Would Jimmy the Greek lose his job in 2017?

It has been three decades years since Jimmy the Greek was fired for racism. It feels like three centuries.

One of the most powerful early entries into ESPN’s 30 for 30 series focused on Jimmy the Greek, his meteoric rise to the top of the sports media world in the 1980’s and how quickly it all came crashing down to racism.

If you’re unfamiliar, the Greek essentially brought sports gambling mainstream with CBS and its NFL pregame show. While the NFL has always resisted the implications of gambling boosting viewership, sports fans have long been hip to the lines and the Greek was the first one on national TV to discuss spreads, winners and losers. Because of it, he became a huge star.

Then, on a fateful day in 1987, he made some of the most egregiously racist comments ever, when he started to expound on the beliefs that the black athlete was superior because they had been “bred” that way as slaves. Needless to say, 1987 America was a lot less forgiving of racism than 2017 America. The condemnation was swift and succinct. The Greek lost his job. He lost his career. By the end of his life, he had disappeared into the shadows with only whispers about how far he had fallen.

I was too young to remember Jimmy the Greek. I do remember feeling sympathy as the documentary ended when I watched it for the first time. As someone in the documentary pointed out, The Greek’s comment felt more ignorant than racist – it sounded like a very unintelligent man trying to sound like the smartest in the room. Regardless, America had no patience for racism. Neither did CBS. He was gone.

Looking over today’s sports media landscape, does anyone actually believe that Jimmy the Greek would lose his job and disappear based on those comments?

Just this past Friday, Fox Sports “personality” Clay Travis was the #1 trending topic on Twitter because he went on CNN and said “boobs” a couple times. Will he be punished? Of course not. He’ll revel in the publicity and likely receive more high-profile spots.

In fact, Fox’s current daytime sports lineup – very similar to ESPN’s “Embrace Debate” lineup from several years ago – is forged by a steady stream of race peddlers. Skip Bayless, Colin Cowherd and Jason Whitlock have all used race to further their careers and spark controversy. Skip’s partner Shannon Sharpe has similarly used race – though many would argue in a positive way – to bring attention to their flailing daytime show.

You’re telling me that Fox Sports wouldn’t find a place for Jimmy the Greek after those comments? C’mon now.

It’s a horrible commentary on our sports world right now but racism sells. Whitlock, in particular, has been going after Colin Kaepernick for attention, even going as far as having a white intern do a blackface routine as Colin.

Was Whitlock fired? Reprimanded? Please.

It’s not just sports, since there’s a pretty powerful man in our country right now who was deemed too racist in the 1980’s. Yep, Jeff Sessions is now our Attorney General. Think about how sad that is for our country – we are so painfully regressing when it comes to race relations.

My working theory is that everyone in the 1980’s lived through the civil rights movement in the 1960’s and were acutely aware what racism was, what it sounded like and how it needed to be addressed.

Unfortunately, we are now too removed from those moments. The 1960’s exists to my generation only through pictures and stories. We didn’t live it. When people under 50 say, “Make America Great Again,” they have absolutely no clue on the racial undertones that divided our country 60 years ago.

Where do we go from here? It’s such a sad, depressing commentary that the answer to title of this post is so obvious. Of course he wouldn’t lose his job. We live in a country where the President is a white supremacist and the White House will threaten your job if you say that out loud.

Racism is being normalized and accepted on a more frequent basis by a certain subset of Americans. We are running headlong into a terrible situation. We cannot let racism stand, in any form.

Sports has long been referred to as an escape from reality. The problem is that sports is reality and the sports media have become a microcosm for the issues in our society on race.

In 1987, Jimmy the Greek was rejected by everyone. In 2017, it’s time we started rejecting racists again. An easy way to start is to turn off Fox Sports 1 (if you ever put it on).

Follow me on Twitter