African Americans in the United States have made leaps and bounds in athletics since being initiated into mainstream sports in the late 1940s. Contrarily, playing a position solely predicated on athletic ability will only allow the player to play until his actual physical athletic ability starts to decline; the NFL quarterback is where this is more evident in the sports realm, African American athletes were exempt from playing the intelligent positions like quarterback, tight end, or not even center. The NFL team Washington Redskins did not even sign any African American athletes until the threat of the Civil Rights movement forced them to make drastic changes. In addition to being blackballed from heralded positions upon being drafted onto an NFL team African American football players weren’t allotted the opportunity to play and many were forced to change positions even if they played the quarterback position on the college level, this was called “racial stacking”, it involves moving black people from positions marked as “intelligent” to “physical” or “athletic” positions such as outfielder in base or wide receiver in football, and It involves moving the white player into “intelligent” positions. Former NFL MVP Steve McNair played quarterback for a historically black college due to the fact that most of the big colleges would rather he switch positions than play his natural position at quarterback. Many African-Americans were asked to transition into other positions in high school, college and even the professional level and often discouraged from playing quarterback. How many other black MVP caliber quarterbacks were forced to play other positions because coaches didn’t feel Blacks made good quarterbacks?
. During the 1920’s the NFL only started letting African American football players play the skill positions, like defensive tackle, wide receiver and or running back. The odds of becoming an NFL player are very slim; the odds of becoming an NFL quarterback even smaller.
There shouldn’t be an issue of race when it comes to the playing field at the elite level of sports. When it pertains to the color of your skin it shouldn’t matter because the ability of the person playing no matter the position or sport is what should be in question. However, being athletic and aptitude to play the position are not to be confused, a players ability to play a position will allow a player the opportunity to flourish for a long time in a sport that is physically taxing on the body for as long as the athlete can play and feel capable of playing or is thought by the powers in control feel they can.
For African Americans Football was a very crucial and difficult sport to try and play in. American Football League (AFL) was where African Americans could come and play football in the 1800’s. The AFL mostly recruited African American players who were often ignored by the NFL. The AFL and the NFL quickly became rivals and often played each other due to the fact The NFL was dominated by white players who didn’t like the fact that African Americans had their own league. Most of the African American players were recruited from historically black colleges where a lot of African Americans flourished and also was a lot more popular than the NFL during the 1800’s.
African Americans slowly started to be drafted into the NFL in the 1900’s. One of the first African Americans to be initiated into the NFL was Frederick Douglass Pollard, a pioneer in his own right in 1921. Football started gaining a lot of popularity around the 1920’s due to the influx of African Americans being drafted. Fritz Pollard was not only one of the first African Americans to play in the NFL but he was the first black coach in NFL.
African American football players basically had their contract suspended after 1926 and you start to see a lot of African Americans start disappearing from the NFL, Another black football player wouldn’t be drafted into the NFL until 1952. There was an average of 17% more African American football players in the AFL than the NFL from 1960 through 1962. The NFL merged with AFL in 1970, which created an average of more than 30% black athletes in the NFL.
Upon Frederick Douglass “Fritz” Pollard becoming the First African American coach and quarterback in the NFL the ban on black athletes largely petitioned by Washington Redskin’s owner, George Marshall Beginning started in 1934, it wasn’t until fifteen years later that George Taliaferro who played quarterback in the All-America Football Conference (AAFC) in 1949 and became the second African American quarterback in NFL history when he joined the New York Yanks in 1950. Taliaferro was more of a utility player than what you would call the conventional quarterback; he accrued over 200 passing, receiving and rushing yards, and scored a touchdown as a means of all three methods in 1952 and 1953. But even though he made three Pro Bowls, Taliaferro never led his team in passing, and was used more as a utility player than a quarterback. The third black quarterback in league history was Willie Thrower in 1953 who threw eight passes in one game for the Bears. The Green Bay Packers marked another milestone with signing Charlie “choo choo” Brackins two years later; this signing was very unique because While Thrower (Michigan State), Taliaferro (Indiana) and Pollard (Brown) came from major schools, Brackins was the pioneer in a small line of quarterbacks from historically black colleges, streamlining the way for quarterbacks such as Doug Williams and Steve Mcnair. Marlin Briscoe was drafted in the by Denver in 1968 and became the first starting African American Quarterback in the NFL. Briscoe lead the league in yards per completion as a rookie and ranked sixth in the AFL in passing yards, touchdowns and quarterback rating. Denver later cut Briscoe and he signed with the Bills as a receiver, Briscoe never played quarterback again. Joe Gilliam was drafted by the Steelers in 1972 and played four seasons with Pittsburgh with the bulk of his work coming in the 1974 season. That season the Steelers won its first Super Bowl, Gilliam undoubtedly outplayed fellow quarterback and former number one overall pick Terry Bradshaw in the regular season, but he was unable to beat out Bradshaw for the job and the Steelers went on a Super Bowl run in the late 70’s and the rest is history.
