Black Men Can't Throw

Robert Griffin III: The Next Black Quarterback Hope

In my mind, Steve Spurrier - the former head ball coach at Duke, Florida, and current coach of South Carolina - is the finest evaluator and developer of quarterbacks in college football (well, maybe not so much at South Carolina, where he seems more interested in getting borderline retards enrolled to play football then developing a sound quarterback).

Names like Shane Matthews, 1996 Heisman Trophy winner Danny Wuerffel, Doug Johnson, and Rex Grossman stand-out as quarterbacks that Spurrier has tutored to greatness. One thing is noticeable about this group of people: they are all white.

Quarterback has long been the position in football that has eluded the Black athlete. For one reason: the deep-seated stereotype that Black people aren't smart enough to learn the complex offense, defensive schemes and that they lack the ability to discern variations in blitzes so they can audible the play to one that best suits the personnel on the field.

It is a well-known fact that college football and the NFL has been cognizant of this discrepancy (consider that, though the NFL is comprised of 69 percent Black athletes, since 1998, the quarterback position has been higher than 75 percent each year). 

It is telling then that only in 2005 did Steve Spurrier finally start a Black quarterback. Joseph Pearce wrote an article for The State to celebrate this event:

USC quarterback Antonio Heffner’s first career start also will be a first for Gamecocks coach Steve Spurrier.


When Heffner takes the field Saturday at Auburn’s Jordan-Hare Stadium, he will become the first black quarterback to start for Spurrier, whose 21-year, head-coaching career includes stops at Duke, Florida, Tampa Bay of the USFL and the NFL’s Washington Redskins.


Spurrier started two black quarterbacks as Duke’s offensive coordinator, recruited several black passers while at Florida, and had backup quarterbacks with the Tampa Bay Bandits who were black.


But Heffner, a redshirt freshman from Memphis, will be the first to start while Spurrier has been a head coach.


“I’m looking forward to seeing what Antonio does Saturday night. He’s done some good things in practice this week, so it’ll be interesting,” Spurrier said Thursday. “This is his opportunity. We all get that first opportunity. This is his. I think he’ll be as best prepared as he can.”


Former Florida quarterback John Reaves, who played under Spurrier in the USFL and later coached with him in Gainesville, said Spurrier is more concerned with winning percentage than skin color.


“Steve doesn’t care. He just wants to win,” Reaves said. “He’ll take a Chinese quarterback.”


When Spurrier was Duke’s offensive coordinator in 1981-82, Brent Clinkscale and Ron Sally, both of whom are black, started a couple of games in place of Ben Bennett. Sally later followed Spurrier to the USFL in Tampa Bay, where he and Billy Koonce, another black quarterback, were backups to Reaves.


When Sally and Ben Bennett were competing for the starting job, Spurrier was equally demanding of both.


“There was no racial distinction,’ said Sally, a former executive with the Colorado Avalanche and Denver Nuggets.


Spurrier inherited a black quarterback when he arrived at Florida in 1990. According to Reaves, Donald Douglas went through winter workouts and spring practice with the Gators before transferring to Houston.


Spurrier also inherited a black quarterback at USC. Syvelle Newton played all 11 games at quarterback in 2004, including five starts. On the day Spurrier was hired at USC in late November, Dean Boyd, Newton’s coach at Marlboro County, predicted that Newton would not fit in Spurrier’s offensive system.


“We all know what Spurrier likes to see in a quarterback: tall, blond-haired, blue-eyed,” Boyd said at the time. “I fear it’s not going to be good for Syvelle. Syvelle’s a good college quarterback, but he isn’t the kind of quarterback (Spurrier) would go for.”


Boyd said he did not mean to imply that race would factor into Spurrier’s evaluation of Newton. He said he was pointing out that Spurrier generally preferred pocket passers to more mobile quarterbacks.


“It wasn’t a black-white thing with me. It was more of a dropback (versus) a sprint-out thing,” Boyd said Thursday. “I know what Syvelle’s strengths were as a quarterback, and it was more a run-oriented quarterback.”


