Bernard Hopkins, in Philadelphia for his May 21 fight against Jean Pascal, invited reporters to watch him train Tuesday and decided to take additional verbal jabs at Donovan McNabb and even implied that the Washington Redskins quarterback wasn’t black enough
“Forget this,” Hopkins said, according to the Philadelphia Daily News, and pointed to his own skin. “He’s got a suntan. That’s all.”
According to Hopkins, McNabb had a privileged upbringing in Chicago and isn’t as tough as himself, current Eagles quarterback Michael Vick or Cincinnati Bengals receiver Terrell Owens, who famously had a falling out with McNabb before being released by Philadelphia in 2006. Hopkins said Tuesday that McNabb and Owens essentially didn’t speak the same language.
“T.O. got [into] the boardroom and saw the way they talked to McNabb. Coming from where he [came from] – that’s strange to some white people, when a black man speaks,” Hopkins said, according to the Daily News. He said Owens “[wasn’t] used to this language. [He’s] used to speaking up.’ “
While Hopkins feels that apparently only convicted felons count these days, if not for the fact that he is a Hall of Fame fighter who made a career of seldom getting hit in the head, one can only wonder what is going on in his. Mr. Hopkins is what’s wrong with African-American athletes who want to cry foul about their own upbringing. In short he is a player hater. He is also a fool.
Hopkins is hating on McNabb because his parents made the sacrifice of giving their child an opportunity for a better life than theirs? So now there is something wrong with the fact that McNabb comes for a two-parent family who did the best they could to give him guidance in making good decisions so he would not end up a nine-time felon like Hopkins, who was sentenced to more than 18 years in prison for a variety of punk moves?
It kind of reminds of the Jalen Rose – Grant Hill flap after the Fab Five Documentary, where Rose expressed his resentment for black players who went to Duke because many of them had come from two-parent middle-class families. Rose went on to make it clear that is how he felt as a teenager and has since changed his view on the matter, whereas Grant Hill felt compelled to set the record straight in the well known letter published in the New York Times. Since then both Hill and Rose have agreed to work together on furthering an academy Rose has set up in Chicago for underprivileged kids in Chicago. Good did come from their flap. I doubt if the same can be said for McNabb and Hopkins.
There are a number of single parents who bust their butts everyday to give their kids the best of what they have and teach them to do the right thing and guess what? They do not go to prison to show how tough they are. They set the right example, and yet they do not question a person’s “blackness.” What gets me is the fact Hopkins is apparently upset because McNabb took his football skills, used them to get an education as well as degree, and yes Bernard, he can even put two sentences together that we can all understand. Is it McNabb’s fault that T.O. didn’t pay attention when he got a chance to get an education?
Bernard Hopkins doesn’t get it and never will. You see, when you lack social skills it may be hard to comprehend. Hopkins feels that it makes him more of a black man when he questions another because he used to play quarterback for his favorite team. That’s real smart. Because McNabb grew up in a two-parent middle-class neighborhood, he is not black or tough enough. Because McNabb has not spent time in prison, it doesn’t make him hard. Funny thing here is that if Hopkins had done some homework he would have learned that McNabb had more in common with someone in Hopkins’ field of boxing than he could imagine.
Cassius Marcellus Clay Jr. came from a two-parent family in Louisville, Kentucky. His parents, Cassius Sr. and Odessa, raised two sons in Cassius and Rudolph who never spent a day in jail as a felon and he too had a “sun tan.” Cassius Sr. was a painter while Odessa was a house domestic – credible, honest living to say the least. Clay eventually changed his name to one that may be more familiar to you. I guess Muhammad Ali would not have passed the muster with Bernard Hopkins as far as being black.
Bernard Hopkins has put his foot in his mouth on more than one occasion when it comes to being uninformed. At 46, he is fighting again and because his fights have been lackluster at best recently, I guess this is the way he sells fights; he has to stoop to such a classless level to keep his name out there. If Hopkins can hate on McNabb because he thinks he is not “black” enough, I can certainly take a pass on Hopkins for just not being smart enough to do anything but box.
Any opinions, observations, or other mindless gibberish from him shall go ignored, as should his next fight.
