The first article I read in the Sun-Times this morning was Rick Telander’s piece on Brock Forsey. The poor guy (Forsey) doesn't even have his picture on his ESPN stats page. Anyway, the column is your basic story of how the underdog keeps beating the odds. These type of columns must write themselves. But Telander also makes the observation of how few white running backs (halfbacks) there are in the NFL. In fact, Forsey is the first white Bears halfback to run for 100 yards since the worst sports anchor in town, Mike Adamle, acccomplished the feat 28 years ago.
I then work my way through Mariotti’s column and what is he writing about? Well, I’m not sure what the point of his column is, but he uses a couple of paragraphs to bash some unnamed reporter for bringing up the fact that Brock Forsey is white to Kordell Stewart. Could this unnamed reporter be his Sun-Times colleague Rick Telander?
Now you might think that Mariotti would have more class than to criticize the guy who’s column appears right next to his. I wouldn't think that, but you might. But then you read this article and realize it's not so far-fetched.
Anyway, since I have an unhealthy hatred of Jay Mariotti, I’ll go ahead and take Telander’s side on this one. Now I don’t think it’s very important that there are so few white running backs out there. But it is somewhat interesting and I don’t see anything wrong with talking about it. And I also understand Kordell Stewart’s reaction. He doesn’t care what color the guy is, he just wants to win.
But I don’t understand Mariotti’s reaction. Why should he care what other reporters are asking? Can’t he come up with anything else to write about? What a punk.