Even though there is a strong representation in the sports world today, the commonplace, “African Americans can never lead a football team to a Super Bowl victory,” is still widely believed in the sports world today. The commonplace comes to be by having both positions, the quarterback and the head coaching positions, be completely dominated by Caucasians. With African Americans being in the position to do great things in the prime of the sport of football, and generally falling short, they lost the ability to try again. Even though times have changed in the sport, and the two positions are being shared more frequently, the stereotype still remains the same, and African Americans are continually looked down upon.
It is still amazing to see this commonplace among some anchors and fans in the sport today. As on Sunday, October 5, 2009, there have been 11 black quarterbacks that have won a Super Bowl, three winning multiple rings, and one being the starter for the team. Two others, Donovan Mcnabb and Steve McNair both started the game for their teams but did not win. And very recently, in 2007, two good friends, Indianapolis Colts head coach Tony Dungy and Chicago Bears head coach Lovie Smith, two black head coaches met in the big game itself. It was the first time a African American head coach made the Super Bowl, let alone two in the same year. The Colts would go on to win the game 29-17 making Dungy the first black coach to win a Super Bowl. With all of these great accomplishments made by black athletes in our time, it is still hard for a young African American college QB to come out into the draft and stay with a team. Today in the National Football League, there are currently 17 black quarterbacks, and six black head coaches. They all are successful, hard working football personnel like the rest of the league, but still continue to be judged before they step foot out onto the field.
A commonplace isn’t true, just widely believed. There is no basis to judge a player performance on the color of his skin, just like we wouldn’t do with anything else. In the NFL, players and coaches screw up because they make the wrong decisions in the game. At that point, it makes no different if you’re black or white, it just means you screwed up. People put stock into the race of the coach or player because there hasn’t been that many African Americans at those positions, because no one would give them a chance. But there are plenty of black running backs, receivers, and linemen, and no one cares about their skin color. That’s because those aren’t leadership positions, and that is the most absurd thing of all. When you judge the leadership potential of a great player because of their skin color, and not the talent they possess, you become no better than those racists everywhere else in the world.
Unfortunately, I do not speak for the rest of the world, and with every black quarterback released from their team, and every black coach fired, the commonplace grows and grows. Until every African American in the position to lead a team to victory does so, no one will believe it possible, no matter how many facts you throw in their face. This commonplace really down intertwine with some other commonplaces in the world today. As previously stated, when a black athlete is released from their team, it falls into the category that African Americans cannot be successful, which is also ridiculous.
This commonplace came about just shortly after African Americans were allowed to start playing in the NFL. Because of bigots like Preston Marshall, blacks were kicked out of the league until the mid-40’s. When they were allowed back in, they really contributed to the game tremendously. The first modern QB however, was Marlin Briscoe, who played for the AFL Denver Broncos. Even more than forty years past his rookie season, Briscoe still holds many of the rookie records for the Broncos. There are countless records broken by both African American QB’s and coaches, and yet they still are looked down upon and are regarded as “second string commodities”.
I love sports. Everything about them makes me happy. Not a day goes by that I don’t watch a sport or sports highlight show. I want to be a professional sports broadcaster, and have been around sports all my life. They are really the only thing I know inside and out. I have been raised to be respectful to everyone I meet, and to never, under any circumstances, judge anyone by the color of their skin, sexual preference, or religion, and that is something that I hold very true to me today. When I make it to the top of the broadcasting world, my first goal is to change all the negative commonplaces and stereotypes. It shouldn’t matter what you look like, who you choose to love, or choose to worship in sports, all that should matter is the effort you put into the game, and how much you change the sport. The commonplace that African Americans cannot lead a team to victory is absurd, almost as absurd as saying we would never have a black president. Maybe if we all just give everyone a chance, you never know what we may find.
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