Josh Howard/Josh Hamilton: Similar Plights But DIfferent Perceptions In The Sports Media -- Does Race Factor In?

I came by this article in an email from a reader suggesting I should post it and so I read it (really it only takes 10 minutes so don't be lazy. Do likewise) and it was certainly the most interesting analytical piece of social probing I've read sports-wise in a long time. Lots of good points made. All worth your consideration.

By Richie Whitt

Josh I has 26 tattoos, some of which are demons.

Belying a stable, middle-class upbringing, he has a résumé littered with revolving-door drug and alcohol rehab stints. He's a former crackhead who's admitted to driving drunk, getting high and not having the faintest idea what he might have done or where he might have done it on countless foggy last nights. He recently—only after photos surfaced on the Internet, mind you—confessed to a boffo binge in January in a Tempe tavern that ended up with him drunk, shirtless, covered in whipped cream and having his crotch massaged by three semi-dressed women, none of them his wife. In the eight months between incident and enlightenment, he continued selling his autobiography—Beyond Belief—and telling his motivational tale of born-again sobriety.

Josh II also has tattoos, including one of his grandmother's name. His childhood included a father walking out immediately after his birth and his severely bowed legs being broken below the knees and reset twice before age 2. He had an uncle killed in a robbery, a friend murdered and a sister jailed for, among other things, spitting on a cop. He's guilty of handing out birthday party fliers during a playoff series, admitting to smoking marijuana, getting arrested for drag racing and spewing out a vulgar dissin' of the national anthem at a charity flag football event.

The sagas of both Joshes sparked emotional feedback to the Dallas Observer and my Sportatorium sports blog over the last year. A sampling:

Josh I: "American hero"..."more respect for him than ever"..."never said he was perfect. But he is forgiven"..."Give the guy a break. He screwed up, but got right back on track."

Josh II: "He's just a dumb coon nigger"..."Hanged"..."I wish he'd go back to throwing spears in Africa"..."I'll never watch him play. Ever."

Josh I, of course, is Texas Rangers' two-time All-Star outfielder Josh Hamilton. Josh II, obviously, is Dallas Mavericks' former All-Star forward Josh Howard. None of their transgressions has hurt anyone other than themselves. And, relatively speaking, Howard shoots a basketball on par with how Hamilton hits a baseball.

So what gives? While Howard incited harsh criticism from yours truly and from readers—vitriolic backlash that would make even David Duke blush—Hamilton's immunity has been perplexing. You can try to ignore, dismiss or simply deny the truth, but the reality is that Hamilton comes equipped with two major antidotes in his battle for a pardoned public image:

Religion. Race.

Cringe, or even exit onto Naïve Lane if you want, but the reasons Hamilton skates are his white skin and his Jesus shield. Sorry, but our mostly white media—yep, the finger is pointing at me—and mostly white fan base treat Hamilton more favorably than Howard.

But what if Josh Hamilton was black? And Josh Howard was white? For starters, Hamilton would be immediately portrayed by the media—Me? Guilty as charged.—as a "thug" or a "crackhead punk" while Howard would be "misunderstood" or "outspoken." Howard would also, apparently, have his sins rinsed by religion.

From Robert Tilton to Quincy Carter we've seen our share of religious hypocrisy. Generally when athletes start quoting scripture we roll our eyes—something about the higher we praise Christians the bigger the bruises when they fall. Hamilton's latest pothole has invoked within me a blend of sympathy and cynicism. But to most, not even a dash of disillusion.

Second chances may be color blind. But we aren't.

Human beings tend to identify with people who look like them or share similar environments. Doesn't mean we're all racists. But we are all racial. We're easily manipulated by religion and readily influenced by color. All things equal, we'll side with our own.

Depending on where you live or what you read, there remains segregation in sports. Around these parts, similarly temperamental black players are "volatile" and white players are "fiery." Right, Terrell Owens?

As it is, Hamilton is the most beloved recovering crackhead on the planet. He's somehow the victim; addiction the villain. His story is so touching, so good, that we're moved to treat his comeback from a self-inflicted mess as some noble triumph. What, Marlon Byrd has never been tempted?

In fact, I've been criticized for referring to Hamilton as, among other things, a hypocrite. Even though he's a man who used to do A, promised to do B, but has again been caught doing A, Hamilton is somehow Teflon. Even though hypocrite is his word, not mine.

