Saturday, September 24, 2011

Line Unbroken: Southern Methodist University White Running Back Zach Line Succeeds Despite "The Standard"

Zach Line got one scholarship offer: to play linebacker from SMU
Never forget what happened in 2009, when Stanford white running back Toby Gerhart won the Doak Walker Award and came in second in the Heisman Trophy vote. Coming out of high school, Stanford was the only school to offer Gerhart the opportunity to be a feature tailback. The University of Southern California wanted him to play fullback and other schools thought he'd be better suited as a linebacker.

Never forget what pioneering recruiting guru Tom Lemming said about how college recruiters no longer recruit white players to play certain positions like tailback, corner back, and wide receiver, positions that fans and coaches alike have been conditioned to believe where only Black athletes can excel.

Take the words of former Southern Methodist running back Eric Dickerson on the issue:
"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.”
Chosen position or just a position that few white athletes get the chance to play in college, negating opportunities for white running backs in the National Football League (NFL)? Just look at the criticism running back Jacob Hester took at Louisiana State University (LSU) in 2007 from predominately Black defenses, who questioned why he wasn't playing at the Air Force Academy. Just look at the criticism Peyton Hillis took in 2010 from predominately Black defenses in the NF, even as he ran over, around and through them on his way to being the first white running back to run for more than 1,000 yards in a season in 20 seasons. 

Draft analysts questioned whether Toby Gerhart could succeed as a running back in the NFL before the 2010 draft (he would picked by Minnesota), largely due to The Standard being applied to his being a white running back.

One has to wonder how many white players coming out of high school, who excelled at running back, wide receiver, corner back or safety were switched to play another position - or just weren't recruited - because of The Standard being applied and the belief that white kids aren't fast enough (blessed with enough speed) to compete for the big time conference teams.

Enter Southern Methodist University (SMU) white running back Zach Line. In 2010, he nearly ran for 1500 yards, challenging Eric Dickerson's single-season rushing record at the school. In a game against Northwestern State on September 18, 2011, he broke the SMU record for touchdowns in a game. He's in the top ten in rushing yards for the season (and the nation's scoring leader) thus far in the Football Bowl Championship (FBS) classification, after scoring three more touchdowns and tallying 136 yards rushing in a 42-0 blitz of Memphis today.

And he's done all of this despite being recruited to play linebacker at SMU, after putting up huge numbers in high school as a running back. No school wanted him to play running back for them in college (after all, he's one of those hundred's of white running backs Tom Lemming said that doesn't get the chance to play college ball because of The Standard).

Here's what the Memphis Commercial Appeal wrote about Zach Line:

He was recruited to SMU to play linebacker, a position at which he excelled during a standout prep career in Oxford, Mich.

As he prepares for Saturday's Conference USA game against the University of Memphis at Liberty Bowl Memorial Stadium, Zach Line's objective is to punish linebackers who obstruct his well-worn path to the end zone.

Line is SMU's unlikely star, a 6-1, 230-pound running back who held no scholarship offers from Football Bowl Subdivision programs out of Oxford High, but who enters Saturday's game tied for the national lead in scoring (16 points per game) and atop C-USA in rushing (109 yards per game).

''He's a big bruiser back, but he has enough agility and speed to punish you,'' said Tiger co-defensive coordinator Galen Scott. ''And he's averaging six yards a carry. He's good at what he does and they're good up front.''

Even though he has eight touchdowns in three games -- including a school-record five in last week's 40-7 win over Northwestern State -- Line isn't in the midst of a breakout season. That was last fall when Line earned first-team All C-USA honors by rushing for 1,494 yards, the second-highest total in SMU history and trailing former Mustang and NFL great Eric Dickerson.

It's been an ideal marriage between Line and SMU, one arranged by Bill Keenist, the Detroit Lions' senior vice president of communications. Keenist's son played with Line in high school and Keenist sent a DVD of Line's highlights to SMU coach June Jones, a former quarterbacks coach for the Lions.

Jones had every intention of playing Line at linebacker, where he had 154 tackles, eight forced fumbles and four fumble recoveries as a high school senior.

''They recruited me as a linebacker, but on the first day of spring ball (in 2009) they moved me to running back,'' Line said. ''They told me they needed somebody at running back.

