The NFL is in a tizzy over the allegation that a Chiefs fan shouted the notorious n-word at Washington Redskins receiver Terrelle Pryor on Monday night.
“We have no tolerance for racial comments directed to anyone,” said league spokesman and former Obama flack Joe Lockhart. “Those fans are not welcome to come back this week, next week, or any time.”
This story abounds in irony, the richest of which is that Pryor represents a team, “the Redskins,” whose very name is said to be a racial affront to American Indians everywhere. For that matter, he represents a city named after a slave owner, George Washington.
The Chiefs have also caught flack for their name as well as their notorious tomahawk cheer. Then, too, the county that manages “Arrowhead” Stadium is named after the man who cut the ribbon on the Trail of Tears, Democratic Party founder Andrew Jackson.
A further problem for Pryor is that although his various F-bombs and bird flips were caught on video, the n-word was not. “I do apologize to my teammates and the organization,” Pryor wrote. “But at some point you keep calling us The N word … we going to start acting up. #straightlikethat.”
As reported on ESPN.com, “The Chiefs said Thursday they have heard nothing that corroborates Pryor’s story and didn’t hear from Washington officials about the alleged incident during the game.”
There is no better way to get out of a jam than to claim a provocation like the n-word. If Pryor lied about the incident or merely imagined he heard it, he would be in good company. The fact that he alleged such slurs to be commonplace–“you keep calling us”–adds to the likelihood that it did not happen at all.
In the Obamacare protests on Capitol Hill in 2010, Congressman Andre Carson also oversold his story. He told reporters that he and two other members of the Black Caucus were “walking down the steps” of the Cannon Office Building when they “heard ‘n-word, n-word,’ at least 15 times, hundreds of people, and Capitol Police finally became aware and started protecting us.”
This charge was outrageous on the face of it and a slander against Tea Party activists. The late Andrew Breitbart offered $100,000 for a video of anyone using the n-word even once and got no takers despite the hundreds of videos of the event that had been shot. Congressman Emanuel Cleaver added his own share of dissembling to this appalling non-incident, known by the generic “Spittlegate.”
An investigation is underway. Stay tuned.