Donovan McNabb: Uniter, Not Divider

A lot was made Sunday of Donovan McNabb's 384-yard, four touchdown game after the comments he made regarding the added scrutiny black quaterbacks face as opposed to white quarterbacks.

While I find some truth in McNabb's assessment that he made the HBO's James Brown, and I applaud him for a great game on a still recovering bum knee (granted it was against a hapless Lions defense), I feel we are missing an equally compelling story.

Of McNabb's 384 yards, 221 were on passes to Kevin Curtis, a white receiver. How fitting is that? McNabb has to hear categorized praise, like "He's the best black quarterback," while Curtis hears things like "Kevin Curtis? I thought we had Wes Welker (Or Drew Bennett, Mike Furrey, or another, um, "gritty receiver")." Is there any white receiver in the NFL who's not considered gritty, wiley, smart, or to have great hands. And by the same token, why is every black quarterback considered athletic? I've heard announcers call Byron Leftwich athletic, even though he's likely the least mobile quarterback in the NFL.

It was indeed fitting that McNabb complimented his comments with a game that breaks the stereotypical idea of the "atheltic" quarterback by helping a teammate break the stereotype of "gritty" possession receiver.