''I had put my running highlights on my (high school DVD) so I think they knew I could play a little bit. I was a pretty good blocker and I think my wrestling background helped me become a blocker.''

Line was used mostly as a short-yardage back as a freshman and ended his first season with 189 yards. Last year, he started 12 of 14 games and was largely responsible for SMU's first West Division title and its first back-to-back bowl appearances in 25 years. Line's rushing total was the most ever by a Jones-coached running back.

''I think Coach Jones gained some confidence in me last year,'' Line said. ''When the passing game wasn't working, we'd run the ball. We ended up running more than normal (516 pass attempts, 304 rush attempts).
''Teams still have to defend the pass against us. That puts them in a rough spot. We still run four-wide sets every time, we have four receivers who are fast and can get down the field in a hurry. So they have to cover that and then we can hit the draw play or the trap play.''

Mostly a power back in high school, Line said he had to learn ''how to make people miss'' in college.
Line said he had trimmed from 242 pounds to 225 upon making the switch to running back, but has settled into an effective playing weight of 230.

''Zach is a very good inside runner,'' Jones said. ''He's tough with quick steps. And he can block. Zach is a good football player.''
 Running a 4.6 40-yard-dash (the end-all, be-all metric used to gauge speed by college and NFL scouts), Line's only offer for a college scholarship from SMU is indicative of the challenges that white athletes face from college evaluating services like Rivals.com and Scout.com, which dictate which players colleges will try and secure a commitment from. Check out this article from ESPNDallas.com, where you learn Line's father played at Michigan State and he had hoped to line up for the Spartans:

Sophomore Zach Line, a Michigan native, didn't know much at all about SMU when coach June Jones called to offer him a scholarship.

"I had never even been to Dallas," Line said. "I just knew SMU was a small school in a big city."

But Line bought into Jones' plan to rebuild the Mustangs -- and the warmer Texas weather -- and is helping to make bowl trips an annual occurrence on The Hilltop. The 6-1, 225-pound running back collected 1,391 yards on 227 carries to lead Conference USA in rushing in 2010.

He'll be a big factor in the SMU offense in Thursday's Armed Forces Bowl against Army, a program that can appreciate a good, hard-nosed running back.

Line, though, didn't figure he'd be a Mustang as he played his senior year of high school in Michigan. Line thought he'd run around the Michigan State Spartans' backfield, attending his father's alma mater and playing for the school he'd cheered for as a kid. But Michigan State, like the rest of the Football Bowl Subdivision schools, didn't offer Line a scholarship.

That's when Bill Keenist, the Detroit Lions' senior VP of communications, decided to help. Keenist's son had played with Line at Oxford High School, and Keenist was convinced that Line could play at a top college football program. So he sent a DVD of Line's exploits to Jones, a former coach for the Lions who was at Hawaii.

"A week later Coach Jones called and said they wanted me to visit Hawaii, but that was postponed and the next thing I know he's at SMU," Line said. "He called and said I needed to send him another tape because he couldn't take that tape from Hawaii."

Jones saw what he thought was a capable linebacker and recruited Line to SMU. But once Jones and the staff started slotting guys into positions, they moved Line to running back.

"Bill Keenist knew what we were looking for in a running back," Jones said. "We want a guy that can block a guy off the edge and has quickness to run the ball when we hand it to him. Zach will block anybody and he can run."

Last year, as a freshman, Line was the blocking back for Shawnbrey McNeal, who rushed for more than 1,000 yards. Line did find the end zone a handful of times in short-yardage situations, but was primarily a blocker. This season, having more carries has allowed him to show not only his toughness in carrying tacklers for extra yards but also his elusiveness.

"He has real good inside running instincts," Jones said. "We didn't give him the ball enough on some runs last year to really see that. He can run faster than what guys think he can run."

Jones said Line probably runs a 4.6-second 40-yard dash. That speed combined with his powerful frame has made Line a critical part of the offense. He credits losing 17 pounds in the offseason -- dropping from 242 to 225 -- with allowing him to add a little quickness.

