Another Malfunction

This morning on ESPN.com I saw yet another article about the Desperate Housewives promo on Monday Night Football. The FCC is going to decide whether or not to fine ABC for airing it.

If you're like me and you live with your girlfriend and only have one TV, you probably weren't watching football Monday night. But according to the article, the skit went like this:

Nicollette Sheridan is standing in the locker room with Terrell Owens, who I will never refer to as "TO" I just can't. Shorthand bugs me. It sounds like you're trying too hard to be cool. Like "lol." In all my time online, I have never written "lol." Damn, I just did. Twice. Well, except for just now, I never did. Anyway, she's standing there wearing only a towel and asking Owens to skip the game. She drops the towel and jumps into his arms. The article then points out that Owens is black and Sheridan is white.

And that's the thing that I don't get. I mean, some people are complaining that it was too racy. I can understand that. Even though both shows start at 9 PM, odds are there's more younger kids watching football than a nighttime soap, even if it is the must-see runaway hit of the season. It was inappropriate. So that at least makes sense.

But that's not the reason for all the uproar. It's not because people think it's racy, it's because they think it's racist. That's what Indianapolis coach Tony Dungy said after seeing it.

"To me that's the first thing I thought of as an African-American," he said.

"I think it's stereotypical in looking at the players, and on the heels of the Kobe Bryant incident I think it's very insensitive. I don't think that they would have had Bill Parcells or Andy Reid or one of the owners involved in that."

So, he wasn't upset about the naked white woman, but the fact that there was a black guy with the naked white woman.

Let's think about this for a second. ABC wants to promote their show, so they decide to do a segment with an actress from the show and a player from the game they were about to broadcast, the Eagles vs. the Cowboys. I've never seen Desperate Housewives, but I would think that most of the plot revolves around promiscuous women. Who are housewives. And desperate. So you know anything advertising the show would play that up. Now all they need is a player to make the NFL connection. Sure, they could have gone with Vinny Testaverde...

Who is that guy? Is he on the show?

I think it's Vinny Testaverde.

My God, I thought he was dead!

No, as much as it pains José, the Eagles owned a 7-1 record going into the game and were clearly the hotter team. So ABC went with Philly. Philadelphia's quarterback, Donovan McNabb, is black. Terrell Owens, their "look at me!" star player, is black. So they went with Owens. Big deal. Now, if it had shown him celebrating afterwards by taking a Sharpie out of his sock and signing her naughty bits, then I could see where that would be in poor taste. But making a stink because the guy is black is just stupid.

The Patriots are playing this Monday. If they had waited a week and did the promo with Nicollette and whitebread Tom Brady, I guarantee no one would have complained. Except maybe Bridget Moynahan.