NFL 2014 Season - Page 344

Black athletes saw success at positions other than QB for a long list of reasons. Many of which were related to be being poor/black. When you think about what it takes to be an excellent QB (for instance 1-on-1 time with a knowledgeable coach) it's kind of obvious why most QB's come from well off families (who are simply statistically more likely not to be black). So one can put together why it would be harder for a poor athlete to become a QB vs something like a WR

So why have there been some successful poor white QB's? (I don't actually know if there have, but I assume there has?) This goes back to coaches being able to personally relate with their players enough to turn them from cocky college players into professional athletes.

Basically it takes a lot more to mold said college youth into a QB than it does a WR or something. Coaches just didn't/don't have the skills/common experiences/patience to do that with young black men. So what you would of seen had you been looking for it was first all black teams that inherently had black players.Then some of those black athletes that were either significantly more athletic than their white counterparts or roughly equal and happened to have amiable personalities for being a football player started being put on "white" teams and having success. From there they started to become position coaches and mentors and were able to develop the previously mentioned personal relationships with players that allowed them to take less amiable personalities and mold them into professionals(or close enough at least).

At the same time black and white people had more common shared experiences and had more inter-community interactions, so non-black coaches started to have the life experiences that facilitated the relationships necessary to developing professionals out of poor young black athletes as well as whites.

Those two developments happening simultaneously helped lead to reasonably successful black QB's.

This leads us to Wilson. Wilson is somewhat of an anomaly. Being the son of a Lawyer and Legal nurse, he doesn't fit the "typical black athlete" mold. When comparing his success to someone like Vick, RG3, etc... the theme of black QB=Running QB is likely to come up. However, the difference off the field can also be seen on the field.

While there is an undeniable pattern of black QB's tending to be running QB's I suggest it's not exactly for the reasons most people assume. The basic implication behind the debate/discussion was that black athletes were too dumb to be QB's. So that if they became QB's it was a novelty of athleticism mixed with unconventional play (that just wouldn't stand up in the NFL).

My suggestion is that it wasn't the QB's being to dumb that led them to play the way they did. Instead, their play was a symptom of a confluence of other influencing factors. The ones I have already outlined are not limited to the college-professional transition but take place at the other transition points in football (flag to contact, everyone makes the team to cuts, etc...)

So the idea that black people couldn't QB in the NFL was essentially a self-fulfilling prophecy. Black people couldn't have significant success in the NFL at QB because none of their coaches were willing to put in the work/faith to make them one like they were with white athletes.

Bringing us back to Wilson, he is a part of a perfect storm. Having an atypical background for a black athlete gave him his first boost, allowing him the financial support that is so helpful to developing a quality athlete also being raised/gifted with a conducive disposition and personality to being a professional. Next that same background gave him a unique social/educational skill set uncommon in black athletes (for a variety of reasons). Next his A-typical background gave him access to a high school with an extensive sports program. And so on, then Wilson gets a huge break, A coach in the NFL that really believed in his abilities(It's likely Carroll, having recruited lots of black athletes himself, was familiar with the nuance of Wilson's story).

Where many saw Wilson's running ability and black skin and instantly turned him into a short Michael Vick (or whoever was their stereo-type for black QB) in their head, Carroll saw more. Carroll saw someone he could turn into a Superbowl winning QB. Not just based on Wilson's ability to run with the ball and make some good passes his personality and off field dedication be damned, but because he saw his passion and overall talent absent a "black people can't play QB filter". I speculate that he saw the full potential of the athlete without making a bunch of assumptions based on statistically supported prejudices. As important he had the clarity to see Wilson's potential regardless of his skin color and the confidence that he could be better than the white QB they originally planned to go with.

The contrast between someone like RGIII and Wilson illustrates how important a confident supportive clear eyed coach is to the confidence and performance of a QB. I wouldn't dismiss the role plain bad performance is to blame for Redskin woes but I think the impact of a culture of racial insensitivity that is so encapsulated in their very name and was thinly veiled by people like Shanahan most definitely influenced RGIII in the opposite (negative) direction as outlined for Wilson.

Wilson potentially being the first black QB with 2 SB wins in such a context is less surprising and easier to see how it came to be. As Wilson's background and football rearing becomes less atypical, expect to see more successful black QB's.