"Coming in here, I felt a lot quicker, more shifty," Line said. "I took it upon myself that to do what I wanted to do, I had to lose weight. My quickness is in the box running and side to side. Getting 10 yards in the box is hard to do and that's what they're looking for. I feel like I can do that."
 Before this season is out, don't be surprised if Zach Line breaks Eric Dickerson's rushing yards in a season record at Southern Methodist University. Accomplishing this despite the running back position - in the words of Dickerson - being the chosen position for Black athletes.

Actually, it's a position that white athletes don't get the chance to play that often because of The Standard. When they do, it's hard to hold the line of white athletes not being talented enough to be a feature running back. Even when they were initially recruited to play linebacker, the lone offer they received to play college ball.

Just look at what Zach Line is doing for SMU.

How many white kids out there playing football in high school on Friday nights all across the country, never get the chance to play for their favorite college team (remember, Line wasn't recruited by Michigan State, the school he grew up loving) because of The Standard, the belief that white guys aren't talented enough to compete in a sport that fans and coaches have been conditioned to believe only Black people can excel in? 



30 comments:

Lily White said...

What would the reaction be to a white quarterback saying that blacks "can't compete with us," and that quarterback is "kind of like our chosen position?" Let's think...hmmmm.......

Anonymous said...

Of course: there are a few whites who are 4 standard deviations above the white mean on athleticism, making them equal to blacks who are 3 standard deviations above the black mean on athleticism. Similarly, every once in a while there will be a black person 4 standard deviations above the black mean on IQ, making him equal to a white person who is 3 standard deviations above the white mean on IQ. scattered cases of whites excelling in sports or blacks excelling in engineering are not inconsistent with many decades of data supporting overlapping normal curves in these areas:)

Anonymous said...

Sing to the tune of "Anything You Can Do"

Anything whites can do,
Blacks can do better.
They can do anything
Better than you.

Anything whites can be
blacks can be greater.
Sooner or later,
they're greater than you.

Blacks can shoot a Taliban
With a single bullet.
Whites need an entire magazine
With a bow and arrow.

Blacks can live on bread and cheese.
And only on that.
Whites need all of Golden Corral.

Any note you can reach
Blacks can go higher.
They can sing anything
Higher than you.

Anything you can buy
blacks can buy cheaper.
They can buy anything
Cheaper than you.

Fifty cents?
Forty cents! Thirty cents?
Twenty cents! No, you can't!
Yes, blacks can,
Yes, blacks can!

Anything you can say
blacks can say softer.
they can say anything
Softer than you.

Blacks can drink my liquor
Faster than a flicker.
They can drink it quicker
And not even get tipsy!

Any note you can hold
blacks can hold longer.
they can hold any note
Longer than you.

Anything you can wear
blacks can wear better.
In what you wear
They look better than you.
In my coat?
In your vest! In my shoes?
In your hat! No, you can't!
Yes, blacks can
Yes, blacks CAN!
Anything you say
blacks can say faster.
they can say anything
Faster than you.

blacks can jump a hurdle.
blacks can wear a girdle.
blacks can knit a sweater.
They can fill it better!
blacks can do most anything!

Anonymous said...

A bit off topic but football anyway...At a HS game friday night in AZ. Great game, back and forth. Fun to watch. Halftime...it's the homecoming game so they have the potential king/queen couples out there to be chosen. One "couple" is a black player and some White girl. Just before this two black women had walked up the stands and sat in the middle of us, almost all White people (some mezcans as well - this is AZ I'm talking about). What do they do, you ask?

Why, they immediately start yelling and talking at the top of their lungs about ANYTHING. WOOO! Das my boy rite dare! (the player/possible "king" of homecoming) I'm rep-re-ZEN-tin rite heea! People are quietly putting up with this shit - including the usual whites who seem genuinely pleased by this primitive behavior - and not playing into it. So they start saying, very loudly, that "I on't like dis section!" Over, and over, and over (translation: you people need to cheer us on and promote us and accept us and like us! Why ain't y'all?? Everyone puts up with us!?)

Finally, one of them taps me on the shoulder (I had been shaking my head and out loud mocking them to family members): "Ikscyuze me sir" It says "what dey cawl dat stuff football playas put under dey eyes?" I looked at her in astonishment and replied I have no idea, and then looked away.

