During the NFL Playoff Game between the New England Patriots and the Houston Texans, CBS Sports’ Jim Nantz Twice Provides Viewers with a Racial Non Sequitur

By Nicholas Stix

In the first quarter, the Pats’ Dion Lewis ran back a kickoff for a 98-yard touchdown, to give the Pats an 11-point lead (14-3) over the Texans. (Lewis had previously caught a screen pass from Tom Brady, and run it in from 13 yards, for the Patriots’ first score.)

Immediately after Lewis’ kickoff, sideline reporter Traci Wolfson said that the Texans “had to hold back Jadeveon Clowney,” who could be seen raging.

When you hold someone back, you’re holding him back from getting to someone—a teammate who blew a tackle (which happened on Lewis’ kickoff return) or a coverage, a referee, etc. If Clowney had assaulted someone on or off the field, it would have cost his team a major penalty for unsportsmanlike conduct (15 yards), and might have resulted in his getting tossed out of the game.

Veteran CBS Sports game announcer Jim Nantz responded that Clowney was “trying to exercise some leadership ability on the sidelines.”

Huh?!

The better part of an hour later (9:40 p.m.), Nantz repeated his non sequitur:

“I wouldn’t say it was frustration—leadership…”

Doing something boneheaded that could cost your team a game is the sort of thing one expects from a rookie, or a perennial hothead. The last thing it embodies is “leadership.”

But Jadeveon Clowney is black, and so logic and morality must go out the window. In 2006, when retired white NFL star wide receiver, who was by then an NFL announcer Chris Collinsworth appeared on Bob Costas’ HBO show, he

stuttered and stammered as he tried to say that he is so nervous about touching professionally on race in any way, because it could instantly end his announcing career, that he is afraid to ask any race-related questions.

Jim Nantz is also white, and has been an NFL announcer for many years longer than Collinsworth. He knows the score.

Addendum: Before posting this item, I checked to see how long Nantz has been a sports announcer. I didn’t get that bit of information (roughly 30 years), but instead learned this: Last September, he made a very restrained criticism of black supremacist NFL player Colin Kaepernick and his allies, who have been kneeling during the national anthem, in “protest” against non-existent racial oppression against blacks. Some racist media operatives called it a “hot mic” incident, and sought to destroy Nantz, who may or may not have known that the mic was on.

“‘They’re going to keep kneeling,’ a voice that sounds very like Nantz is heard saying, ‘as long as we keep putting cameras in their face.’”

Thus, the one time Nantz showed some character, racist media operatives sought to end his career. Hence, he had an extra incentive to enter Non Sequitur world tonight.
 
The Pats won, 34-16.