My apologies for the lack of posts the last couple weeks, you know how things get over the holidays. But I'm back at it with all kinds of things I want to talk about, so forgive the small break and let's get into it.
I've been anxiously following Peyton Hillis this season, tracking his progression as he inched closer and closer to doing something that hasn't been done since 1982. Some of you may have heard about this as it has attracted a small amount of attention on ESPN. What I'm talking about is Peyton Hillis being a white running back and rushing for 1000 yards, which was last done by Craig James. I don't really care what race you are as long as you can do your job, but I'm oppose to discrimination in all forms. I think what Peyton Hillis' performance has done this year is sparked a conversation about the state of race relations in football. We've heard a lot about the lack of African-American coaches in both the collegiate and professional levels. But what I want to focus on is the discrimination of the Quarterback and Running Back positions. Let's jump into the Quarterback situation first.
It's never been easy in football for black quarterbacks, one of the prevailing beliefs about the black quarterback in the early days of football was that he wasn't smart enough to play the quarterback position no matter how skilled he was. I'm not naive enough to think that doesn't happen today, to be honest with you I believe what they are doing to athletic black quarterbacks today is almost worse. I believe that athletic black quarterbacks are handcuffed from a very young age. Take Vince Young for example, he's a large athletic man, and no doubt was always a man amongst boys in high school and college. Because he was simply bigger, stronger, and faster he could win most games at the quarterback position without doing much "quarterbacking". I didn't see him play in high school, but I was always disappointed with him in terms of being a quarterback in college. He was essentially in a one read system at Texas, if his target wasn't open, then he tucked it and beat the opposition with his athleticism. What a disservice to this player, and we have seen it repeat itself over and over again. To some extent we are seeing it with Cam Newton, Terrelle Pryor, Tyrod Taylor, and Denard Robinson right now. Tyrod Taylor has been a spectacular QB at Virgina Tech leading them to an ACC championship this year and he isn't even ranked as a QB prospect for the upcoming draft, they have him listed as a WR. Similar to players like Antwan Randel El, Brad Smith, and Marcus Robinson. While Tyrod isn't the tallest player at his position, he is still sized comparably to his mentor Michael Vick. I think you get my point, they put athletic players at the QB position in college and don't develop them as passers. This sets them up to fail at the next level, in Vince Young's situation, how can you expect him to pick up the complexities of an NFL defense if he has no little to no experience breaking down defenses at a simpler level? You have to walk before you can run. Which to me is part of the reason why there are so few black NFL QB's. Talented young men don't go to college just to win bowl games, ultimately if you have the talent you want to play at the next level. With the current pattern of limiting athletic QB's you are misleading these players by bringing them into your program. Tangentially, Donovan McNabb commented on the state of the black quarterback awhile back and received some pretty harsh criticism. "There's not that many African-American quarterbacks, so we have to do a little bit extra," McNabb tells HBO. "Because the percentage of us playing this position, which people didn't want us to play ... is low, so we do a little extra." (Source) He later shared his opinion that people judge black and white QB's differently. If a black QB makes a great play it is more commonly described as athletic, if a white player does the same thing it's generally attributed to his intelligence. At first I was taken back by the comment, but I even caught myself doing the same thing to a small extent. Be honest with yourself, when you think of a black QB what's the first thing that comes to your mind? Right now it's probably Michael Vick, and when you run his highlight reel through your head what do you see? Likely it's his breathtaking runs, not his passing. I think Michael Vick is the strongest case you can make for a paradigm shift in the way we view QB's. When Steve Young was asked about Michael Vick he said that Michael is "the full fruition of the position" he later continued on to say that he is making decisions about as well as a Tom Brady and Peyton Manning, yet retained his ability to press the line of scrimmage. But Michael Vick didn't reach this full fruition of the position until he was 30 years old, prior to that he simply relied on his great athleticism because that's all people expected of him. As a fan of football I feel robbed of 5-10 years of greatness and the possible evolution of the game. I know there are several white QB's who have been type-casted in college as well, that it's not solely a black issue. But even with white players it seems they get an extra shot at the NFL that black QB's are afforded. Take for example Tyrod Taylor and Jake Locker. Both are considered to be athletic QB's and have put up comparable numbers, 7639 Passing Yards for Locker and 7017 for Taylor. Taylor has had a better QB rating for the last 2 years and threw for nearly 500 yards more than Locker this year, yet Taylor as aforementioned is no longer considered a QB prospect. Is it their size that gives Jake the edge? Because he's only about 20 lbs and 2 inches larger than Jake. All I'm saying is that it appears their are still stigmas associated with black QB's that white QB's don't face.
It's not just black QB's who are discriminated against though, the white RB might face more discrimination than black QB's. I can only think of 3 white RB's in the NFL currently who get legitimate playing time, Gerhart, Woodhead, and Hillis. If I forgot someone please let me know in the comments. When Hillis hit this milestone he did it with class and dignity. He didn't throw anyone under the bus that may have stood in his way to the NFL, he simply referred to himself as a person who accomplished this milestone, not a white guy. He no doubt has had to scratch and crawl to get where he is because the trip for a white RB is quite difficult. I read a great article from Sports Illustrated a little over a year ago that outlined the challenges white RB's face. I'm going to highlight a couple things that stood out to me, but the article is great and you should read it if you get a chance. The first thing I'd like to highlight is when Toby Gerhart went to USC for a recruiting trip he was told that they would love to have him come there, but that he would be a linebacker or fullback. USC is a fantastic school who has a stable of great RB's, but has anyone in the last 4 years been as successful as Gerhart? Gerhart isn't the only example of this happening, a white RB from New Jersey named Dillon Romain faced similar discrimination when he graduated high school. He was 5'11 210 lbs and ran a 4.46 in the 40, these are nearly the exact same stats as the top rated RB in the NFL draft this year, Mark Ingram. Not only is he great on paper, he put up great numbers on the field in his senior year of high school earning the state's Gatorade player of the year. The last 10 players who earned this award prior to Dillon all earned D-1 scholarships, including 3 current NFL players. With no offers, Dillon decided to take a postgraduate year at a local academy. One of my favorite shows on television is Pardon the Interruption and they had this to say about what Peyton Hillis reaching the milestone.
Ultimately my point in writing this is to point out that discrimination on any level should be abhorred. It's my opinion that sports are a microcosm of society, and just like in the sports community there are still problems in society. We should fight against these injustices at every level, because equality is only good when it's for everyone.
Lastly, I'd like to say congratulations to my Seattle Seahawks. I'm incredibly proud to be a 12th man. It's been a frustrating year for the Seahawks and the NFC West, we've been disrespected all year long and to beat a great team like the Saints is rewarding. I would have been proud of them regardless, but I look forward to watching the analysts eat crow for the next week. Props to Mike Golic for picking the Hawks this week!
That's all for now, thanks for reading the blog. See you next week.