That was enough. They got up, repeated how dey dint like dis section, and stalked off.

Blacks simply ruin - or try to ruin - everything they can. THAT's your chosen position, Eric DICKerson.

Anonymous said...

While I agree with some of the sentiment expressed by the anonymous@9/24/11:8:45, there are a few problems with his comparison.

First, to the best of my knowledge, there is no well accepted notion of 'athleticism' comparable to the battle tested notion of g or IQ from psychology. It seems fairly obvious that West African descended (Congoloid?) males are better sprinters on average, Christophe LeMaitre notwithstanding, but that they aren't dominant in many other sports, including weightlifting, swimming, and mma. So what is 'athleticism'? I do agree that if your 'a factor' is simply measured by sprinting ability, that Blacks very likely have higher 'a' on average, and that that gives them an advantage in many sports.

Second, and more important, a huge amount of effort goes into making room for Blacks in the STEM fields even though exceptional Blacks in these fields are rarer than hens' teeth. If the two things being compared were comparable, then a similar effort would be being made to recruit Whites to play football. But there isn't, quite the opposite in fact.

Speaking as a STEM guy, I just say, they can’t compete with us. The White intellect is faster, more precise, more abstract, more creative. It’s kind of like our chosen vocation.

Zenster said...

Anonymous (September 25, 2011 10:51 AM): Speaking as a STEM [Science, Technology, Engineering & Mathematics] guy, I just say, they can’t compete with us. The White intellect is faster, more precise, more abstract, more creative. It’s kind of like our chosen vocation. [emphasis added]

The desire to fiddlef*ck with things, take them apart and modify or improve them is often referred to as having a "monkey-mind".

It is ironic in the extreme that Blacks, who too frequently act just like apes or far worse, just as often display none of those proclivities.

Anonymous said...

More fucking football.

Californian said...

I wonder, what impact will this corruption of athleticism have on society a a whole?

It may sound cliche to talk about Britain winning its Empire on the playing fields of Rugby (or whatever the cliche was). But what kind of "character" (heaven help us!) is being created by the sort of thing that SBPDL describes in these columns on college football? Is at least one reason for the general passivity of white people in America today the purging from athletics of the more aggressive sort of male who once might have played college football and then gone on to become a leader of the community?

This is all speculation, of course, but anyone have any thoughts on this tangent?

Anonymous said...

@ anonymous9/25/11 9:19am from the earlier anonymous: Excellent point - you caught me overreaching/over-generalizing! You are right, there is no "g" in "athleticism" that i know of - no counterpart to the "g" of intellectual ability. It just seems like it would be a a trade off (1 group gets higher ability at the expense of some trade off - less muscle speed, less testosterone?) but "seeming" does not make it so. it seems a reasonable hypothesis, higher IQ may have a trade off, & a lower IQ (in general) may confer some alternate corresponding benefit on a group. I have no data other than high frequency of black athletes/overrepresentation. You make good points about lack of support for an athletic "g" & re: science, tech, engineering & math fields! perhaps advanced white/asian intellect interferes with athletic prowess under some conditions?

Zenster said...

Californian: But what kind of "character" (heaven help us!) is being created by the sort of thing that SBPDL describes in these columns on college football?

I believe that this is one of the central themes which Paul Kersey has been focusing on with this entire series. Paul can feel free to step in and correct me if needed.

As to what kind of character? Look no further than Barry Bonds, his steroid use was patently obvious just by observing the changes in his cranial proportions. Did it matter to him that he, almost single-handedly, tainted the game of baseball by cheating his way to the home run crown? His mentor, the immortal Willy Mays, must cringe at the thought of Bonds' actions.

Bonds epitomizes the "win at any cost" mentality that has pervaded, not just sports, but the corporate, career and artistic world as well.

The flexible ethics shown by leaders of today's corporations and financial institutions demonstrate a willingness to abandon all moral behavior in pursuit of wealth and self-advancement.

Artists like Andres Serrano with his "Piss Christ" and other scatological works achieve notoriety, not with excellence, but through controversy. The very definition of "art" includes the skillful mastery of portraying human experience, something entirely lacking in the work of a imposter like Serrano.

