ESPN: Making Paul Haggis Look Like He Understands Race Issues

Those of you who have been around me long enough know that one of my favorite things to rant about is race. Especially race and sports followed closely by Paul Haggis' misconception of race and King Kong and racism. This rant falls in the first category (don't worry everyone, you will get to read long posts on both of the other issues as well).
Bill Parcells retired from coaching recently. Now I am not a big Bill Parcells fan, I think he is overrated and even if he wasn't always overrated is significantly past his prime at this point. It was sort of great watching him coach this past season when you could tell he just didn't care or just didn't know what to do. He just stood on the sidelines with a sort of jolly grimace on his face, as if to say "Yeah this is painful for me but its a helluva lot more painful for Jerry Jones." ESPN announced today that Bill Parcells would be joining its NFL broadcast team . . . . wait for it . . . . . . . waiting still . . . . . . . . .
ARE YOU KIDDING ME?
You have to be joking, right? ESPN is hiring Bill Parcells. Bill Parcells. The same Bill Parcells who in June 2004 made a very racist comment concerning the Japanese. (You can read it here as I will refrain from quoting it). The NFL did not so much as fine him, finding that he prefaced the statement by saying "no disrespect to the Orientals." I wouldn't even get started on his use of the word "orientals" (a rug is oriental not a person!) but somehow him acknowledging that his statement was offensive made it somehow better. Am I missing some leap in logic here? Or did the NFL just not want to say what we all know is true: its major demographic is not Asian so we are not all that concerned with offending them.
Not even a year early the same ESPN that is hiring Parcells fired Rush Limbaugh for stating that the media was building Donovan McNabb up because they wanted to see a black quarterback do well. Now I do not agree with this statement by any stretch of the imagination. First of all, if this were a true statement about the media wanting to see a black quarterback succeed it is not true that McNabb has not earned such accolades (for someone who may fit media build-up without actual success see Michael Vick). Second, the statement is ill informed and really the question that needs to be asked is "So what?" The NFL obviously has problems with African Americans in leadership roles and the quarterback position is no different (also there is the problem that the quarterback has not traditionally been the most athletic player on the field - that was the receiver or running back. Of course this builds on the stereotypical notion that African American athletes are faster and stronger than their more intellectual white counterpart. So much wrong with all of that . . . head going to explode . . . moving on)
Good for the media is my response to Limbaugh if his statement were accurate. I fail to see the problem with the media highlighting the success of an African American quarterback in the hopes that the NFL and football in general will shed some of its lingering racial stereotypes. ESPN's response to Limbaugh was to fire him (a great decision even without the McNabb comment. Limbaugh was awful and he knew so little about football it made me weep into my dry cereal every Sunday morning).
Whether you agree with ESPN's decision here is not really the point. The point is ESPN set the bar high. It said we will not tolerate racism or anything than can be construed as racism by any of our broadcasters. I applauded its stance than and severely criticism the company today for backing down on the stance with the hiring of Parcells. ESPN is sending the same message the NFL sent three years earlier: if you don't make up a good portion of our audience, we do not care. Now the reason for the Limbaugh firing of years prior becomes clear. It had nothing to do with a strong stance on a social ill that pervades the world of sports; all it had to do with was money. Seems that perhaps sports is color blind when the only color it sees is green.