Luther "Luke" Campbell, the man
whose booty-shaking madness made the U.S. Supreme Court stand up for
free speech, gets as nasty as he wants to be for Miami New Times.
This week, Campbell wonders when Jacory Harris will get his due.
The sports media in South Florida is
really one-sided. None of the sports talk show hosts -- Joe Rose,
Jorge Sedano, and Sid Rosenberg -- has anything to say about
University of Miami quarterback Jacory Harris.
Now that he is performing well, these guys should give him his due. They can't deal with a young African-American doing an excellent job. Last year and before this season began, I read a lot of articles and blogs that claimed all the players whom former head coach Randy Shannon had recruited from Miami Northwestern High School were failures. That's a bunch of BS.
Those seven kids will play in the NFL when they leave school. Just look at the magic that Harris is creating with his former Northwestern teammate Tommy Streeter, a phenom at wide receiver whose time at the University of Miami was wasted by the previous offensive coordinator, Mark Whipple. Indeed, Whipple is the reason Harris played so poorly prior to this year. But you never heard the Roses, Rosenbergs, and Sedanos criticize Whipple with the tenacity they exhibited when going after Harris and Shannon.
UM alum Michael Irvin had a message for the media: If you're going to criticize me, praise me with the same intensity. I want see them praise Harris with the same force they used to vilify him. South Florida's sports reporters need to wake up. Jacory Harris deserves the type of credit that ESPN is giving San Francisco 49ers quarterback Alex Smith, who is white.
Everyone wrote Smith off before Jim Harbaugh became his coach this year. Now the young man is leading a 5-1 team and finally living up to expectations. Harris deserves the same type of coverage. But he won't get it because the lily-white sports pundits don't want to see kids like him succeed. To them, black quarterbacks are inept. Sportswriters and talking heads have a tendency to make African-American athletes the villains.
It doesn't help that there are only a token number of black sports journalists in the industry. Heck, there are no African-American sportswriters at the Miami Herald, Sun-Sentinel, or Palm Beach Post covering the Hurricanes or Dolphins, with the exception of Omar Kelly. Just look at how the media has treated Miami Dolphins coach Tony Sparano.
He has gone 7-9 the past two seasons, but he always got a pass because he's a "nice guy." No one was calling for his head until the Dolphins started the season 0-4. It is a double standard I find repulsive.
Follow Campbell on Twitter at @unclelukereal1.
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