No black quarterback was selected before the sixth round of the draft by the end of the 1977 season but the landscape changed forever when Doug Williams was selected with the seventeenth pick in the first round of the 1978 draft by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Williams attended a historically black college in Grambling State, he was named Black College Player of the year twice in college but was not highly scouted coming out of college despite his success on the field. Tampa Bay Buccaneers offensive coordinator Joe Gibbs was the only NFL coach that made the effort to scout him and recommended they select Williams with their first draft choice. But what he is best noted for is his impressive run to the Super Bowl with the Washington Redskins where he lead his team to the championship while throwing for four touchdowns and being named Super Bowl MVP becoming the first African American quarterback to with a Super Bowl and Capture the Most Valuable Player honors, that was clearly the highlight of his Williams’ career after suffering from injuries the next year and inevitably losing his starting job; Williams would play his last season in 1989 and end his career with a record of 5-9 as Redskins starter 8-9 when counting playoffs and a 38-42-1 record as a regular season starter, Williams also finished 100 passing touchdowns, and 15 rushing touchdowns, in 88 NFL games. No African American quarterbacks entered the league for five years After Williams.
During Williams Super Bowl run there weren’t many African American Quarterbacks to pick from the litter but after 1984, the landscape of what a black quarterback could do in the NFL changed forever after a quarterback of the name of Warren Moon joined the Canadian Football League in 1978, and instantly led his Edmonton Eskimos to the Grey Cup title in each of his first five seasons. He set the single season passing record and won the Most Outstanding Player award In 1983 and had not set foot on an NFL field which prompted the then Houston Oilers to sign the future 9-time Pro Bowler and NFL Hall of Famer. Randall Cunningham was drafted in 1985, and would become a star using an entirely different style with his legs and arm. Cunningham’s’ historic 1990 season in which he threw for thirty touchdown passes and rushed for 942 yards was a new landmark for quarterbacks no player had even rushed for 500 yards with 30 passing touchdowns in a single season.
Stereotype of the black quarterback:
Black athletes usually tend to given credit for their natural athleticism, while whites are credited for their work ethic, discipline and knowledge of the game, as if Black athletes are naturally given the gift of great athleticism, and white athletes become great athletes through hard work, discipline and intelligence. One of the most prevalent stereotypes in sports is that of the Black quarterback. Both Rush Limbaugh and even former sports commentator Jimmy the Greek, have caught backlash for their philosophies on African-American quarterbacks. Jimmy’s explanation of how African Americans were bred for physical skill but whites were bred for intelligence was blatant racist and a hint at the past slavery institution, but there have been many more subtle ways at implying the same point. Limbaugh was quoted as saying “Sorry to say this, I don’t think he’s been that good from the get-go . . .. What we have here is a little social concern in the NFL. The media has been very desirous that a Black quarterback can do well—Black coaches and Black quarterbacks doing well . . .. There’s a little hope invested in McNabb, and he got credit for the performance of his team that he didn’t deserve. The defense [has] carried this team”. There were even racial implications heading into the most recent Super Bowl. Panthers’ Cam Newton had been criticized for dancing, and even wearing a towel over his head he was a magnet for criticism. The media criticized Newton for always smiling. Bottom line they don’t like how he approaches the game and that may stem from some of his excessive celebration.
But the unconscious but somewhat blatant racism came when asked about his representation as a black quarterback by a reporter, Newton replied saying,
“I don’t want to even touch on the topic of black quarterback because I think this game is bigger than black, white, or even green … I don’t think I should be labeled as just a black quarterback because there are bigger things in this sport that need to be accomplished.
Another reporter was not satisfied with Newton’s answer and pressed the topic of Newton being a black quarterback.
Reporter: Why don’t you want to elaborate on it? It’s a big issue.
Newton: No it’s not.