From a July 2008 story in The New York Times: "If I didn't (stay clean and sober)," Hamilton said, "I'd be the biggest hypocrite in the world."

Apparently Hamilton also forgot the evangelical virtues about being honest and forthcoming.

From his August 8 press conference in Anaheim in response to the incriminating photos that would work seamlessly in credits for The Hangover: "I don't feel like I'm a hypocrite. I feel like I'm human."

At that point, isn't it hypocritical to deny being a hypocrite?

If Hamilton was black, I fear the focus wouldn't have so quickly and smoothly shifted back onto baseball.

The player who takes part in I Am Second commercials but one night decided to bat himself first wasn't booed in Anaheim, Cleveland or Arlington, but was coddled and cuddled as an imperfect, try-hard addict. Which is great news for the Rangers, because after Hamilton's better-late-than-never apology, he finally started hitting. (Ironic that for Texas to sustain its playoff push they need an on-field relapse from Hamilton to his early '08 form.)

A black Hamilton's hiccup would've still been news, because when a team in the thick of a playoff chase has its best player admit to a night in which he got drunk, blacked out and put himself in jeopardy of getting suspended or even killed, well, that's big news. But the media wouldn't have let this one dissolve in the glass of warm water known as God, forgiveness and "nobody's perfect." If Hamilton was neither Caucasian nor Christian, questions would be asked. Legit questions, like ...

Where did he go and how did he eventually get "home" after leaving the bar?

Are we supposed to believe that the three women, after drinking with Hamilton and licking whipped cream off his naked chest and vice-versa, didn't accompany him out the door to...wherever?

In the months after the incident Hamilton continued selling his book and witnessing to groups and retelling his tale to the media about being sober since October 6, 2005. Isn't not telling the truth, the whole truth and nothing but, tantamount to lying?

If he supposedly was informed by Hamilton the day after the incident, why did personal chaperone Johnny Narron respond with skeptical disbelief when initially quizzed about the pictures?

Hamilton claims to have blacked out. Does it really make sense then for him to be apologizing for things he doesn't exactly remember and aren't we, in essence, forgiving him for things that are impossible to acknowledge?

What took so long for the eight photos to surface?

Is there a photograph No. 9? Perhaps a No. 10?

To most, Josh I comes off honorable. To some, Josh II will always be despicable.

Shame it's so black and white.

NBA Jerseys Reinvisioned (Conceptual NBA Jerseys)

The web is a wild and wondrous place full of things that catch your eye every so often. I was caught off guard more or less looking at some NBA jerseys that through cutting edge technology were reimagined by various designers. I saved a couple dozen to demonstrate what I mean so take a look, some you will like and some you won't but I'll be damned if I won't consider writing David Stern to make that black Houston Rockets jersey happen!

Alright the white Wade jersey is a little gay but the taxi colored David Lee New York Knicks jersey is a nice touch.

Louis Farrakhan On Michael Jackson Before He Died [Very Compelling Video]

I'm not going to act like I was a huge Michael Jackson fan while he was alive but I have come to understand Michael a lot more recently when I put his life in perspective and took a step back and viewed his perceived eccentricities. This video is Louis Farrakkhan who admittedly isn't my favorite person in the world for many many reasons but what he says in this video is very very interesting and worth your time to digest the sum of his thoughts about Michael and him addressing the nature of Michael's perceived freakish aura. So at least watch the video, then tell me if you think differently afterwards...

Fifty Facts You Probably Didn't Know About President Obama (Some I Didn't know)

(The most interesting facts are in bold)

• He collects Spider-Man and Conan the Barbarian comics

• He was known as "O'Bomber" at high school for his skill at basketball

• His name means "one who is blessed" in Swahili

• His favorite meal is wife Michelle's shrimp linguini

• He won a Grammy in 2006 for the audio version of his memoir, Dreams From My Father

• He is left-handed – the sixth post-war president to be left-handed

• He has read every Harry Potter book

• He owns a set of red boxing gloves autographed by Muhammad Ali

• He worked in a Baskin-Robbins ice cream shop as a teenager and now can't stand ice cream

• His favorite snacks are chocolate-peanut protein bars

• He ate dog meat, snake meat, and roasted grasshopper while living in Indonesia

• He can speak Spanish

• While on the campaign trail he refused to watch CNN and had sports channels on instead

• His favorite drink is black forest berry iced tea

• He promised Michelle he would quit smoking before running for president – he didn't

