Ibram X. Kendi Is Who We Thought He Was

All football fans of a certain age know of the classic moment in 2006 when hapless Arizona Cardinals coach Dennis Green, after a narrow defeat to the highly ranked Chicago Bears, came out on Monday Night Football to deliver a press conference so memorable that it actually (no joke) has its own devoted “folklore” page on the team’s website. The Cardinals were on a losing streak, and Green’s frustration was acute because his underdogs had exposed the Bears; they’d come so close, they’d revealed that the emperor had no clothes, but they couldn’t finish the deal. (Ironically, Bears fans with memories of “Sexy Rexy” Grossman are currently groaning and nodding their heads as well.) “The Bears are what we thought they were! . . . They’re what we thought they were!<pounds table> AND WE LET THEM OFF THE HOOK!”