Since we wanted to dive more into the life behind the NFL, an interest was taken in what the players had to go through being affiliated with the sport. More specifically, since the first 13 years of the NFL were played strictly by white players, we wondered if racism still occurs today. At first glance, the answer would seem to be no, yet upon further investigation it still appears that racism is at play.
“White power built the game brick by brick and the mortar of racial intolerance holds the house together even today. While the foundation of the game was being laid it was being done under the formidable flag of bigotry. White privilege constructed the concept of a quarterback, center, safety and middle linebacker. White thought designed who was deemed capable to lead and coach.”- NFL Alternative
I first thought this comment was hard to believe; in my experience with the NFL I had always thought there was a pretty nice mix of color on the field. Yet, as this comment states when I looked into the leadership positions and coaches, color was hard to find. As of this January there are only THREE African-American coaches in the league: Marvin Lewis of the Cincinnati Bengals, Mike Tomlin of the Pittsburgh Steelers, and Leslie Frazier of the Minnesota Vikings. Here comes the punch: There are THIRTY TWO NFL teams.
Also, in the 2012 season, 25 starting quarterbacks were Caucasian, 7 were not. Five general managers (a leadership position) are African- American Baltimore Raven’s Ozzie Newsome, Detroit Lion’s Martin Mayhew, Houston Texan’s Rick Smith, Giant’s Jerry Reese, and Raiders’ Reggie McKenzie. Due to the afore claim that the NFL was built on “racial intolerance” it’s hard to overlook the imbalance.
An article in AOL News stated, “The traditional NFL wisdom has always been that the black quarterback isn’t smart enough to win.” Also,” The black players were placed at the “skill” positions, which is another way of saying they were asked to just run fast. Their white counterparts held on to the positions that were considered the “cerebral” or “central” positions.” Normally I’d be inclined to think a statement such as this one is a bit of a reach, but when looking at the ratios and the positions that are held by African Americans it’s hard to dispute the claim.
As far as discrimination between the players not enough concrete evidence was found to declare this a problem. The men become teammates and the teammates become their family but it would not be fair to say that all members of the family are celebrated equally.
From the information I gathered, while players may not have to deal with blatant oppression they do have to deal with the subtle “reality” that the sport has cast for them. This being the notion that they’re only there to run fast and hit hard while their counterparts will do more of the “thinking” behind the game. Also that there is little room for advancement (coaching positions) for a person with colored skin.
Further Reading:
http://espn.go.com/nfl/players/_/position/qb
http://www.liberalorder.com/2011/05/greed-and-racism-in-the-nfl.html
http://www.nflalternative.com/the-revolution-was-televised-racism-and-the-nfl/
