Toby Gerhart Wins Doak Walker Award

Well, SBPDL was the first to bring up the interesting idea of the top award for the best college football running back being named for a white guy - when white people rarely play tailback anymore.

We published a piece entitled The Doak Walker Award, the annual trophy given to the best college football running back. We'll quote from it now:

"Sports are the only manner in which many white people come in contact with Black people (largely through their television) and the games help shape people's attitudes toward them in a very positive manner.

Stuff Black People Don't Like, however, includes the "Doak Walker Award" name, for white people playing tailback is a silly notion, considering that Black people dominate the position and how few white people actually play that position now. Remember, the goal in THE AGE OF OBAMA is to make everything Black - coaches and players a like - and any vestige of Pre-Obama America must be swept into the dustbin of history.

Or, if white guys want to play tailback, they can play for the Air Force Academy. We do need fighter pilots still."

Well, one of the players profiled in that piece was Stanford's Toby Gerhart, who just won the Doak Walker Award for the 2009 season:

"Stanford running back Toby Gerhart diligently slogged through two final exams after arriving in Orlando for The Home Depot/ESPNU College Football Awards.

But after he turned in his archeology test Thursday morning, "the day just got 100 times better," said Gerhart, a management science and engineering major.

Gerhart was named the 2009 Doak Walker Award winner, announced by former Cowboys' star Tony Dorsett during the show. The award honoring the nation's top running back will be presented by the SMU Athletic Forum on Feb. 19 at the Hilton Anatole in Dallas.

Gerhart is also a finalist for the Heisman Trophy and will head to New York for Saturday night's Heisman presentation."

Once again, SBPDL is proving to be prescient in our ever growing list of Stuff Black People Don't Like.

Congratulations are in order for Mr. Toby Gerhart from SBPDL. Here's a great article on Gerhart from Sports Illustrated:

"Maybe you're thinking that the racial imbalance is because Caucasian backs just can't keep up. You watch Adrian Peterson and Maurice Jones-Drew and say, "Find me a white runner who can do that." But there's plenty of anecdotal evidence to suggest that white backs haven't been competing just against other players; they've also been battling the perception that they're not cut out for the job.

Four years ago Gerhart was a hotshot at Norco (Calif.) High, visiting USC on a recruiting trip with fellow runners C.J. Gable and Stafon Johnson, who are black. The Trojans told Gerhart they would love to have him -- as an outside linebacker or a fullback to block for guys like Johnson and Gable."

Four years later, Gerhart is poised to win the Heisman Trophy. Why is this so strange, a white guy playing tailback? Simple:

"So, why are there so few white running backs in college and professional football?

"Simple, simple, simple reason,” coaching legend Barry Switzer said. "There’s not that many white running backs out there. They’re limited in number.”

There’s validity in that limited-availability theory. Major-college and pro coaches, after all, are primarily interested in one thing — winning — and if they think a player can help them do that, they’ll go after him. His skin could be white or black, blue or green, orange or purple with pink polka dots.

What matters most is his ability...

"They can’t compete with us,” NFL Hall of Fame running back Eric Dickerson once said. "The black athlete, especially at that position, is faster, more elusive. That’s a position made for agility.

"It’s kind of like our chosen position.”

That’s as ridiculous, of course, as saying quarterback is a white man’s position.

Jon Entine contends there is a link between ancestral genetics and athletic success. In his controversial book "Taboo: Why Black Athletes Dominate Sports and Why We’re Afraid to Talk About It,” he argues that athletes of West African descent — which would include a sizable chunk of black athletes in America — have a genetic advantage that gives them an edge in sprinting.

Some scientists agree. Others do not.

You can question all of the theories, but you can’t dispute the trend.

White running backs are few and far between.

According to the recruiting Web site Rivals.com, 27 running backs are four- or five-star prospects in this year’s recruiting class."

Others believe Gerhart's race will hinder his chance of winning the Heisman:

"To the voters, Gerhart is, if I can venture the term, a "system runner." A trumped-up fullback in a power-running game who's shown uncommon speed and balance, but is nowhere near the "other" running backs in terms of skill because of his race.

This will be what prevents him from winning the Heisman.

Now, I am certainly not saying the Heisman is biased against white people. That'd be a tough argument to make, given that only two black players have won this decade.

But Gerhart is still the victim of a subtle, persistent racism against white running backs—and against blacks in the quarterback position, for what it's worth. And though this subtle racism can be supported by NFL combines and Wonderlic tests, it harms those small few who are the exception."

When all is said and done, Gerhart has still won the Doak Walker Award, and SBPDL casts our vote for him for the Heisman Trophy.