Even though I never actually saw him play, I’m still of the opinion that Jim Brown is the singular greatest running back of all time. Bearing that in mind, when he offers his opinion on some football-related matter, I hafta pay attention. To wit, here’s his take on touchdown celebrations and the people who perform them:

To think in this day in age, these young men would be out there shaking their butts and not knowing much of anything else. Not understanding the dignity of a man and how to play a game and play it hard and let that speak for yourself. There’s no debating this conversation. Anybody that takes the other side has got to be an enemy. Any man that would teach his son that that’s the thing to do should be arrested. …

That’s some tough medicine, but I think there’s a grain of truth to it. Granted, I think it might be overkill, but I think there’s a lot to be said for not over-celebrating scoring a touchdown. But you know what? I could deal with it if it was just touchdowns. But the sack celebrations and tough catch celebrations and all that? Come on. I mean, I can understand clapping or trying to get your team charged up, but the booty-shaking IS out of control. And yeah, that goes for my man, Brian Dawkins too. Dawk is my man 50 grand and all, but the best way to celebrate the Dawk-plex would’ve been to just walk away like nothing had happened.

But then again, maybe it’s just time to accept that the game has changed.

Al Sharpton’s ancestors were owned by Strom Thurmond’s ancestors.

By AUSTIN FENNER
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER

The Rev. Al Sharpton, a descendant of slaves, stands in front of papers documenting his ancestors were owned by the family of Sen. Strom Thurmond.
In a revelation that will stun the nation, the Rev. Al Sharpton, one of America’s most powerful black leaders, has unearthed a shattering family secret - his ancestors were slaves owned by relatives of the late South Carolina Sen. Strom Thurmond.

Now in a way, I think there’s definitely a certain irony in that, although to be fair, anybody who’s descended from enslaved people is gonna have some commonalities with somebody. But Al Sharpton and Strom Thurmond, though? Wow. But that’s not really the big wow for me. The big wow is the reaction of Strom Thurmond’s family.

Relatives of the late Sen. Strom Thurmond greeted news of the family’s shocking connection to the Rev. Al Sharpton yesterday with some nervous chuckles and one outright denial.

“That’s a bunch of baloney,” said Barry Bishop, the son of one of Thurmond’s sisters.

Now I’m not about injecting race where it doesn’t belong, but this here is all about race. So I’m trying to figure out…what does the family think it has to gain by denying or even questioning whether their ancestors owned Sharpton’s ancestors? That’s the really ignorant part. You’d think they had said Al was their first cousin or something.

What this really makes me wonder is what I’m gonna find out when I continue my research about my own family. Right now, I’m trying to figure out what questions I need to ask and where I would go to get the answers. So if anybody has already done this type of research, I’d be grateful for any procedural information you could share.

But wow. Just goes to show, you never know.

In some ways, I think I’ve phased out of hip-hop. Not to say that I don’t ever listen to it, but it is to say that as I’ve frequently said, one of the key elements of hip-hop is its insistence on freshness. It’s always about the newest thing. Which was cool when I was younger. Now? I’m not so concerned about fresh. I’m more interested in vintage. For me personally, it doesn’t get too much more vintage than Raising Hell.

Back in the day, my own personal measure of how much I liked a tape was the amount of time it took before the writing came off the cassette. The two tapes that I blanked fastest were Raising Hell and Nation of Millions. I never really thought of it as a perfect album, but I like just about every song on here. The only exception is, ironically, Walk This Way, which is the song that propelled both the album and the group into the stratosphere. I never had a problem with heavy guitar work, I just wasn’t crazy about that song. But even then, it wasn’t like I would get up and fast-forward the tape. Walk This Way did typify, however, why side 2 >> side 1. Being more specific, I think it boils down to the fact that as much as I like Peter Piper (and have really come to appreciate it lyrically) and My Adidas, those two can’t even compete with Raising Hell and Proud To Be Black, which are my two favorite songs on side 2.

(That brings up an interesting aside. Since all the songs on a CD come in numerical order, you miss the whole idea of a side. I’m not sure my kids would even know what I meant if I got up there talkin about some ’side 2.’ On a double album? Side 4? Forget it. But to me, that was part of the fun of talking about an album with your friends, debating which side was better. I might hafta revisit No One Can Do It Better on this point, because I actually have mixed feelings about that one.)

As a group, I always appreciated Run-DMC. I think I liked DMC more, but I could never really put my finger on why. Then I read something Kool Moe Dee said. He was like, they were the perfect balance of fire and ice, with Run being energetic and fiery and DMC being ice cold. That’s about right, I think. I always thought that Run brought more energy and DMC brought better rhymes. Me being me, I take rhymes over persona and charisma. I guess that’s why for my money, Biggie > Tupac. (Actually, Biggie >>> Tupac, but this is not the place for that debate.)

But man, one of my all-time favorite music moments is that scratch Jam Master Jay does on Proud To Be Black, when the guys are spitting “You read about Malcolm X in the history text/ Jesse Owens broke records and we broke necks.” (2:39) Sickest scratch I know. If the technology had been there for me to listen to that part over and over, I know I would’ve done it. We ain’t even gon’ talk about those pause tapes I used to make.