Newton moved to receiver shortly after Spurrier’s arrival, clearing the path for Blake Mitchell, more of a dropback passer than Newton.


Mitchell started the first four games this season before spraining his left ankle last week in USC’s 45-20 win against Troy. Spurrier named Heffner the starter early in the week and said Newton will be the emergency quarterback at Auburn.


“The ideal quarterback is a guy that can throw like Joe Namath and run like Michael Vick,” Spurrier said. “I’ve always wished I had a quarterback that when you call a play that, ‘Gee, that’s not good against that defense,’ he bounces out and makes 18 yards running.


“We tried to recruit top quarterbacks, regardless of black or white,” Spurrier said. “And sometimes when we don’t have one for so long there’s a few high school coaches that say, ‘He wouldn’t play a black quarterback.’


“I don’t know what I can do about it. If I wouldn’t play a black quarterback, why would I play a black center, a black guard, wide receiver?”


In 1991, Spurrier signed Antwan Chiles, a black quarterback who transferred to Division I-AA Liberty. Before leaving Florida after the 2001 season, Spurrier laid the groundwork in the recruitment of Gavin Dickey, a black quarterback who has played several positions for the Gators.


Reaves, whose son, David, is a USC assistant, said he never has known Spurrier to base a personnel decision on race.


“He ain’t like that at all,” Reaves said. “Never a word or breath out of his mouth in any direction like that.”


“We all just play the best players,” Spurrier said. “I don’t know any coach in America that has lasted any time that has been prejudiced. I don’t know any out there.”

For historical purposes only, Auburn won 48-7 that day. College football coaches don't "just play the best players" but instead primarily focus on recruiting Black males as early as their freshmen years in high schools. Remember though, that Black people mature faster than white people, and remember that most college coaches don't recruit white running backs, receivers, or defensive backs, because they are constantly compared to Black athletes who have - for the most part - reached their physical maturity by the time they are 16 - 17.

Quarterback has been a position that Black athletes have had a difficult time of dominating. Noticing that Black athletes do have a numerical superiority of roster spots at certain positions, is it only fair to speculate that intelligence (and quick decision making) could play a factor in the lack of Black quarterbacks?

Though the 2010 college football was one that The Wall Street Journal dubbed "The year of the Black Quarterback":

When Cameron Newton and Darron Thomas square off in college football's upcoming national-title game, everyone will be talking about the two quarterbacks' fleet feet, their accurate arms and their leadership abilities.

The one thing no one is discussing: They're both black.

As the Jan. 10 national-title showdown between Mr. Newton's Auburn Tigers and Mr. Thomas's Oregon Ducks approaches, it's gone virtually unmentioned how black quarterbacks have been the story of the 2010 season. Major-college teams have long had black quarterbacks, of course—Cornelius Greene of Ohio State, Dennis Franklin of Michigan and numerous others operated conservative, run-based offenses back in the 1970s. But never has the achievement level of black quarterbacks been so high. 

It's hardly just them. In the six major conferences—the Atlantic Coast, Big 12, Big East, Big Ten, Pac-10 and Southeastern—six black quarterbacks were named first- or second-team all-conference. That's half of the spots. (A seventh, Michigan's Denard Robinson, was named Big Ten offensive player of the year.) This occurred even though black quarterbacks held less than a third of the 65 starting quarterback positions.


The success of black quarterbacks in college football dovetails with how blacks began to stand out in other sports decades ago, says Ben Carrington, an associate professor of sociology at Texas. "There was a phenomenon that, for black players to gain acceptance, they had to be exceptional," he said. "You couldn't be average. People are less cognizant of race today, but quarterback is historically thought of as a white position."

Let's get a few things straight: for decades, those same people who believe Black people hold a monopoly on "speed" have been engaging in a bit of social engineering to try and get more Black athletes at the quarterback position. The spread offense is one such attempt, an offense that 48 offenses in college (as of 2009) run currently.