And so we see this with college football, too. The acceptance of pupils to into schools where they would normally not even be considered for admission. The coddling and cosseting of sullen, thuggish delinquents who have no interest in studying, much less using the intellectual skills normally developed by higher education in any sort of future career.

Ayn Rand long ago identified two principal dysfunctions in popular American thinking. Namely, an obsession with unearned wealth and unmerited fame. Consider the popularity of lottery and game show winners who obtain wealth solely by chance. Then pause to examine vacuous so-called "celebrities" like Regis Philbin or Paris Hilton who are "famous for being famous".

Complicating this is a further degradation of moral fiber in how the preferential selection of these college football athletes ends up amounting to a glorification of what are little more than common street thugs.

But these common street thugs win games! And winning is everything! Isn't it?

Or does the real "win" lie in improving young minds and instilling moral conduct as a prime virtue? If so, such a once-noble goal was long ago lost in the scramble for trophies and bowl game appearances. It is now "win at any cost", even if the price tag includes the shattered lives of raped coeds and other brutally assaulted victims that stray into path of these pampered young gangsters.

Corrosive beyond measure is the message of preference being sent to hard studying students who are forced to watch these athletic halfwit mesomorphs breeze through the scholastic equivalent of basket weaving classes complete with their retinues of tutors and handlers.

All of it breeds up a "me first" mentality that is toxic to genuine achievement. It serves as a prime mover in the growth of personal greed and is slowly manifesting in a dangerous throwback mentality usually found in the most primitive and violent cultures.

This mindset can be summarized as follows:

"It is not enough for me to succeed - others must also fail." *

This manner of thinking is but inches away from full blown criminality and drives much of modern corruption with its message of "greed is good".

* From "The World's Most Toxic Value System" by Steven Dutch

This is required reading for anyone who wishes to understand the mechanics of high context cultures and the roots of Islamic terrorism.

Zenster said...

Anonymous (September 25, 2011 1:38 PM): Perhaps advanced white/asian intellect interferes with athletic prowess under some conditions?

It's safe to say that studying doesn't lend itself to building muscle mass. Then again, who needs big muscles when you can design and build anything from forklifts to sky cranes?

Anonymous said...

"perhaps advanced white/asian intellect interferes with athletic prowess under some conditions?"

White higher intellect results from the natural selection process in learning to endure harsh European climates over a period of tens of thousands of years. Europeans who did not learn to build warm shelters and store enough food to last through the winter...ie, those with less intelligence...did not survive. Physical prowess was subordinated to intellectual prowess.

In sub-Saharan Africa, the absence of winter, combined with the plentitude of food, precluded the development of any higher intelligence. Physical prowess remained dominant to intellectual prowess.

Zenster said...

Anonymous (September 25, 2011 2:51 PM): Europeans who did not learn to build warm shelters and store enough food to last through the winter...ie, those with less intelligence...did not survive.

There is an old Danish saying that goes as such:

WINTER TEACHES A NAKED WOMAN HOW TO KNIT.

In sub-Saharan Africa, the absence of winter, combined with the plenitude of food, precluded the development of any higher intelligence. Physical prowess remained dominant to intellectual prowess.

This remains one of the only viable explanations for why sub-Saharan Africa, the cradle of humanity, has remained so stagnant, despite a head start amounting to thousands of years.

MuayTyson said...

Responding to last poster. Would it not be safe to say that the harsh climate made brains and brawn in the least equal as opposed to warm climates making brawn dominate. Think of it this way, in the predator prey relationship predators seem to be the more intellectual but this does not mean the tiger cannot kill the buffalo.
I like to think in someway Whites are the superior predator to the black scavengers.

Rev. Dr. Swift said...

Who cares if cracker players are not being recruited as long as I gets mine?

Zenster said...

MuayTyson: I like to think in someway Whites are the superior predator to the black scavengers.

Did Blacks invent the elephant gun? The atom bomb? When Whites get down to some serious predation, the rest of the world had better take cover. Islam is about to discover this ancient maxim as well.

Anonymous said...

hilarious racial bake sale at Berkely.

http://www.cnn.com/2011/09/25/us/california-racial-bake-sale/index.html

Anonymous said...