Over all, I think Raising Hell was a very complete album. Not necessarily perfect, and probably not one of the ten I’d take to a remote island, but it’s up there. Definitely in my top 20. And the inspiration for this week’s banner.

I Got A Seecret - Redman
All Day Sucker - Stevie Wonder
That’s When Ya Lost - Souls of Mischief
Dance Floor - Zapp
Transformers - Leaders of the New School
Making Whoopee - Ray Charles
Speculation - Oscar Pettiford
N.Y. State of Mind - Nas
Thinking of You - Tony Toni Tone
Jack The Ripper - LL Cool J
Watch Yo Nugget - Redman, f. Erick Sermon
You and Your Folks, Me and My Folks - Funkadelic
Cow Cow Boogie - The Inkspots
Cool Breeze On The Rocks - De La Soul
Too High - Stevie Wonder
Kumquat Kids -Eddie Henderson
Simply Beautiful - Al Green
Looking At The Front Door - Main Source
Thieves In The Night - Black Star

I’m still trippin’ off Tim Hardaway’s statements. Not so much the substance, and not so much the retraction, which was…weak. If he meant what he said, and I’m pretty sure he did, because the radio host actually gave Hardaway the opportunity to take back what he was saying, then Hardaway took it even further, then he should just stand by what he said and accept the consequences. But no, that would go too much against the grain. This is America. Say what you want, then act like you didn’t mean it. Ain’t that how it goes?

Naw, what I’m really trippin off these days is this four-letter word, ‘hate.’ I’m not even sure what it means anymore. I know it’ supposed to be a really strong word, so I try my best not to use it very frequently, but even understanding that its meaning is contextualized based on its use, I’m still not sure what it is. To wit, when we say ‘hate’ speech, what is that, really? Is it necessarily ‘hate’ speech if somebody calls me a nigger? I don’t think there’s any question that it’s ‘mad’ speech, but hate? But let me slow down.

See, in my understanding, hatred is not the opposite of love, it’s the inverse; indifference would be the opposite of love. One way of thinking of it would be to say that hatred is caring, only in a negative sense. Hate is bizarro love. Given that definition, I don’t think that most of what we call hate is actually hate. But to be fair, we don’t just use the word hate to mean that most intense manifestation. We also use ‘hate’ to mean ‘dislike.’ I was about to say ’strongly dislike,’ but sometimes, I don’t even think it’s all that strong. I hate chicken gizzards. I hate bowling poorly. I hate runny grits. I hate the fact that hip-hop is so concerned with the puerile and nihilistic. I hate it when one of my kids drops out of school. Same word, same general meaning, very different degrees. In fact, Tim Hardaway himself points this out in today’s Q & A session with Scoop Jackson on Page 2.

But that’s just the word and that’s how we used it. You know when we got a whopping we’d be like, “I hate my moms” or “I hate my dad,” and at the time you really didn’t hate them, but that was the word you used. You know I can go into a restaurant and say, “I hate this food, I hate the chef, I don’t even know why I came back to this restaurant.” But I know I can’t use the word like that, or let’s say I’m not supposed to. People have come up to me and told me, “Tim, you can’t say that you hate gay people because it’s not the same term.” But that’s how I talk. That’s the way I am.

Well, I think that it all goes back to my thought that as a relatively informal culture, we do not require a lot of precision in our language. We use shortcuts because there’s the assumption of a certain level of shared understanding. Part of that linguistic short-cutting is the use of the same sets of words to apply in very different situations - or at least situations where the word being used captures the idea but is not the most accurate. So nowadays, one of the worst things that can be said of somebody is that they ‘hate.’ But if all they do is talk, is that really hatred?

I keep asking this question because I don’t think I’ve ever gotten or arrived at a satisfying answer, but at what point do positive actions outweigh negative speech? For instance, when I was in high school, I used to spell girl wit a b. Now, I’m pretty sure I didn’t exhibit very much misogynistic behavior, but I was good for using the alternative spelling at a moment’s notice - not at any particular person, you understand, just for g.p. Now, If we look at the inverse, if I said all the right things like I loved somebody, but always did the wrong thing, I don’t think there would be any question that the discrepancy between my words and actions would make it somewhat difficult to label my attitude by what I said. Well, does it work that way with negative speech and positive (or at least, neutral) behavior? Granted, the examples aren’t exactly the inverse of each other because one represents interaction at the individual level while the other is more broad-based, but I think the general question is still valid.

Even beyond that, though, I don’t think much of what we call ‘hate’ is hate. Not in any real sense. I mean, personally, I think that intelligent people should be able to differentiate between ‘hate’ speech and ‘mad’ speech, because they’re very different. Even in Hardaway’s example, which I think is actually pretty common, when kids get punished, they’ll tell their parents (or at least mutter it under their breath), “I hate you.” Except in some rare cases, they may be really, really mad at their parents, but on the actual hatred scale, they wouldn’t even register.

So if all hate is not created equal, then we need some vocabulary to fill in that space between being really mad at a given moment and actually hating (or being homophobic or racist or sexist or whatever the case may be.)

