Many things that we deal with are distractions and don’t mean anything but a waste of time. I was raised to love reading the sports paper, watching evening news highlights, and Friday night high school football highlights.
My favorite football player is Michael Vick. I saw him lead a Virginia Tech Hokies to nearly winning a championship and becoming the first pick to the Atlanta Falcons in the 2001 NFL Draft. Vick is the most electrifying African American quarterback in the history of football. Before Vick’s rise during my time, there were many other quarterbacks from Warren Moon, Doug Williams, Randall Cunningham, Steve McNair, Andre Ware, Kordell Stewart, and many more.
Vick bridged the gap from old school to the new school. From QB naked bootlegs run, QB Draws Zone Read QB keepers, to modern day triple to where the defense has no idea where the football is. Which made way for the Lamar Jackson, Jalen Hurts, Robert Griffin III, Cam Newton, Patrick Mahomes, Vince Young, Jayden Daniels, Dak Prescott, and many others who struggle to stay a quarterback or were made to switch positions to play football professionally. Players have to stay in character at all times and don’t voice their opinion. Media will make you a meme from Colin Kaepernick kneeling to today Jayden Daniels disputing a Heisman winning jersey number with LSU.
In sports media, African American quarterbacks are dragged for any little thing compared to other races of quarterbacks. The darker their skin complexion, the more they are ridiculed in sports media.
Lamar Jackson has 2 Most Valuable Awards and a 3rd which was given to another player for a lesser deserving year in 2024. Jackson was excelling too much and running circles around everyone, without winning a Super Bowl. It was easy to wipe Jackson’s season under the rug when you don’t have a Super Bowl. Jackson’s rookie season scouts wanted him to switch positions, the same story every athletic Black qb deals with. Years later, Lamar is Hall of Fame bound with or without a Super Bowl.
You can play great in 2 Super Bowls and the media still will start a campaign for you to retire. Jalen Hurts won a Super Bowl in grandest of fashion, and every week the media and some fans have a field day exploiting his weaknesses on every sports show or podcast. Cam Newton is one of the best quarterbacks of all time. Not diving for a loose ball in the Super Bowl is all NFL media talks about. Forget the Heisman trophy, college national championship, and NFL MVP. The Black quarterback will have his weaknesses highlighted till they are replaced with players completed opposite of them.
The thing I noticed is the more you look like the urban environments from news and movies, the more nonsense African American quarterbacks deal with. Probably like that in every sector of this world with sterotypeing. Many times the nerdy, less lawry seasoned, and less offensive social stereotyped-looking African American player dealt with less or very minimal backlash from media and socials. Other races of players can have the same be raised in the same community, have similar tats. They will have a 15-year backup QB role, making way above average backup contacts with NFL post-benefit health package.
None the less, none of this really matters in the grand scheme of things, like I stated before. People that are blessed to make decisions in this world will face judgement. Stereotyping someone because of skin color and background is pure stupidity. If the roles of racism were reversed, people would be miserable. God allows us to make decisions for ourselves, right or wrong. Do the right thing and help each person win no matter your differences.
Written by Marc E. Coles Peters
