Michael Irvin (of all people) dropped knowledge:

“”What a historical moment that was last night. … From an African-American standpoint, I watched my people — watched my people — celebrate the not guilty verdict of O.J. Simpson. They were so hungry for a victory of some kind that they celebrated — we celebrated — the verdict of O.J. And I was thinking to myself, ‘Two people are dead. Two people are dead’ Now, I’m not talking about my people, I’m explaining them here. They were just so hungry to say ‘We have a victory.’ And I cringe when I even think about that.

“But last night I watched a celebration. A real celebration. A real celebration, and it was a celebration for everybody, and everybody celebrated, and they kept showing this shot, and I was watching, of this little black girl and this little white girl, just sitting there crying together, and I thought, wow. I thought about Martin Luther King and his ‘I Have a Dream’ speech, and I thought about him saying, black kids and white kids playing together. …

“Last night we removed all differences and became just one, and I thought that was a beautiful thing. It was just a beautiful thing. I stood here with my kids, we watched it and we cried and we prayed.”

And in the video below, you’ll see reactions from Tony Dungy, LeBron James, George Karl, Donovan McNabb, Lovie Smith, and Doug Williams.

Magic Johnson had this to say:

“Johnson smiled when asked the first thing he did when it was announced Tuesday night just after 8 p.m. in California that Obama had won the presidency.

“Jumped up for joy, we were hollering and screaming,” he said. “And then we started crying. As African-Americans we’ve made great strides. I think what this says is you can really become anything in life you want to become. It’s really a wonderful thing that we can be able to witness this.”

Johnson said he believes Obama is prepared to do the best possible job.

“He’s a motivator. He has a plan,” Johnson said. “One thing Barack can do, he can come in a room, command a room. Everyone will listen to every word.”

More reactions below …
Baseball officials think Obama could help get their sports re-instated in the Olympic games, and possibly help Chicago host the 2016 Summer games:

“President-elect Obama’s interest in sports and specifically in baseball, combined with the efforts of other world leaders, is the kind of thing we need to return baseball to the Olympic program,” Schiller said from New York”

“I think Sen. Obama’s election is an event of profound significance to a lot of people around the world, and I would be surprised if it was not received that way in Olympic circles, also,” union head Donald Fehr said by telephone from Los Angeles.

Things aren’t all peaches and cream though, a Texas Longhorns lineman was kicked off the team for posting, ““all the hunters gather up, we have a nigger in the whitehouse” on his Facebook page. Here’s his apology.

“Clearly I have made a mistake and apologized for it and will pay for it. I received it as a text message from an acquaintance and immaturely put it up on facebook in the light of the election. Im not racist and apologize for offending you. I grew up on a ranch in a small town where that was a real thing and I need to grow up. I sincerely am sorry for being ignorant in thinking that it would be ok to write that publicly and apologize to you in particular. I have to be more mature than to put the reputation of my team at stake and to spread that kind of hate which I dont even believe in. Once again, I sincerely apologize.”