# The Super Bowl brings up a racial issue... **URL:** \ **Category:** The Game Room\ **Created:** [February 7, 2014, 6:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-super-bowl-brings-up-a-racial-issue/680739 "2014-02-07T06:44:11Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![pancakes3](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ba9def/32.png) [@pancakes3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pancakes3)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2014, 2:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-super-bowl-brings-up-a-racial-issue/680739/21 "2014-02-08T02:36:20Z")
> [@Marley23](#): > > This is a little different in that black QBs aren’t much remarked-upon, but it’s interesting that the only other black QB to win the game did so 25 years ago. I didn’t think about it myself, but someone else at the same Super Bowl party did. It might not have been a dominant topic of conversation, but it is certainly a talking point. Just in the past 10 years or so there was talk about Donovan McNabb being a good pocket passer… for a black guy. If Vince Young was worth the hype which transitioned to if Jamarcus Russell was good enough to merit the #1 overall. Recently RG3 and his “athletic style” vs the classic Andrew Luck, and this off season I’m sure lots of Eagles fans will bag on Vick in favor of Nick Foles. I suppose the race discussion is transitioning from overtones to undertones but there are still traces of it, more or less, depending on the company you keep. > [@gnoitall](#): > > Certainly. I wouldn’t have called Scramblin’ Fran a “white black QB” 50 years ago. I hope we in football fandom will get beyond such ridiculousness. Rushing or scrambling skill isn’t tied to skin color. > [@AncientHumanoid](#): > > As for the “Black QB” thing being an issue, I think those days are pretty much over. Except for some bitter old schoolers who don’t enjoy the ever evolving nature of the game. Yeah see? That Roger “the Dodger” Staubach is a bad egg see? If you’re going to run, get in the wishbone. If you’re going to attempt the forward pass, you sling it with your feet planted like Johnny U. And get a haircut like Johnny U. Awful lot of hair for an alleged “Navy” man. ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2014, 2:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-super-bowl-brings-up-a-racial-issue/680739/22 "2014-02-08T02:54:10Z")
> [@pancakes3](#): > > It might not have been a dominant topic of conversation, but it is certainly a talking point. Just in the past 10 years or so there was talk about Donovan McNabb being a good pocket passer… for a black guy. If Vince Young was worth the hype which transitioned to if Jamarcus Russell was good enough to merit the #1 overall. Recently RG3 and his “athletic style” vs the classic Andrew Luck, and this off season I’m sure lots of Eagles fans will bag on Vick in favor of Nick Foles. I suppose the race discussion is transitioning from overtones to undertones but there are still traces of it, more or less, depending on the company you keep. I think that’s really died off over the last decade. 10 years ago, yes, really athletic QBs were something of a novelty or at least an outlier and it was harder for them to get a shot. You could find debates over whether or not you could win with a QB who was more of an “athlete” than a QB. “Running quarterback” seemed to be pretty much synonymous with “black guy at QB.” There were shades of the same white/black athletecism/intelligence talent/fundamental dichotomy you sometimes seem in basketball. But that was 10 years ago. NFL offenses have changed and people have adjusted their thinking. When people have questions about Robert Griffin and Cam Newton, they’re questions about those guys as individuals and not about a style of QB play. In Newton’s case people were too quick to write him off, and there’s reason to be concerned about Griffin even though people who wanted to ditch him for Kirk Cousins were being dumb. The debates over Young and Russell weren’t about race. They were about whether or those guys were really that good, and they absolutely weren’t. None of which is to say that race doesn’t creep into discussions of sports all the time (Richard Sherman), but as far as QBs go it seems to have faded from the discussion. ---
**Author:** ![Try2B\_Comprehensive](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/try2b_comprehensive/32/65_2.png) [@Try2B\_Comprehensive](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Try2B_Comprehensive)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2014, 4:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-super-bowl-brings-up-a-racial-issue/680739/23 "2014-02-08T04:16:47Z")
I don’t recall Any attention being paid to Wilson’s race. I’m glad it doesn’t get presented as an issue much anymore- I used to get upset when some up-and-comer would display all the ability you could ask for (in whatever field) and the discussion would be, “Gee I dunno, he \*is \*black yanno…” Sherman attracted maybe a little attention as a ‘racial minority’ after his Crabtree outburst. The media used the word ‘thug’ many times after the event, which was supposed to be a ‘dog whistle’ thing to say- outraged commentary pointed this out you see. Meh- kinda once-removed if you ask me. In regular interviews, Sherman seems like a guy you’d introduce to your mom. He has a Stanford education and a Super Bowl ring. What stereotype is _that_? It doesn’t add up; only the inattentive or stupid cling to racial stereotypes anymore. But it goes wayyyy back, man’s brutality toward man. The Ancien Regime, the Romans… how far back do you want to go? Brutality goes all the way to Abel, so to speak. It does seem more severe in the past. For example, Sherman being carted off the field because of the Broncos’ brutality toward him is nothing compared to the unutterable history of race (or tribe) relations in America and elsewhere. [The most watched television program of all time](http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/nfl-shutdown-corner/super-bowl-xlviii-highest-rated-television-program-time-223445017--nfl.html) was a brutal beatdown by a team with black stars against a team with 1 white superstar and otherwise the usual NFL mix, and it was not about race. It wasn’t! ---
**Author:** ![Mister\_Rik](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mister_rik/32/491_2.png) [@Mister\_Rik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mister_Rik)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2014, 5:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-super-bowl-brings-up-a-racial-issue/680739/24 "2014-02-08T05:30:21Z")
As a casual Seahawks fan who only listens to the game on the radio, I didn’t even _know_ that Wilson was black until a few games before the SB. ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2014, 6:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-super-bowl-brings-up-a-racial-issue/680739/25 "2014-02-08T06:39:45Z")
> [@Try2B\_Comprehensive](#): > > Sherman attracted maybe a little attention as a ‘racial minority’ after his Crabtree outburst. The media used the word ‘thug’ many times after the event, which was supposed to be a ‘dog whistle’ thing to say- outraged commentary pointed this out you see. He was right about that. I’ve said the same thing a few times, but if I said it every time I heard the word used against a black guy I’d never have time to argue about anything else. ---
**Author:** ![Airman\_Doors\_USAF](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e36b37/32.png) [@Airman\_Doors\_USAF](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Airman_Doors_USAF)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2014, 1:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-super-bowl-brings-up-a-racial-issue/680739/26 "2014-02-08T13:52:05Z")
> [@PSXer](#): > > and Russel Wilson doesn’t act black. He’s a cornball brother What does this even mean? ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2014, 2:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-super-bowl-brings-up-a-racial-issue/680739/27 "2014-02-08T14:54:33Z")
> [@Airman\_Doors\_USAF](#): > > What does this even mean? It’s what Rob Parker called Robert Griffin III. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-super-bowl-brings-up-a-racial-issue/680739.md?page=1)