espn's jemele hill fouls out of the game--for now

here we go again. don imus. isaiah washington. mel gibson. and now jemele hill.

i can't say i know exactly how espn.com page 2 columnist and on-air personality jemele hill feels right now, but i know it can't be good.

just 96 hours after expressing her disdain for the boston celtics, espn suspended the prolific scribe indefinitely. hill's column, which hit the worldwide web last saturday, contained some offensive references to hitler and the celtics organization. hill, the site's only black female columnist, earned her unscheduled vacation time, however, for penning this passage:

"rooting for the celtics is like saying hitler was a victim. it's like hoping gorbachev would get to the blinking red button before reagan."

baby girl, that was one stupid thing to write. hitler is no joke today, tomorrow or in 2099. you should never, ever, ever go there--especially in this climate when some folks, upset over the skin tone of the presumptive democratic presidential nominee, have gone and exhumed the spirit of jim crow.

yep. hill's timing was as off as kobe bryant's jump shot in the second half of game 6. in less time than it takes a new york city cockroach to get across a room in broad daylight, espn.com readers, celtics fans and various media outlets began hurling knives at hill's head. the worldwide leader in sports claimed that the "inappropriate comments"--which were quickly extracted from hill's column-- slipped through the cracks because of some sort of editorial breakdown. it apologized to hill and her readers for letting them down.

alrighty then.

but, despite all of the conspiracy theories that some of my old sportswriting buddies have come up with in defense of hill, my best guess is that someone posted her column without reading it. and, if that's the case, i'm wondering if that careless editor has been "relieved" as well. but if someone did read it, well, this speaks volumes about the need for diversity--particularly on the copy desk.

although i once worked for espn.com as a page 3 columnist, i only hit the site about once a week so i've not read that much of hill's work. i do think, however, that this was simply an err in judgment committed by someone who is young, eager and at the top of her game. having been in that same position when i was younger i understand how screwy things can get when you're trying to live up to your own hype in an alternate universe without good editors.

hopefully, now that she'll be holidaying on earth for a while, she'll learn to choose her words more wisely. the view is a lot clearer down here.