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by Dave McMillian Last week, a buddy of mine found himself watching the opening NFL game between the Redskins and Giants in a crowded New York City bar, on the other side of town. When I say on the other side of town I mean his “tan” stuck out like a sore thumb. To make a long story bearable, he overheard two white men discussing Jason Campbell’s subpar quarterback performance. Now either they were not aware of my friend’s presence or they failed their Politically Correct course because they wasted no time in yelling to the other bar patrons: “Here we have a black guy that plays like a white guy. If you’re a black guy why not play like a black guy?” This simple but loaded statement had me thinking about several issues from, “Why is race associated with a quarterback’s play?” to “How many other black guys play like white guys?”
As offensive as the two New Yorkers sounded, I somewhat agreed with their assessment. Jason Campbell is a tall, heavy, plodding quarterback who has yet to show any of his athleticism. He takes long strides when he runs (I’m guessing a 5.2 in the 40) and his throwing motion is so slow and deliberate that Chris Cooley (the slow tight end) is usually waiting days for the football. All white quarterbacks do not have these traits, but if I described a slow, awkward, inept football player, would you think he was black? I am not saying that all black people are athletic (Lord knows I have seen some black folks who are not) but personally I expect a black NFL quarterback to have at least an ounce of mobility. That’s comparable to a white NBA point guard who can’t shoot free throws or a white person who doesn’t like coffee…it just doesn’t happen that often. I realize that my racial generalizations may be offensive, but what is so harmful about saying most black people are more athletic than white people? I think the problem begins when one implies that being athletically gifted somehow means a person is deficient in terms of intelligence. If anything, a player who exemplifies superior athleticism at the pro-level also has to possess above-average intelligence. After all, he is competing against other great athletes. On the opposite end of the spectrum, white athletes who are perceived as or labeled as playing like black guys are usually given cool nicknames like “white chocolate” or “Eminem.” If white athletes who play like black athletes are given cool nicknames, we should come up with some cool names for people like Jason Campbell and Byron Leftwich. How about “chocolate white bread” or “black cracker?” For some reason they don’t come off as smooth as “white chocolate.” The well traveled Jason Williams of the LA Clippers came into the NBA displaying behind the back passes, crossovers and various other playground moves (code word for black) but I don’t think many black folks were upset about it. I am not sure how Williams or Mike Miller are regarded in the white community, but I get the feeling it’s not very highly. But that’s the NBA, a predominantly black league in which black culture is somewhat accepted. On the other hand, in the NFL there aren’t many white players who play like black guys. I am sure Ben Roethlisberger hangs out with black guys, but I never heard his game play described as “black.” Derek Anderson’s (Cleveland Browns QB) name sounds as if it belongs to a black guy, but last time I checked he was white and slow, might I add. The only white quarterback that I can recall actually playing with athleticism and speed was the 2001 Heisman trophy winner Eric Crouch. Crouch ran Nebraska’s triple option offense which required mobility and swiftness from the quarterback position, but does that mean he played “black?” However you describe Eric Crouch’s play, he didn’t play very long in the NFL. Drafted by the St. Louis Rams as a wide receiver, Crouch was often injured and was out of the league in 2005 without playing a down. Do you think he got “the white guy playing like a black guy” treatment? Hmmmm… In the past, a black quarterback in the NFL was rare or non-existent. In order to even be considered for playing the position, a black guy had to be a magnificent athlete (Randall Cunningham). Ironically, most athletic black quarterbacks were asked to play other positions for the benefit of the team. On the other hand, it seems that white quarterbacks were given the reins regardless of what they ran in the “forty.” Thus we assumed most NFL quarterbacks were sluggish and lethargic. But as the NFL evolved to embrace more athletic quarterbacks and realized that a running quarterback puts butts in the seats (similar to the MLB integrating partly because of a moral issue and partly as a business decision), more and more blacks got opportunities to display their quarterback skills. Suddenly we began to see black quarterbacks with more than one skill set (speed) and America collectively said, “Wow, there are some black quarterbacks who are not athletic.” Hopefully, with future recruitment and selection of players based more on talent and skill and less on racial biases, America will begin to realize that the color of one’s skin has little to do with the kind of skills a quarterback possesses.
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