Bob McNair Not Racist But Houston Texans Owner’s Awful “Inmates Running The Prison” Comment Timely

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Bob McNair Not Racist But Houston Texans Owner’s Awful “Inmates Running The Prison” Comment Timely

I have to say something that Bob McNair is one of the finest people in the NFL I’ve ever had occasion to know.  I met him while pitching the Oakland Super Bowl Bid on November 1st 1999, in Chicago at the Hyatt Regency O’Hare, where Wilston sponsored a cocktail party.

Bob, or “Mr McNair” as I chose to call him as much as I refer to any person I hold in high respect, has never talked down to me, not made time to talk with me, or frowned at me (as trite as that sounds).

I am not Bob’s employee and never have been. In the first case, I was his equal: the head of Oakland’s effort to land the Super Bowl, just at the time he became the newest owner of an NFL team. In the second case, and still current, I’m still his equal: a member of the press – the fourth estate that covers the NFL.

Bob McNair has always been never less than kind, and when I started my media company, always available for a comment or interview, and words of encouragement for me to achieve success.

And that’s to this day.

If he were racist, Mr. McNair would have never done that.
Now that does not excuse what Bob McNair said one bit – and he knows it. As much as he made a mistake in endorsing Donald Trump, that was no reflection on who he is as a person or a member of the World business community. It was about power, and that leads to my next point.
The Golden State Warriors Draymond Green said it best: In 2017, you can’t use a ‘figure of speech’. “Figure of speeches aren’t OK in 2017,” he rightly said. “If I come out and give a figure of speech in 2017, I’m gonna get fined. I’m gonna get ridiculed.” Then Green went on to point out that it’s not OK in society, given that people don’t want to here something that’s offensive to a group of people.
We have to take action to protect good people who are unfairly ravaged on social media. Yes, the comment was plainly not one that should have been made, but what Bob McNair was saying was that he didn’t want the employees to run the firm. That opens a large conversation on such things as employee-ownership options, and also black athletes and where they spend their money.
To that, I say this: not enough black athletes think of themselves as business people who are equals to the people who own the teams they represent. For example, LeBron James had a shirt on that reads basically that whites in America don’t see blacks, even as we protest racist actions. I hated that t-shirt because it put us in the position of being powerless and begging for respect from someone white.
I like the alternative, Spike Lee style: invest in media companies (like mine) that spread a message favorable to black athletes. Help black entrepreneurs by investing in their companies like Zennie62Media (er, like mine). We don’t see that; what we see are black athletes like Andre Iguodala and Kevin Durant and Mr. Green investing in white startup companies like Postmates. Are we to call them racist? Just asking.
The main point is, Bob McNair is a good man who made a mistake. Indeed, it’s an error that can help shed light where’s its needed the most: on the issue of black wealth and self-esteem.

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