"I'm just humbled by the things that I've been given. By no stretch do I put myself in the category with President Obama or Tony Dungy," he said. "I don't see myself in that way. Some of the things I get a chance to do, I benefit from some of the roads they've paved."
Look at the message embedded in that - society paved the way for progress in sports. Not the other way around, the way it has been portrayed forever.
More proof: Tomlin last week spoke of meeting Obama in Pittsburgh in late August, how he was honored to meet the then-candidate and how his sons would surely remember it the rest of their lives. Being the first coach to have his championship team visit the White House with a black president residing there, he said, "would be awesome."
Usually, the politician is the one fawning over the sports figure. It's one more example of how nothing is the way it used to be.
Listen to David Steele on Fridays at 9 a.m. on WNST (1570 AM).
points after
* Just keep repeating to yourself: Ray Lewis didn't rule out the franchise tag. He didn't rule out the "hometown discount." He didn't rule out any of it. It's possible ...
* Got to ask it one more time, before pitchers and catchers report: Nick Markakis, $66.1 million - was that the hometown discount?
* Another update on Gus Gilchrist and Tyree Evans: They're not Shaq and Kobe.
* Rudy Gay, Josh Boone and Carmelo Anthony come to Washington this week to play the worst-in-the-NBA Wizards. Good seats still available. Bad seats, too. Any seats, pretty much.
* Not to mock his faith, but if Kurt Warner, at 37, leads the Cardinals to a Super Bowl win and gets his second ring ... forget the Hall of Fame, he really might ascend straight to heaven.
