the best receivers. What is
wrong with people? Don't you want your team to win? You have no problem
rooting for rapists like Christian Peter or thugs with criminal records
(a significant percentage of the league) but god forbid a black man
opens his mouth and tells it like he sees it.

Or perhaps it's a product of a neo-conservative America, this
red-state militaristic nonsense about how players should be "good
Christian soldiers" who never show an emotion and never celebrate
anything is inane. And don't give me that "chemistry" nonsense
either, because there are a slew of teams who won not just Super Bowls
but all sorts of championships in other sports and the players couldn't
stand each other and ripped each other all the time. Heck, Thurman
Munson, Reggie Jackson and Billy Martin literally brawled it out in the
dugout and clubhouse on their way to World Championships.

Or maybe it's just Eagles fans or the city of Philadelphia. Look at the
rest of the NFC East in the past. Giants fan certainly didn't care how
LT mouthed off or dogged it in practice or how much coke he did.
Cowboys fans weren't clamoring for the suspensions of loose cannons
like Michael Irvin or Deion Sanders. The Redskins didn't seem to mind
John Riggins's hippie antics or Doug Williams's checkered history. WHO
CARES what a person SAYS? If T.O. is on my team, I don't care if he
says the sky is red or that Osama bin Laden is a great human being, all
that matters is what he does on the field. Conduct detrimental to the
team? Wait and see how detrimental it will be without him. They already
lost a one-score game to a division rival that they desperately needed.
Let's see how Donovan likes throwing to Joe Blow and Chuck Meola at
WR.

And that's the bottom line, by sitting T.O. the Eagles are throwing
in the towel on the season. Soup-boy Donovan McNabb has sunk so low as
to resort to lines like, "Uh, we're 4 and 4, not 1 and 7." 4 and
4! This was the consensus best team in the NFC according to almost
every single sports publication and betting line in the country! Now
he's proud that they're .500 instead of 1 and 7? Wow.

still looking for something remotely approaching an explanation,
Sean Hooks

SeanHooks@xxxxxxx

.