"Would it not be safe to say that the harsh climate made brains and brawn in the least equal as opposed to warm climates making brawn dominate."

Consider the following...

The European climate necessitated the formation of the two-parent nuclear family, because it was virtually impossible for a single-parent female to endure the hardship of raising children alone. If the father did not help, his progeny did not survive.

In Africa, because of the absence of winter combined with the plenitude of food, the role of the father in raising children was significantly less necessary, and single-parent motherhood was (is) the norm.

Now, here's the Food For Thought...

We know that raising children causes a steep drop in testosterone production in males.

http://news.discovery.com/human/testosterone-fathers-110913.html

All things considered, it would seem that white males are more likely to have higher IQ and lower testosterone as compared to black males.

Anonymous said...

Old-line SEC fan here. I believe the Duke of Wellington said "the Battle of Waterloo was won on the playing fields of Eton."

Speaking of Zach Line, a Dallas newspaper reported that Line was playing with a separated shoulder.

Whiskey said...

Is Football important? Yes. The Boston Game was descended from English folk games involving people of the village vying with neighbors to kick a ball up or down the main street. EVERYONE played. It like a lot of other "games" built community cohesion. It helped maintain cooperation and local identity.

Football matters because it has been the way traditionally, English speaking peoples have created and maintained local identity and cohesion. So things that destroy that therefore destroy local identity and cohesion, making the people who live in them easier prey for outside forces.

As for Blacks/Europeans, Blacks were subject to tremendous natural selection for the disease load in West Africa, the highest in the world (higher even than the American tropics or SE Asia), where as a consequence no cities could be built, which themselves select for more cooperation and less aggressiveness (think about it). Europeans were selected for endurance under cold, scrounging for calories EVERYWHERE (there's not much to eat in the middle of Winter in say, England or Norway, and what there is must heavily processed to give calories) and lots and lots of fishing in the North Sea or Baltic. Natural selection for cities really only dates back to about 1,000 years ago for most Europeans, but the selection was fairly massive (and also created a genetic bottleneck from the Black Death) and makes Europeans the sort of "errupting violence," fairly passive most of the time but horribly deadly when they errupt in violence, against each other (their main target historically) or other peoples because of their extensive, food-based tool use. Think Norse traders and fisherman, errupting into Vikings around 700 AD or so.

Black guys ARE generally better than most Whites in running faster, jumping higher, and being more "explosive" and in combination for all three. The Moneyball revolution (just try and ask the Patriots about who they look for in the draft) means that relatively few players get undervalued, because turnover in coaching staffs and many teams limited budgets requires very careful draft and free agent evaluation. There will be market errors (think: Vick, over-rated) or Cam Newton (his O-line is awesome, he's not so much). But for most of the league, that cancels out with say, Buffalo's Fitzpatrick.

If you want to make the game more White-friendly, you'll need to rejigger the game by: playing a lot more winter games outdoors (decreasing "athleticism" and emphasizing fundamental blocking/tackling, possession passing and receiving), natural turf (slow things down), allow defenders to bump receivers (slow down the speedsters) and eliminate radios in QB and Defensive captain's helmets.

Whiskey said...

BTW, Michael Vick broke his hand (hilarious) against the NYG, was pulled from the game in the Fourth Quarter. Mathew Stafford brought the Lions back from a 20 point deficit to beat ... Donovan McNabb and the Vikes. Detroit is 3-0. Amazing.

Anonymous said...

If you accept the liberal 'Out of Africa' theory, then that could very well be the first instance of racism, since pre-caucasoid peoples would never have left such an eden as Africa unless they were forcibly kicked out by racist blacks.

Anonymous said...

Bonds epitomizes the "win at any cost" mentality that has pervaded, not just sports, but the corporate, career and artistic world as well.

The only trouble with this was that Bonds lost them a play-off game because he refused to go to where another player wanted him. If he had gone where he had been told to he would have made an out rather than allowing a run to score.
(Game of Shadows)
The other player was traded because Bonds chasing home runs was worth more at the box office than the Giants chasing the World Series.

Anonymous said...

Black guys ARE generally better than most Whites in running faster, jumping higher, and being more "explosive" and in combination for all three

Also more likely to be an nonathletic 500lbs as the distribution of the curve is flatter.