Talking with a friend of mine the other day, we started trying to formulate a list of singers who, today, have some celebrity mainly because of their package. That is, they can sing a little, but their renown comes mostly courtesy of the way they look, their videos, and the production on their records. So if you put them back into an era when the only question was “But can she sang,” they would either not be a celebrity at all, or they would be a backup somewhere. Of course the first name we came up with was Mary J. Blige. And I’m sayin’ — I like Mary J. She makes great records, but she can’t sang.

On the other hand, you take somebody like Ella Fitzgerald, who I think may have had the best voice ever, and she would not have hit big. Granted, Ella wasn’t a pop singer in the first place, so it might not be a fair comparison. So let’s use another, maybe even bigger (in some ways) name. What about Aretha? If Aretha came out in 2007, would she get to be the Queen of Soul, or would she be a casualty of the marketing machine?

But then to bring some balance to the discussion, we talked about some singers who were pretty big names back in the day, but would take over the world with today’s packaging. Start with Chaka Khan. I’m trying to be cool here, but man, if Chaka Khan came out today? WHAT?!! Man, I’d probably still have a television.

So who are some contemporary singers who wouldn’t have made it back in the day? Who are some legends who might not make it today? And who would have made it in either time period?

My classes are about to start reading Romeo and Juliet. Anybody know of any good re-tellings of that story? I’m especially looking for more contemporary books.

I finally got my USB turntable last night. Converted some songs I hadn’t heard in at least 13 years. Hopelessly geeked. Runnin the turntable into the computer and then the computer out through the stereo? What?

Right now, Jimmy Smith is cuttin’ it up on the organ and I’m wishin’ I had more records right here beside me. Soon enough, we’re gonna have two or three playlists of vinyl conversions.

Just watchin’ the record spin…I miss having records. I’ve said it before, but as much as I like the convenience of having mp3s, and being able to keep my entire musical catalog on my person, there’s just something peaceful and calming about watching a record spin. Especially when a nice, relaxing jam like I’ll Close My Eyes is playing. It just chills me out. I’ve been waiting all day so I could savor the moment when I finally put The Motor Booty Affair on, though.

Don’t Cha Hear Me - Junior Mance
I Remember You/A Child Is Born/Tenderly - Oscar Peterson
Freddy Freeloader - Miles Davis
I Can’t Get Next To You - Al Green.
Jackin’ For Beats - Ice Cube
Since I Had You - Marvin Gaye
Murder Was The Case - Snoop Dogg
Halftime - Nas
Space - Galt MacDermot
Woo-Haa!! Got You All In Check - Busta Rhymes
The Crap-Shootin’ Reverend - Pigmeat Markham
Who Stole The Soul? - Public Enemy
Talk To Your Daughter - Bobby Rush
Crazy Drunken Style - Masta Ace
In Tha Club Freestyle - Skillz

Bernard Hopkins is back at it again. He’ll be fighting Winky Wright on July 21st at a modified weight class of 170. He’s from Philly, so of course I’ll be rooting for him, but I really haven’t seen enough of Hopkins to evaluate his place in the middleweight pantheon. Off the top of my head, I’m thinking Robinson > Hagler > Hopkins…but then that leaves the question of where to put Roy. And that’s before we take into account the fact that Robinson was probably an even better welterweight than he was a middleweight, so I don’t even know if I’d put him at that weight class for my ultimate list.

But one of my favorite things about Hopkins are his quotes. Dude is funny. Check this one out:

“As a promoter myself [as a partner in Oscar De La Hoya’s Golden Boy Promotions], I can understand Maskaev’s thinking,” Hopkins said. “Maskaev didn’t want to risk the embarrassment of losing to a bulked-up middleweight. He didn’t want to be the next John Ruiz. Ruiz [the former WBA heavyweight titlist] was ruined by losing to Roy Jones. No true heavyweight wants to live with that for the rest of his life. If I had Maskaev, I would have told him the right move would be to leave Bernard Hopkins the [bleep] alone.”

Bijan points out that the idea that Cleopatra was some beautiful woman may, in fact, be misguided.

Would we think Antony and Cleopatra was such a great love story if we didn’t think Cleopatra was fine?

Rich Hoffman, of the Philadelphia Daily News, points out the conundrum faced by sports journalists who have to unearth the instaces of cheating in the sports that they also love as fans.

Me personally, I’m don’t really worry about it. I mean, I can understand why people do, but professional athletics is not that serious to me. Don’t get me wrong, I love sports, but I also know that my life doesn’t change one iota because of one outcome or another. Consequently, I’m not terribly concerned whether Barry Bonds, Mark McGwire, or Sammy Sosa used performance-enhancing drugs. I don’t look at sports for truth or accuracy. Fairness, maybe a little bit. But if even if everybody was cheating, some players would still be flat-out better.

If the Ravens cut Jamal Lewis, do the Eagles want him? I’ve long maintained that the Eagles need a big, bruising, 3rd-2 back to complement Westbrook, but Lewis might be washed up.

I remember thinking that Eddie George might’ve looked good in green a couple years ago, too. That’s why we leave the personnel decisions to the professionals.