Andrew Luck: The future of the NFL

This has given Black athletes like Denard Robinson of Michigan, Dennis Dixon and Darren Thomas of Oregon, and Robert Griffin III of Baylor the opportunity to utilize that Black "speed" to be a dual-threat quarterback (one who can both beat a defense by throwing and running). Strangely, a number of college football teams have established a tradition of only playing Black quarterbacks: Virginia Tech, Oregon, Georgia Tech, Mississippi State, and West Virginia have firmly entrenched a Black-only policy at quarterback as of late.

Perhaps this is because of the divisive nature that not playing a Black quarterback can have on a team. Racial quarterback controversies have continually plagued and divided Penn State teams over the years. In 2000, Mike Dubose last Alabama was ripped apart by a controversy over starting a Black Andrew Zow or a white Tyler Watts. It even plagued Grambling (a HBCU) when they started a white quarterback named Michael Kornblau back in the 1990s. It happened to white quarterback Marcus Jacoby at Southern University too.


Back in 1988, Doug Williams was the first Black quarterback to win the Super Bowl. It seemed the crusade to find a capable Black quarterback was complete. Twenty-three years later, that crusade is still on-going:

When it comes to breaking barriers, Williams has both figuratively and literally written the book on the subject -- his book "Quarterblack: Shattering the NFL Myth," was published in 1990. And since the day he hoisted the Vince Lombardi Trophy, the progress African-Americans have made in both the coaching and quarterbacking ranks in the NFL has been undeniable.

In celebration of Black History Month, we sat down with Williams to get his take on the progress the NFL has made with regard to opportunities for African-Americans:

It's OK to be a backup: "I'm a firm believer in guys who are not starters. I applaud the Pittsburgh Steelers for believing in the Rooney Rule [which requires NFL teams to interview African-American candidates for head-coaching and senior-level opportunities], but also the quarterback side of it. They have two African-American quarterbacks [Charlie Batch and Byron Leftwich] who are backups. If you look around the league, that's hard to find. For the most part, if you're not a starter, you don't get a second chance."

Black QBs need to be developed: "You have to be willing to let the black quarterback be your third guy. If you go down the rosters of NFL teams, there aren't many third black quarterbacks. Joe Webb was up in Minnesota, and Tarvaris Jackson is the backup. We have to get more backups in the hopper, which will lead to more opportunities."

Black quarterbacks need to be trusted: "Coaches have to sit down and talk realistically to black quarterbacks and tell them what to expect. There's a lot of work to be done, and expectations are bigger than you imagine. There's a trust there and the guy has to believe in you. We've made progress with Michael Vick getting a second chance. Then again, some of the scrutiny that Donovan McNabb went through, as much as he's done over his career, I think that's a little unfair."

 Why is there no crusade to get more white running backs (like Southern Methodist's Zach Line) and develop them? Why aren't white receivers being nurtured to be trusted to make the big catch? Why is there a social movement - really, a crusade -- to get Black quarterbacks in a more prominent role at the NCAA and NFL level? What about the paucity of white corner backs or safety's? Two white starting corner backs at the college level, Greg Heban of Indiana and Texas Tech's Sawyer Vest were both walk-ons. As is starting white safety Jordan Kovacs at Michigan.

Where's there social movement? Why isn't Jason Sehron mentoring them and others with articles at ESPN?

Ebony Magazine had this article published back in 1989 about Black quarterbacks:

The quarterback is perhaps the most glamorous and revered position in sports. The very word epitomizes the endearing qualities of a triumphant field general: ability, brilliance, control, maturity and, above all, leadership. For years, the quarterback was seen as one of football's ultimate authority figures and a position very few Blacks were allowed to hold.

Is this why there is a movement to find more Black quarterbacks to start at colleges all across the country, and then - God willingly - hopefully complete the Black-out of the NFL?


