Charles Barkley goes off on ESPN for turning Super Bowl 50 into ‘black vs. white, good vs. evil’

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It started with a question from Dan Patrick about the Panthers having too much fun. The rant ended almost three minutes later after Charles Barkley accused ESPN of turning the Super Bowl into a race battle.

The NBA Hall of Famer and TNT basketball analyst is a frequent guest on the “The Dan Patrick Show.” On Wednesday, Patrick asked Barkley: “Why is it that people have a hard time processing the Panthers and Cam Newton?”

Barkley, who has never been a big fan of ESPN, went off:

“Well, I hate bringing up the race card because there’s more important race stuff like … race does have something to do with it, number one. But I think [the Panthers] rub it in pretty good, apparently. There is a racial component. But I hate talking about that because we as black people have way more important things where race is a factor than something like sports.

“Let me tell you something, as much as I love Cam Newton, if I played against him, I would put a hit on him. No question. They rub it in pretty good. It’s fun to watch as a fan and if you like Carolina. And I love sports. They having so much fun. But it wouldn’t be a lot of fun to play against. Because if you dabbing and super … and kicking my butt, hey, I’m going to get the players together and say, ‘the first guy who gets a chance, take him out. We got to get rid of him.’

“But there is a racial component, to be honest with you, Dan, and I hate that. Because we as black people got way more important crap to worry about than stuff like that.

“ESPN has already started their crap about black versus white, good versus evil, and I know a lot of those fools over there got radio talk shows. But you can just see their premise and narrative—black versus white, good against evil. It really annoys the hell out of me. We just can’t appreciate the greatness of Peyton [Manning]. And, clearly Cam is on the track to become one of the greatest players ever. But, hey, you can already see them framing the narrative black versus white, good versus evil. And, that’s a problem you have with two weeks in between games.

“They’re both great players, they’re both good guys, but a lot of these fools on ‘ESS-PIN’ got radio shows. The best way to make talk radio good, is to make it racial. You bring in every fool in the world when you bring up race. Because race is a very serious subject. You have so many fools out there, they can’t have an uninspired conversation on race.”

By the way, Barkley wants Newton to win the game, but said he’ll likely bet on the Broncos getting the four to five points.