• He kept a pet ape called Tata while in Indonesia

• He can bench press 200lbs

• He was known as Barry until university when he asked to be addressed by his full name

• His favorite book is Moby Dick by Herman Melville

• He visited Wokingham, Berks, in 1996 for the bachelor party of his half-sister's fiancé, but left when a stripper arrived

• His desk in his Senate office once belonged to Robert Kennedy

• He and Michelle made $4.2 million last year, with much coming from sales of his books

• His favorite films are Casablanca and One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest

• He carries a tiny Madonna and child statue and a bracelet belonging to a soldier in Iraq for good luck

• He applied to appear in a black pin-up calendar while at Harvard but was rejected by the all-female committee.

• His favorite music includes Miles Davis, Bob Dylan, Bach and The Fugees

• He took Michelle to see the Spike Lee film Do The Right Thing on their first date

• He enjoys playing Scrabble and poker

• He doesn't drink coffee and rarely drinks alcohol

• He would have liked to have been an architect if he were not a politician

• As a teenager he took drugs including marijuana and cocaine

• His daughters' ambitions are to go to Yale before becoming an actress (Malia, 10) and to sing and dance (Sasha, 7)

• He hates sagging pants

• He repaid his student loan only four years ago after signing his book deal

• His house in Chicago has four fire places

• Daughter Malia's godmother is Jesse Jackson's daughter Santita

• He says his worst habit is constantly checking his BlackBerry

• He uses an Apple Mac laptop

• He drives a Ford Escape Hybrid, having ditched his gas-guzzling Chrysler 300

• He wears $1,500 Hart Schaffner Marx suits

• He owns four identical pairs of black size 11 shoes

• He has his hair cut once a week by his Chicago barber, Zariff, who charges $21

• His favorite fictional television programs are Mash and The Wire

• He was given the code name "Renegade" by his Secret Service handlers

• He was nicknamed "Bar" by his late grandmother

• He plans to install a basketball court in the White House grounds

• His favorite artist is Pablo Picasso

• His specialty as a cook is chili

• He has said many of his friends in Indonesia were "street urchins"

• He keeps on his desk a carving of a wooden hand holding an egg, a Kenyan symbol of the fragility of life

• His late father was a senior economist for the Kenyan government

Interesting...

Gilbert Arenas, In Perspective...

A lot of people give Gilbert Arenas (Washington Wizards Guard) a hard time on the court for his antics and the way he markets himself to the fans in his unique style but I personally always dug it. He overestimates his skill with his swag but I appreciate him trying to make things fun for his fans and I certainly respect that.

So anyway I check his blog from time to time and I recently came across an entry he posted last week that explains his relationship with his absentee mother who had him when she was young and it's not quite as touching as a Mother's Day Card but it goes a long way toward explaining Gilbert in a way that his on the court facade is incapable of. This is an excellent read, so check it out and see if you don't come out respecting him just a little more than you did before reading it:

I have something to clear up. I read a comment on my last entry. I always like to read the comments, because there’s always going to be somebody who disagrees with everything and goes against the grain. Someone commented and said:

WHERE IS THE WOMAN THAT GAVE BIRTH TO YOU? STILL LIVING IN THE PROJECTS. LIFE ISN'T FAIR, YOU GAVE SO MANY CHANCES TO LAURA, BUT NOT YOUR OWN MOTHER...

I thought about it and this blog post is my response to that comment.

For all the people who don’t know the story, a story came out two years ago by Mike Wise of the Washington Post about my life. This was before I had the blog, so I never actually got to comment on it. It was about what happened between me and my mother and all that.

The funny part is that I never heard the story of my upbringing before until we got put out of the playoffs against Cleveland the first time and my dad was just sitting there next to me and he says out of the blue, “How come you never asked about your mother?”

I was like, “I don’t know.”

He was like, “You never wondered where your mother was in your life?”

I was like, “No. When I was about eight-years old do you remember that fight I got in school and they kicked me out?”

He said, “Yeah, I remember.”

“Well, the other guy said something about my mother and then the fight started. While I was sitting in the detention hall waiting for you to pick me up, I thought about it. I’ve been fighting my whole life, beating up kids who talk about my mother and I don’t even know her. From that day I really took her out of my life and never thought about it anymore.”

So my dad says, “Do you want to hear the story?”

I say, “Not really,” because I’m watching the playoffs on TV and I’m still mad that we lost.

