Peter King's Subliminal Messages

Just read Peter King's weekly "Monday Morning Quarterback" column (albeit a day late due to the Memorial Day holiday). He had some particularly curious quotes this week. To wit:

• On Tampa Bay linebacker Derrick Brooks' works of charity: "He started taking adolescents on college tours and to places like Washington, D.C., and Africa, just to show them the world..." [Emphasis added.]

What the hell are you trying to say, Peter? That D.C. is destitute and impoverished? That there are a lot of "Africans" in D.C.? I mean, the way Peter casually lumps these two vastly different places together in the same turn of phrase implies some sort of perceived commonality between Africa and Washington, D.C. that could only be based on skin color, does it not? Thinly-veiled bigotry, if you ask me. Maybe I'm just reading too much into this. And maybe I'm also reading too much into the next quote that caught my eye:

• On Sara Armour, Mary Beth King's high school friend who recently made her debut as a stand-up comedian: "Sara, Mary Beth's best friend from high school and now a close personal friend of Sydney Simpson's at Boston University (just kidding, O.J.), killed in a seven-minute segment highlighted by her story of a stalker in a Boston bathroom when she was, uh, indisposed."

Look more closely:

• "...O.J. killed..."

So there you have it. Ladies and gentleman, I present to you Peter King, closet racist.

(Ok, so maybe I'm going out on a limb here. Maybe I'm just bitter that the Pittsburgh Steelers weren't mentioned in Peter's discussion of AFC Super Bowl contenders this season, DESPITE the fact that they won it last year and haven't suffered any major personnel losses in the offseason...)