Sports is supposed to be the bastion of the level playing field where people get chances based on merit alone, where people are judged by their performance on the field or court, not by the color of their skin. This may be true. However, the media coverage and league reaction to players and player behavior often seem to be predicated on what they look like.

Remember Latrell Sprewell? Of course you do. You couldn’t not hear about it. He attempted to strangle his coach, P.J. Carlesimo, during a Golden State Warriors practice in the 1997-98 NBA season. He was banned from the NBA for the rest of the year and vilified by the media.

There was stroking of beards and clucking of tongues by the wise talking heads on TV. “What have we come down to?” they asked over and over and over again. Saturday Night Live joked about it, using the admittedly very funny line: “I’m going to go Latrell Sprewell on your ass!”

But do you remember Kevin Greene? Maybe. But you remember him as a fearsome pass-rushing linebacker, not as the NFL’s Sprewell. Kevin Greene attacked his coach during a game during the 1998 NFL season. He had to be restrained but was allowed to continue playing in that game.

And it wasn’t like the Carolina Panthers, Greene’s team, were contending for a playoff spot. They were a miserable team who had no chance. But they allowed him to play. He was suspended for exactly one game.

Sprewell is black, Greene is white.

Now I am not saying the leagues are colluding to be racist. What I am saying is that this apparent dichotomy in the treatment of two athletes gives an appearance that this is so.

The media treatment of athletes and situations also sometimes seem to be racist. The coverage of the two aforementioned articles is a good example. Sprewell was on the cover of Sports Illustrated. Greene was on the inside pages of sports sections, dismissed as mere locker room frustration in a horrible Panthers season (Panthers quarterback Kerry Collins had quit the team earlier in the season).

Another example: Did you ever hear about the incident in the NHL where two white players racially taunted one of the league’s few black players during a game? No, didn’t think so.

Why? It was so under-reported that I only remember that one of the teams involved was the Florida Panthers. And I remember almost anything about sports. Just ask my family, who has been driven insane by my seemingly random quoting of sports stats.

Admittedly, there were differences in the Sprewell and Greene incidents. Greene did apologize, Sprewell did not. But on the other hand, Sprewell’s incident came during a private Warriors practice and was publicized, while Greene’s incident came during a public game and was hushed up.

When discussing racism in sports, NFL coaching jobs inevitably come up. This is where the good ‘ol boy network is most in evidence. Most of the NFL owners are white males who grew up before the civil rights movement.

Its one of the reasons you see coaches like Green Bay offensive coordinator Sherman Lewis get repeatedly passed over by teams. It took Tony Dungy several years to be hired. Dennis Green had to deal with rumors that he was going to be fired almost every year.

Major League Baseball could do a better job, too. Bud Selig, the commissioner of baseball, made sure to attend the St. Louis Cardinals game when Mark McGwire hit his 62nd home run. I think that was a very classy move. But why wasn’t Bud there at Wrigley Field when Sosa hit his 62nd against the Brewers? Selig works from Milwaukee (in fact, he owns the Brewers) and could easily have been there when Sosa was bashing ’em out.

Just remember, I’m not saying that the leagues are racist. But what I am saying is that the leagues can do a much better job of projecting themselves and trying to make sure that they do not appear openly racist.

Later.

Jayadev Athreya is a senior in mathematics from Ames.