“You sure?”

“Not really.”

“Well, I’m going to tell you anyway.”

He starts telling me the story …

“You know, me and your mother … She was a basketball player and I played basketball and we met in Tampa …

And I go, “Oh, OK, so that’s where I get my athleticism from,” you know, I’m trying to throw little jokes in there on the side.

He goes, “No, no, Gilbert. Be serious.”

“OK, OK, go on.”

He was like, “I was in college at the University of Miami and she was living with her parents and me until she moved out to the projects with me in Tampa, Florida.”

So, she was in Tampa and he was in Miami going to college and he came down to visit her early one time to surprise her and me and long story short, she was there with somebody else and doing drugs. They broke up right there and he went back to school.

Back in Miami, he ended up breaking his leg and had to leave school to come back to Tampa to be closer to me I guess. While he was coming back to Tampa, he didn’t know it, but she was going up to Miami to move with the other guy because she was pregnant by the other guy.

Now, my mom had another kid by the dude she was moving to Miami with whose name is “Blue” living with us in Tampa. So when she ran off, she left me and my stepbrother Blue with the dude’s mother. The dude’s mother called my father and said, “I’m going to give you a second chance to be a father.”

She was like, “Francis,” (my mother’s name is Francis), “Francis hasn’t been here for months. She hasn’t seen her kids in months and I’m getting ready to turn your son over to the state. You can come down here and pick your kid up.”

So my dad drove down and picked me up right before the foster care was coming to get me. I guess my dad and my mom talked about it a couple months after he got me and they agreed that she was going to come and get me back. And she never did.

Next I stayed with my grandmother, my dad’s mother, in Tampa while my dad moved to California to try to find work as an actor. While I was living with my grandmother I lived across the street from Mike Williams who played football at USC. He’s not in the league anymore – I don’t know why. We were best friends though. Both of our grandparents still live across the street from each other in Tampa to this day.

Once my dad was settled in California he flew me out there to be with him, but he wasn’t established enough to support me, so he flew me back to his mother in Tampa to stay with her some more. Then he came to get me the final time and that’s when we drove all the way from coast to coast. This whole process took four or five years. My grandmom and my dad’s brothers watched me.

From there, it was just my dad and me. When I was little it didn’t bother me, but I always thought about it so when slow songs came on like when Tupac came out with “Dear Mama,” those were the songs that kind of hurt me, like, “Dang, where’s my mom? Is she ever going to see me? Is she ever going to come out here?”

But I never asked my dad, I was too proud to ask him because he had his own thing going on trying to get work and find work and keep getting into the acting thing.

So when I grew up, I never really asked. I was just bad. I put all my anger out by causing trouble. I didn’t get in trouble trouble like stealing and all that. I did stupid, funny stuff like Dennis the Menace trouble like you’re living in an apartment building and you break all the tops off the automatic sprinklers on the lawns so when the sprinklers come on, they just shoot straight up into the air like waterfalls. That was my kind of stuff. You know, throwing dye into the pool and making it red or green, that was my kind of stuff.

Once I started playing basketball I remember sitting at home one day and looking in the mirror with a basketball resting on my head and making a promise to God. The first thing I said was, “If you ever let me see my mother, I swear I won’t ask her anything, all I want to do is see her. I just want to meet her. I just want to be a kid who gets to meet his mother. I won’t ask no questions, I won’t think about it, I’ll let it go right there.” The second thing was, “If you ever get me to the NBA, I’ll never do drugs or anything like that.”

Both of them came true.

Meeting My Mom
It was 2002. I was on the Golden State Warriors and we were playing in Miami. It was the first time I actually put braids in my hair. This was when I had the little funky, ugly hairdo when I was trying to mimic Kobe but my curls wouldn’t curl right back then.

So it’s before the game, we’re on the court and I hear this woman screaming my name. I’m thinking, “I know I don’t have any fans like that in Miami. I mean, I know I get buckets, but I ain’t got no fans …” and then I turned around and saw the lady and she says to me, “I’m your mother.”

All I can remember is all the anger from all the years of beating up kids from them talking about my mother, it just got charged inside of me after I saw her. I played that game so angry that I got kicked out of the game for throwing my headband into the crowd.

After the game she met us by the bus and fell into my arms crying and said again, “I’m your mother.” Then she said her name. That was the first time I had ever seen her. I never even saw a picture of her before. I didn’t know if she was dark skinned/light skinned, I didn’t know nothing. She gave me her number and we had to go, so I got on the bus and I called my dad.