Reporter: The stereotype that a mobile black quarterback cannot throw in the pocket effectively … you don’t think …
Newton: I think we shattered that a long time ago.
Reporter: You really believe that? Why don’t you back it up and say something?
Newton: Why should I back it up?
Reporter: Because you brought up the topic and it’s still an issue.
Newton: It’s not an issue. It’s an issue for you.
Media vs. The black athlete:
African American NFL players’ feelings towards the make-up of media is a major theme that reoccurs amongst African American athletes in the sports realm such as issues pertaining to the white dominated media personnel and those who never played the sport.
The bulk of the players spoke about the percentage of White reporters to the percentage of Black players. The majority of the NFL media is made up of White men, reporting on a sport that is majority Black. Some of the concerns of the African American NFL players on that scale are described in a sense when most people think about the media they think about white male, probably 35-45 years old when you think about people who portray the media, so that’s about 90% of the people who are covering the NFL (Lapchick, 2014), a league that is majority African American is covered by media personnel that is majority white male although the landscape is slowly changing. Pertaining to the people who are reporting the news, if you can’t identify with the players in some light, which most of the media are white males writing on a sport that is predominately African American their opinions may be somewhat skewed and biased.
The sports media can provoke many half-truths about the African American athlete, there are about 69.7% of the players in the NFL that are African American (Lapchick, 2016), the sports media consists of predominant white men. One image that the media invokes of the Black athlete is of natural strength, violence, and low sports IQ, on the other hand the white athlete is more intelligent and a hard worker on the gridiron. To dominate physically, especially in football has become a strong distinction of African American athletes. By the same token, African American athletes are often accused of being egotistic, selfish, and bragging, but blessed with natural abilities, on the contrary, white athletes are viewed in a different light with inept athletic ability in which they have had to work hard to achieve what they get and natural leaders who do everything in the name of the team.
According to the 2014 Racial and Gender Report Card for the NFL, 91.5 percent of the sports editors, 90.2 percent of the assistant sports editors, 83.5 percent of our columnists, 85 percent of our reporters and 83.3 percent of our copy editors/designers were white. (Lapchick, 2014). The media covers predominantly African American dominated sports and in doing so control how individuals base their opinions of athletes.
Previous research (Ogden & Rosen, 2010), (Karen & Washington, 2015) has analyzed media coverage of sports, finding contrasts in racial depictions of Black athletes compared to White athletes. An argument can be made that media forums may not always tell viewers what to think, but can affect how viewers think.
The fact that sports is one of the only major medians in which one can see images of prominent African Americans in a positive light, the perceived superiority of White athletes in measures of intelligence and work ethic and the presumed athleticism (‘‘born athletes’’) on the part of Black athletes. In January of 1988 Jimmy “the Greek” Snyder, a commentator on CBS’s NFL show made a remark about black athletes that cost him his job. Snyder stated, “Think of what the African slaves were forced to endure in this country merely to survive. Black athletes are their descendants”(Entine 72). The comment quickly surfaced through the media and many people were outraged. Snyder was eventually fired from CBS. The media’s rhetoric toward African American athletes in the media forum continue to make headlines to this day, and this isn’t a pastime racist remarks continue to be made by the predominantly white dominant media.
Black Quarterback v. White Quarterback:
Racism may be slowly disappearing from quarterback selection in the NFL, in large part because coaches are in a “win now” landscape. The larger issue is how the NFL has resisted a revolutionary style of play coming from the quarterback position. It may not be as much a black or white issue as it is displeasure in trusting quarterbacks who don’t comply with the long established idea of what a quarterback is. If you are not the prototypical 6-4, 240, you must have some great intangibles that scouts can be confident enough in o take the chance on you because they don’t usually gamble on what is not conventional. The greatest and most continual encumbrance to accepting a new culture is the news media’s reluctance to expand its vocabulary of acclaim to allow this new generation of African-American quarterbacks to thrive. Tom Brady, Ben Roethlisberger, Aaron Rodgers, Drew Brees and even Andrew Luck are frequently referred to as brilliant strategists, coordinators on the field or geniuses. Indianapolis Colts quarterback Andrew Luck is often referred to as a great gunslinger and was drafted to be heir to Colts legend Peyton Manning. Wilson and Cam Newton, in contrast, are largely characterized in correlation to their physical attributes: speed, strong arms, and allusiveness and dual threat ability. But a major key in someone like Newton’s dominance on the field is his leadership and guys following him. And he is smart, but we can only look at the fact that he runs fast and has a big arm and celebrates when he scores touchdowns.
