here’s the first paragraph of peter king’s post super bowl column.

After a surprise deluge leaves players and staff drenched, 78-year-old owner Dan Rooney walks the sidelines with a towel for headgear, warding off the light rain that lingers. He looks, quite frankly, bizarre. “Hey, Mr. Rooney,” calls out Hines Ward, with a mischievous smile, from 20 yards away. “You with the Taliban?”

obviously, hines ward should know better, and as one of the more prominent PARMs¹, i’m kinda disappointed in him.  but making a joke doesn’t make you a racist as it does just make you insensitive.  however, peter king, as a writer for a nationally syndicated column should know better.  if you read the column, you’ll see that king is recounting this story as a way of showing how loose the steelers were before the game and what a close knit team they are.  you know, “look how not nervousl these guys are, making jokes on the field.”  but my guess is that peter king doesn’t realize the racist implications of calling someone with a towel on their head a member of the taliban.  ok, off to fire off a strongly worded letter to sports illustrated.

1. Positive Asian Role Model [↩]