“Yo, what was my mom’s name?”

“Francis.”

“Well, I think I just met her.”

He asked for her number and he called her and that was the last I ever heard of her until my dad told me the story after the Cavs series and it was the last time I ever saw her Mike Wise’s story included a picture of her. When I saw her by the bus it was all a blur, I didn’t really have an image of her in my head. The first time I got to see her see her was when that article came out.

So, back to the comment. When the commenter goes, “How come you never gave your mother a second chance?” I thought about it. That’s not a question you need to be asking me, that’s a question you need to be asking her.

You give somebody a second chance when you’ve cut them off in the past. Like, if I fire somebody, for instance, I could give them a second chance. She left me. She should have given me a second chance. That’s how I look at the situation.

My grandma has been in that same house in Tampa since my dad was little, almost 60 years living in the same house. She hasn’t moved. You know where to find me.

That’s how I look at a lot of people in my family. When me and my dad left, where were they? My dad keeps in touch with a lot of people in the family. I don’t. I feel that those are his family. On my side, all I know is my dad. He’s my family.

Me and my dad get in arguments about this because when we were struggling, we were they? We’ve been away from them for 15 years and I never got one card, no happy birthday, no nothing. I didn’t get anything. No one called me, I didn’t talk to anybody. Everyone started to talk to me because I was playing in college. I remember them, but at the end of the day, they’re strangers to me now.

How I look at the situation with my mom is, I don’t want to know you as a basketball player. I’ll know you when I’m done playing. I’ll know you as a man. Like, “These are my kids. This is my family. How are you doing?”

I don’t want to know you as an NBA player because I don’t know what the angle is. I don’t know if you want to reconnect with your son or if you want to reconnect with the man who is playing in the NBA. If I was your son, then I was your son for all of these years. I wasn’t your son once I made it to the league so you can tell all your friends, “Oh, that’s my son!” That’s how I look at the situation and it’s kind of funny because I never really thought about it until I read that comment.

I heard she has eight other kids besides me and they don’t live with her, but I don’t judge people because, hey, who knows what happened in her life that made her do the things she did. She was a young mother who probably couldn’t take care of things and that happens. I don’t fault her for that. I became a man and with my children I know what not to be. I don’t want my children looking at me how I look at her.

There’s going to be one day when I knock on that door and say, “Hi, I’m Gilbert. I’m your son.” But not while I’m playing basketball. I don’t want nobody coming into my life while I’m a pro because there’s been all these years when I wasn’t and no one came into it.

Me and my dad, we don’t see eye to eye on this. He tries to bring up the past like, “They took care of you …” and this and this and I’m like, “I understand that. They took care of me for those years when I was young, but there’s been a 15-year gap when I didn’t hear from nobody.” You know them because they’re your brothers and they’re your friends, but I don’t know them personally. I grew out of them.

There’s a lot of players that are going through this and there are a lot of people who are going through this and everybody has to deal with it the way that they see it. I see it that I grew into a man and I have to make a manly decision and my decision is that while I’m a professional, I don’t want to know you. When I’m done and I’m just a man and a father, OK, there we go, we can try to reconnect my relationship with her.

For the person who wrote that comment, I don’t take as disrespectful, but I look at it like she should have given me a second chance instead of me giving her a second chance because I never did anything to her. I just don’t know her.

I’ve never been tempted to call her after she gave me her number back in 2002 because I felt like I would be lying to the man above. When I prayed that day, I told Him that I wasn’t going to do anything or ask her anything. I just wanted a chance to see her and I got that.

Plus, once I grew out of thinking about her all the time, I didn’t have any questions really. There was nothing I wanted to say. I didn’t want to say, “Why did you leave me?” because to be honest, I don’t care. I say I don’t care because it got me to the situation I’m in now and I became a better person. And, I can’t judge because at the end of the day, it could have been flipped where I’m looking at my dad the way I look at her if he hadn’t had come and got me or if she wouldn’t have left me. I’d be looking at my dad like, “Who are you? I don’t know you.”

Some people are fortunate enough to have two parents. I was fortunate to have just my dad.

Respect, Gil.

NFL Players Mull McCain-Obama Choice

This is a really good read from Yahoo and it presents an interesting dilemma to people that make a decent amount of money and speaks to their reasoning be it their pocketbooks or their heart and how they see the need for change. You should enjoy this:

ASHBURN, Va. (AP)—As the presidential race revs up, political conversations in NFL locker rooms echo those in workplaces nationwide.

