Gumbel: Tom and Tom

A friend of mind mentioned Bryant Gumbel this afternoon and I immediately thought about how my perception of him has changed so drastically over the past four or five years.

I grew up identifying him with the world's supreme and quintessential Uncle Toms. To me, he epitomized and personified the notion of a sell out for so long. My image was most definitely influenced by the way Keenan and Damon Wayans parodied him in their Tom & Tom skits. And back then, being young and superficial and judgemental, I listened to his voice (high pitched and nasaly), looked at how he laughed that contrived, CEO-laugh at the corniest of jokes, saw his Just For Me haircut and knew there was no way he had even an inkling of brotha in him.

But then I saw this segment on Ali, it might have even been in the When We Were Kings documentary and I saw a pic of Gumble with an afro in the 60s and listened to him talk about his, almost, blind support of Ali, because Ali was for freedom and a civil-rights martyr and hero...and heard him talk about how he picketed and how he grew to, almost, despise Joe Frazier because of the devious support he received from evil American powers and ideologies. And I started doing knowledge on Gumbel. Checking my previously held notions about him. I went back and read some interviews he's done, I read a Sports Illustrated profile Rick Reilly did on him before he hosted the Seoul Olympics. I found out mad ish about this brotha. How he wasn't a shucker and jiver. How he was strong and confident and regularly cast floodlights on issues most in mainstream media ignored or were ignorant of. Then I started checking REAL SPORTS on HBO out a lot some years ago. I saw how he consistently tackled a lot of the social issues swirling through sports, the same ones I ponder. JUst this season he had the joint about racism in soccer and the diope profile on John Thompson III.

So recently, amybe in the past year or so I started rethinking how I tend to quickly define people. put them in boxes. Its entirely hypocritical, since I take it as a fantastic injustice anytime someone typecasts me without getting to know who I am. But, on the other hand, the scarred hand, I'm one of the most predjudice people in the world. And, I'm not just talking through race. I'm talking gender, class. I mean, I'll put you in a box based on what CD you have in your system. Which is wrong, because Justin Timberlake is in my CD player right now.

Now, I'm not saying that the leaf is flipped to the other side. I'm not even saying I'm making any concerted effort to turn it over...I guess, I'm just saying.

Gumbel also makes me think about how sports are always so much more than games. Think about it, I know more about Gumbel based on which Ali-Frazier side he chose, then perhaps anything else. You can learn alot about the world and individuals through some games that people play. its a crazy notion.

And secondly, you gotta watch where your career takes you. I think about that alot these days, because I have a very real prospect at possibly some type of pseudo-television personality, at some point...but thats if I choose to take it there and pursue that and 'm not sure I want to. Part of who Gumbel was got murked up in his morning news show personality. The fact that u have to do fluff segments and pine to guests and laugh at corny jokes, it led a whole generation to be deceived into thinking that Gumbel was some Tom, even though he's anything but a Tom.

Now that Ralph Wiley died, Gumbel is the new dude in this journalism business that I think I can learn the most from. I gotta get at dude so he can show me how to do this.