Zenster said...

Anonymous (September 26, 2011 4:40 AM): The only trouble with this was that Bonds lost them a play-off game because he refused to go to where another player wanted him. If he had gone where he had been told to he would have made an out rather than allowing a run to score.

I may have been unclear. When I said "win at any cost", I meant "Barry Bonds winning at any cost" and not the Giants.

The other player was traded because Bonds chasing home runs was worth more at the box office than the Giants chasing the World Series.

Obviously, the Giants bought into this as well otherwise their front office would have had a lot more questions about the way Bonds had bulked up so quickly.

Anonymous said...

"higher IQ may have a trade off, & a lower IQ (in general) may confer some alternate corresponding benefit on a group. I have no data other than high frequency of black athletes/overrepresentation. You make good points about lack of support for an athletic "g" & re: science, tech, engineering & math fields! perhaps advanced white/asian intellect interferes with athletic prowess under some conditions?"

There is no reason why they two should interfere with each other, and they don't. Whites have a balance of fast and slow twitch muscle fibers, while East Africans have primarily fast twitch. That is why sports whos rules are optimized for fast twitch muscles are going to see large percentage of blacks. No matter who you are, if you eat enough(and right) and exercise you will get big, though people with lower T will see lesser benefits, or alternatively take steroids.

Low IQ's benefit, such that it is, is a lesser need for heat dissipation, which is useful along the equator. Though certainly, culture plays its part in determining what is selected. Matriarchal systems do not select for IQ.

Anonymous said...

West Africans on the above, not east Africans.

Anonymous said...

Wow, still plenty of DWF (Drunk White Fan) comments about the belief in innate black athletic supremacy.

Claim: "Of course: there are a few whites who are 4 standard deviations above the white mean on athleticism, making them equal to blacks who are 3 standard deviations above the black mean on athleticism. Similarly, every once in a while there will be a black person 4 standard deviations above the black mean on IQ, making him equal to a white person who is 3 standard deviations above the white mean on IQ."

Response: The frequency of modern white athletes who excel in sprinting, college basketball/NBA, and college football/NFL (the only sports anyone can reasonably claim that blacks "dominate") is much greater than the number of black brain surgeons, rocket scientists, and engineers. Therefor brain function and physical function are not inversely related. Btw, sports whites "dominate": baseball, soccer, swimming, diving, rugby, volleyball, nearly all field events in track and field (including high jump), the decathlon (best combined performance in 10 track and field events: 100m, long jump, shot put, high jump, 400m, 110m hurdles, discus, pole vault, javelin, and 1500m) wrestling, upperweight boxing, MMA, triathlons, gymnastics, golf, tennis, weight lifting, World's Strongest Man, surfing, X-games, and all winter olympic sports. The world's fastest black sprinter is 3.47% faster over 100m than the world's fastest white sprinter, 2.69% faster over 200m, 0.62% faster over 400m and 0.71% faster over 800m. Can we say that the top blacks are this close to the top whites in any intellectual category? Was there a black man who was within 4% of Einstein, Newton, and on and on? Mind you, the fastest modern whites in each of these events ran faster times than any black person did prior to 1983, as in if you put them in a time machine with their current ability they would have beaten all the best black runners prior to that time. Can the same be said with the analogy to intellect?

Zenster said...

Anonymous (September 27, 2011 12:41 AM): Can the same be said with the analogy to intellect?

Clearly not.

A cursory examination of Black Nobel laureates reveals that not a single one of them were recognized for contributions to the hard sciences. All thirteen of them won in the categories of Peace, Economics and Literature; hardly the grueling sort of endeavor associated with chemistry, medicine or physics.

Anonymous said...

Re intellect on the African continent over time:

If you exclude Egypt and its influences (Egyptians were not Africans), and subtract Arab traders' (slave and otherwise) influences along the east coast of Africa, you are left with a mass of people who never developed written language or used the wheel.

Does this mean anything?

For an uncorrupted mind, this should be as staggering as the two-slit experiment in quantum mechanics. These two deficits are found in no other populations on earth except the aborigines in Australia or primitive, tribal, family units in Borneo or New Guinea (arctic inhabitants don't count because of the harsh environment).