Sheldon Taylor's Souls of Black Notes

The public response to Richard Sherman's outbursts at the end of Sunday's NFC Championship game reveal the conflicted perceptions and complicated history of African American athletes in the national media and within sports. Attacks directed at Sherman on social media have run the gamut from racist to reprehensive as words like “thug” have been used to describe the philanthropic South Central LA native who graduated from Stanford with a master's degree. Accusations of poor sportsmanship and “lack of grace” during victory are worlds away from our country’s infatuation with the gladiator culture that defined professional sports when coach Vince Lombardi’s mantra of “winning is everything” was synonymous with greatness instead of a major character flaw. The second episode of director Ken Burns’ excellent documentary, Baseball , entitled Something like a War, examines player Ty Cobb’s personal account of his mental and physical appro...