Taxes. Economy. McCain. Obama. War. Terrorism. White. Black.

And a choice for these high-paid athletes: principles or pocketbook?

“We’re right in the middle,” said Washington Redskins veteran Philip Daniels. “We’ve all got family members that are not doing so well. Democrats would help them out, but Republicans would help us out.”

The 35-year-old defensive end sat in front of his locker not far from the nation’s capital and analytically explained how his political color has changed from blue to red and back to blue again. Everything about Daniels’ upbringing screams Democrat. He’s a black male who grew up in modest surroundings in a small Georgia town. He majored in social work in college.

Everything about his income screams Republican. He’s made millions many times over in his 13 years as a professional athlete, and the thought of paying higher taxes under a Democratic administration led him to vote for President Bush in 2000 and support the president’s re-election in 2004.

“I used to be a Republican,” Daniels said. “I wanted Bush in there. The previous years I’ve been Republican because of what we make, but this year’s a little bit different. I think this year more guys are not even thinking about the income part of it. They’re just really thinking about the economy and the country. A lot of people want change.”

If the contest between Sens. John McCain and Barack Obama has energized the U.S. public as never before, locker rooms across the country are reflecting the trend. Players whose jobs are based on wins and losses identify with the wild swings of the who’s-leading-and-by-how-much grind of the campaign.

The clear preferences from some athletes stand in contrast to former NBA superstar Michael Jordan’s unwillingness to take a stand in the 1990 North Carolina Senate race between Republican Jesse Helms and Democrat Harvey Gantt, who was bidding to become the first black southern senator since Reconstruction.

“Republicans buy sneakers, too,” Jordan famously said, though he later endorsed Bill Bradley’s presidential campaign in 2000.

“We spend an hour a day talking about this exact subject—in meetings, on the plane, in the locker room,” New Orleans Saints linebacker Scott Fujita said. “I think it’s just because there’s a new interest in politics this campaign season, more than there’s ever been as long as I’ve been following it.”

The historic nature of the contest, which includes the first black man to win a major party nomination and a female vice presidential candidate, makes the topic more compelling.

“As a black male, am I excited about Obama being a candidate?” Miami Dolphins defensive tackle Vonnie Holliday said. “Where I can tell my son, who is 3 years old, ‘Believe it, you can be president one day’? Yes.”

Holliday emphasized, however, that he is voting Democratic because he wants “fresh energy and a change.” In interviews, players overwhelmingly said their votes in November would not—and should not—be based on race alone.

“That’s the thing that a lot of African-Americans fall into: ‘Just because he’s black, I’m going to vote for him,”’ said Redskins defensive end Demetric Evans, an undecided voter who is black. “You need to know why you vote for him. You need to know what he stands for.”

The discussions and mini-debates, however, always seem to come back to money. Days after Daniels expressed his feelings inside the Redskins locker room, teammate Ethan Albright held up a stamped envelope containing his absentee ballot, ready to be mailed to his home state of North Carolina. As he put the envelope in his locker, cornerback Shawn Springs called out: “Why you like McCain?”

“I like him,” Albright replied with a nod, “because he ain’t raising taxes.”

That’s a sentiment reiterated by New York Giants punter Jeff Feagles, also a McCain supporter.

“He is going to tax the wealthy, which is what we are,” said Feagles, referring to Obama. “We are in that category. You look at those kinds of implications, and I hate using that word, it will affect us.”

Feagles’ teammate, defensive end Mathias Kiwanuka, couldn’t disagree more.

“It’s insulting to think you would vote based on how it affects you financially,” Kiwanuka said. “I had that conversation even before I got my signing bonus. It’s a matter of general policy and what you believe in and what that person stands for. … When you look at it, I spent the majority of my life with an average upbringing to say the least, and that has shaped how I vote a lot more than the last couple of years living this lifestyle.”

Torn between the two arguments is Redskins cornerback Fred Smoot. He was one of the few Washington players to publicly support Sen. John Kerry four years ago, but this time he has yet to make up his mind.

“We’re coming from Democratic backgrounds, but we got Republican money right now,” Smoot said. “That’s kind of hard, because you see it from both sides.”