The future of the black quarterback:
Michael Vick became the first black quarterback selected with the first pick in 2000. Then in 2006, Vince Young became the first black quarterback to win rookie of the year, and Robert Griffin lll and Cam Newton have won the award since then. Since that 1987-88 season, three African American quarterbacks have played in America’s most watched event; Kordell Stewart in Super Bowl XXX; Steve McNair, who came up a yard short in Super Bowl XXXIV and also shared regular MVP honors with Peyton Manning and became the first African American quarterback to achieve that feat in 2003; and Donovan McNabb, who was beaten by Tom Brady and the New England Patriots in Super Bowl XXXIX. An African America quarterback has played in the last 4 seasons Colin Kaepernick with the San Francisco 49ers, Russell Wilson who appeared in two straight and won one with the Seattle Seahawks, and Cam Newton with the Carolina Panthers who are all dual threat quarterbacks, which is to say dual-threat quarterback and black quarterback are far from coincidental terms in the NFL.
If a Black quarterback wanted to play in the NFL in the past he had to make a critical decision about the path of his career, whether it be switching positions, usually to a defensive secondary role or wide receiver or go to the Canadian Football League to play quarterback, or tough it out in a league that does not accept or respect the fact that quarterback is the position you want to play in the NFL. Currently there are six starting black quarterbacks in the NFL. Although the climate for the Black quarterback is advancing, there is still a black cloud of stereotype that must still be conquered.
White athletes have always benefited from a kind of athletic protection for as long as the NFL has been around, they didn’t have to match strength with other races of men, notwithstanding black men. Even if they did have to compete with other races, the men of color came to the sports with the cloud of stereotypes about their game IQ, leadership and skill.
Simultaneously, the NFL has more gradually and aversely moved to allot black men an equal opportunity to succeed at the quarterback position. Some spectators have come to the conclusion that the NFL does not want running quarterbacks; an aspect that often throws black dual-threat quarterbacks for a loss.
In a nation that is obsessed with football, quarterbacks are viewed, mainly quarterbacks in the NFL, as a fuse of captain of the shit, gunslinger and analyst, picking apart opposing defenses and making the major decisions with the game on the line, doing this all in a short time span with enormous defensive linemen closing in on them. Black men and those attributes do not seem to correlate with that of the NFL quarterback. Most heralded signal callers from Sammy Baugh to Tom Brady have been white.
The history of sports shows that trend is more likely to change. If a player such as the Carolina Panthers’ Cam Newton, a black quarterback, can endure on and off the field pressures, he should be able take his place among the most heralded and acknowledged quarterbacks in the NFL. African American quarterbacks are getting more respect at a position that has been dominated by predominantly white men, and the stereotype that praises black athletes for their athletic ability and evasiveness while praising white athletes for their mental toughness is gradually being broken down due to the success and more opportunities allotted to present and future African American quarterbacks, parents of black children will not have to galvanize their children by pointing out black quarterbacks in the NFL. NFL quarterback that just so happen to be black will be too normalized to matter beyond their talent, skill and style.
The marginalization of the African American quarterback on and off the field is apparent whether is be through the media and the rhetoric announcers the use, the stereotypes many hold to be true between the black quarterback and the white quarterback; the stereotypes suppress the black quarterback which entail help the white quarterback succeed on the field for as long as they can last physically and mentally. There has been significant research conducted that examines race, media, and sport (Lapchick, 2014; Karen & Washington, 2015, Ogden & Rosen, 2010; Lapchick, 2016). Various studies have been used to understand African American athletes’ and media personnel’s experiences of race with the media in sport.
History shows how important the quarterback position is and the progress African Americans have made to get past the stereotypes and prove that African American quarterbacks can play the position on the highest platform with the best of them; from Fritz Pollard in the early 1920’s to Cam Newton today African Americans continue to prove they can overcome the obstacles of the media stereotypes and even the forces within the game by just simply proving it on the field. On a larger scale their should be fair and equal treatment on all levels and in all sports, we still continue to fight to break down these invisible walls whether its being banned from the sport entirely or being forced to transition into another position African Americans who are persistent in the sport and do not let outside forces influence their well being are the ones prospering today on the highest level playing the most polarizing position in all of sports.