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December 26, 2004
RIP, Reggie White
If you don't care about football or don't have a husband who has the radio in the bathroom tuned to sports talk radio, you probably have no idea who Reggie White was. A pro football player. A defensive end. Had the most sacks of any player in NFL history.
He was certainly a great football player and had a personality that matched his size. He's also being eulogized as an even greater person off the field. A number of football people believe that. Of course, it's expected to say nice things about a public figure when he dies, so I don't necessarily hold anything against these people, but...
I don't agree with them. John Aravosis at America Blog has compiled a selection of Reggie's greatest hits for your perusal. Some of them, especially the excerpts from the speech Reggie gave to the Wisconsin legislature have been fodder for Jim Rome and other talk radio personalities for years. The more vitriolic homophobic comments weren't ever given as much air time since they weren't funny.
Reggie White was a football player and a minister and was supposed to be a role model for the boys and young men who looked up to him as a great football player. He used that position to spread hate and fear. That's sad.
Posted by Half-Cocked at December 26, 2004 11:26 PM
Comments
Thank you. I was wondering when someone was going to mention this side of Reggie. Yes, he was great on the field. But he was far from great off it.
Posted by: Soup at December 28, 2004 08:40 AM