The spike in interest isn’t limited to the NFL. NBA superstar LeBron James attended an Obama rally last weekend in Cleveland, while Boston Red Sox pitcher Curt Schilling appeared with McCain at a NASCAR race in New Hampshire last month.

NASCAR team owner Joe Gibbs addressed this year’s Republican National Convention, and Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban has dished out unsolicited advice to both candidates on his popular blog.

Politics can be a touchy subject for athletes. Some find the topic too polarizing to discuss for public consumption. Others have never voted and simply have no interest.

“I was one of those people who was registered, tried to do the absentee ballot thing in ‘04, and didn’t get it done,” Redskins cornerback Leigh Torrence said. “This year I’ll make sure that’s not the case.”

Torrence is making up for lost ground in other ways. He and teammate Lorenzo Alexander attended a voter registration drive last month in Richmond, Va., and he’s been trying to get as many of his teammates registered as possible. Fujita has made a similar push with the Saints, encouraging teammates to register to vote in Louisiana.

Not everyone feels politics belongs in the locker room. On Wednesday, before Cleveland Browns quarterback Brady Quinn introduced McCain at a rally in Strongsville, Ohio, Browns coach Romeo Crennel told his players in a teamwide address that he didn’t want to hear political debates on the job.

“Their politics are their politics as long as they don’t interfere with the team,” Crennel said. “That’s my main concern, that they don’t get on a soapbox here in the locker room and get it going back and forth about a particular candidate against another candidate. That’s why the ballot is a secret ballot when you go vote.

“(Quinn) took the time to do that, but as long as he keeps it outside the building and outside the team, that’s his choice.”

Four years ago, it was not uncommon to find Bush-leaning athletes unwilling to speak openly about their preference because they didn’t want to be perceived as voting against their ideals just to get a better tax rate. Some who went public for Kerry were chided by teammates because Kerry, like Obama this year, proposed raising taxes on the wealthy.

This year, the dynamic appears to have shifted. Several players said the locker-room banter suggests many of their teammates are mirroring Daniels’ example and switching from Republican to Democrat. If the Redskins were a state, there was little question that Bush would have won its electoral votes in 2004. Asked what would happen this year, Smoot said: “It’s a blue state.”

“There might be some years where honestly you’re like, ‘Hey, what might be best for me fiscally,’ and you may feel like a Republican slant may be a little more appropriate,” New York Giants defensive tackle Barry Cofield said. “But I think after Bush’s reign of terror, you know, and what we are seeing out of Sarah Palin, I think regardless of your financial station, I think it is pretty easy to support Obama.”

That’s not to say McCain doesn’t have a solid core of supporters. After putting his absentee ballot in the locker, Albright emphasized that his preference for the Republican had as much to do with experience as taxes.

“McCain’s been in office his whole life,” Albright said. “I like somebody who’s experienced. He’s not going to make a quick, rash decision. If I’m having heart surgery, I want somebody who’s done it before.”

Kansas City Chiefs center Rudy Niswanger called himself “a McCain man, for all the obvious reasons.”

“I appreciate the sacrifice and courage he’s shown,” Niswanger said, “and I think experience is very important in that job.”

The dilemma gives some a reason to opt out of the process entirely.

“I don’t think I’m going to vote,” said Washington running back Clinton Portis, the Redskins star known for his colorful opinions. “Because I make Republican income, but I need the Democrats in office, so which way do I go?”

That’s one electoral decision that doesn’t sit well with Torrence, who has worked so hard to get his teammates involved in the process.

“Regardless of what your beliefs are,” Torrence said, “I think it’s your responsibility to vote.”

AP Sports Writers Tom Canavan in East Rutherford, N.J.; Doug Tucker in Kansas City, Mo.; Steven Wine in Davie, Fla.; Brett Martel in Metairie, La.; and Tom Withers in Berea, Ohio, contributed to this report.

Who Does The World Want To Win The Election?

Click here and see a breakdown by country.

Obama & McCain On Movies, Music, TV Shows & More

Entertainment Weekly sat down with Senators John McCain and Barack Obama for some Pop Culture Q&A -- with some surprising answers.

McCain's favorite film/TV president, for instance, is President David Palmer, played by Dennis Haysbert, on 24. "He’s fabulous," McCain says. "He’s a guy who makes tough decisions, he takes charge, he’s ready to sacrifice his interest on behalf of the interest of the country."

And what of the fact that on the show Palmer was the nation's first African-American president?

