[Levarkin]

It's hard to take Whitlock seriously when he's writing stuff like this:

"Football fans are aware of Lewis' love affair with Chad Johnson, the Flavor Flav of the gridiron. Johnson's insistence on conducting a minstrel show during games has long been reluctantly tolerated by Lewis."

Like his "Black KKK" comment, Whitlock is just trying to stir things up an attract attention by calling Johnson's antics "a minstrel show". He celebrates. He makes a bit of an ass of himself, perhaps. But why is putting on a "HOF 200?" blazer indicative of the corrupting influence of hip hop culture? It's not.

Integrating football players with Whitlock's great nemesis, the "hip hop culture", is so forced here. Whitlock brings no insight, just controversy by stepping so far over the line as to be ridiculous. Were he concerned with improving race relations in sport rather than getting his columns talked about not a word would be the same.