"You know, I hope that I and all Americans can be color-blind about any president," McCain said.

(No mention of the fact that Palmer was assassinated.)

Obama, meanwhile, is partial to Jeff Bridges in The Contender.

"He was charming and essentially an honorable person, but there was a rogue about him," Obama says. "The way he would order sandwiches – he was good at that." Obama jokes that he similarly wants to test the White House chefs. "I want to see if I can get any sandwich I want," he says.

Of superheroes, McCain likes Batman.

"He does justice sometimes against insurmountable odds," McCain says. "And he doesn’t make his good works known to a lot of people, so a lot of people think he’s just a rich playboy."

Obama says he "was always into the Spider-Man/Batman model. The guys who have too many powers, like Superman, that always made me think they weren’t really earning their superhero status. It’s a little too easy. Whereas Spider-Man and Batman, they have some inner turmoil. They get knocked around a little bit."

Despite the fact that much has been made of his lack of internet prowess, McCain says he watches Youtube spoofs of the campaign.

"I've seen some of them," says the Arizona Republican. "Some of them are too painful for me to watch. One of my favorites is 'It's Raining McCain.' But I also like that early one they did for Obama" -- a reference to the pro-Obama will.i.am song "Yes we can" -- "That was really excellent."

The first movies they recall seeking in theaters?

For McCain it was Bambi. "When his mother was killed," McCain admits. "Oh, yeah, I cried."

For Obama one of the first was Born Free. "I remember that movie having an impact on me," Obama says. "I think I may have teared up at the end when they release [the lioness] Elsa. I couldn't have been more than 4 or 5, but I remember choking up on that."

The last movies they saw in theaters were the latest Indiana Jones vehicle for McCain -- "I enjoyed that so much. The old guy wins" -- and for Obama Shrek 3.

McCain lists his favorite Vietnam films as We Were Soldiers, Full Metal Jacket, Coming Home, Born on the Fourth of July, and Apocalypse Now. Viva Zapata! is his favorite film.

"Elia Kazan made three movies with Marlon Brando," McCain recalls. "One was A Streetcar Named Desire, one was On the Waterfront, and the third was Viva Zapata! Many people think Brando's performances in Streetcar and Waterfront were his best. I think Zapata! was his best. I'm in the minority about this. But go back and watch the scene of his wedding night, with [Brando] and Jean Peters — the actress who later married Howard Hughes, who made her give up acting — when she teaches him to read by taking out the Bible and reading it with him. That's a poignant scene."

Of TV shows he liked watching growing up, Obama mentions M*A*S*H and The Dick Van Dyke Show.

Who controls the remote at home?

Generally, Michelle Obama. "Most of the time," says the Illinois Democrat, "the TV is on HGTV, and I suffer that silently...She likes American Idol, her and the girls, in a way that I don't entirely get."

The McCains fight over control of the clicker.

"Foolishly she continues to try to assert her control over the remote," McCain jokes about his wife Cindy. "This is a battle that will continue for a long time. But there are shows we agree on. We like the reruns of Seinfeld. I really like Curb Your Enthusiasm. I kind of like Dexter, too, although it certainly has a macabre side to it. I'll tell you that Cindy likes Big Love — I haven't watched it much, but she enjoys that. And I like The Wire a lot, too. That's a great show."

The last videogame Obama played was pong. "That gives you a sense of my age. I loved that game."

On Obama's iPod; Frank Sinatra, Sheryl Crow, John Coltrane, Bob Dylan, Javanese flute music, African dance music, a lot of R&B.

And McCain cops (again) to more ABBA love, though he notes "'I'm also a Roy Orbison fan and a Linda Ronstadt fan — all the ones whose place in the spotlight ended some years ago. But I like Usher, too. I was on Saturday Night Live with him, got to see him perform, and I was very impressed with him."

For some reason I think McCain is reaching out to the black community with those answers because I damn sure don't think he's fucking with that on his own.

Interesting Audio About Barack Obama & His Mother & His Background

I expect, although I don't automatically assume to a 100% certainty, that a good number of you are Obama supporters, not unlike myself, and in the spirit of sharing interesting polls, stories and tidbits about the man that I come across, if you have four and a half minutes you really should hear this synopsis of Barack Obama and his mother and her background and influence on Barack and take the few minutes to appreciate where he comes from. This is from TIME Magazine:

Inside Look at Barack Obama by TIME Magazine

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(Spotted at C&D)