The New York Times wrote this about Russell Wilson, a transfer to Wisconsin from North Carolina State, before the season started:

With his arrival as a one-year transfer from North Carolina State, Wilson is ringing in a new era of Wisconsin football, which has always been heavy on steak and light on sizzle. The addition of the dynamic Wilson marks an evolution for the Badgers from their between-the-tackles roots.

So you see, each year, a Black quarterback is picked to be heavily profiled and promoted as the next big thing. Vince Young, Jamarcus Russell, and Michael Vick all had their shot as well in the NFL. Before the NFL season was one week old, Cam Newton was pegged as the Black savoir for the Black quarterback, until the reality of Tim Tebow set-in.

A man who might win the 2011 Heisman Trophy, Robert Griffin III of Baylor, has been pegged as the next potential savior for the Black quarterback. Here's Sports Illustrated on him:

Spend enough time in the orbit of Robert Griffin III—known around Waco, Texas, as RG3, Superman, Black Jesus, the Ambassador and the Most Exciting Player in College Football—and it's impossible to shake the thought that the cheery quarterback was constructed in a secret military lab in southern Japan. Yes, official records contend that Griffin, 21, was born at Camp Lester on Okinawa to two loving Army sergeants, Robert Jr. and Jacqueline. (The family settled in Copperas Cove, Texas, in time for Robert III to go to kindergarten.) But these days, as a legend mushrooms around the Griffins' only son, suspicions about his merely human origins have followed. "You can put limitations on even the great ones," says decorated Baylor track and field director Clyde Hart, who has coached Olympic gold medalists Michael Johnson and Jeremy Wariner. "With Robert, you can't do that. He's ... different."

Griffin plays in the Big 12, a league not exactly known for their defense. He is the beneficiary of the spread offense (like Denard Robinson) system, and it will be interesting to see if he has the ability to be the drop-back passer that Steve Spurrier is so found of recruiting and developing.

So let's just get to the point: for decades, there has been a concerted effort to develop, recruit, promote, and celebrate the Black quarterback.

The same can't be said for white running backs, white corner backs, or white defensive backs. 

Despite all of this, it's pretty obvious that Black Men Can't Throw.

Perhaps it does have something to do with intelligence after all.

If only Tim Tebow were Black, then you'd see a media push like you wouldn't believe.

What if Tim Tebow were Black?

Check out Vdare.com for a reply to The American Spectator's W. Jim Antle to the piece on Discrimination against white players in the NFL (though he decided to focus on the Tim Tebow aspect of the article). Antle has long been one of my favorite writers, but he failed to address the primary points brought up in the original VDare piece (of course, Jordy Nelson dropped a fantastic bomb on the world after Antle's letter was sent).

How would Tebow be treated if he were Black?

Two important points were left on the cutting-room floor, so we'll re-post them here:

So a final thought experiment: what if Tim Tebow was a Black quarterback? The NFL and the largely liberal press have been desirous of seeing a Black quarterback succeed long before Rush Limbaugh's infamous takedown of Donovan McNabb in 2003. This season, Black quarterbacks have performed poorly.
 How would these same analysts and talking heads who consistently put down Tebow’s ability and playing style react if he were a devout Christian and a Black man? My guess: like they did when Vick came into the league; as a player who was going to revolutionize the game. He'd become the face of the league and Black people would proudly wear his jersey in the manner they currently do Vick's. 

and:

The upwards battle that talented white athletes have faced at securing a college scholarship because of the widespread belief that whites are not as fast as Blacks has been documented by recruiting guru Tom Lemming. It’s obvious this same prejudice carries over to the NFL, as Peyton Hillis told us last year when he was the first white running back to rush for more than 1,000 yards in a season since Craig James did back in the early 1980s. Or as white running backToby Gerhart (and Heisman Runner-up) told us prior to the 2010 NFL Draft, when NFL scouts were questioning whether a white running back could succeed.

Tebow is a winner and a reminder of the type of person that made this country. In a league filled with thugs, criminals, and sociopaths, Tebow is a reminder that character always shines through when surrounded by downright pieces of s&*t.

But Antle's letter pumped me up and has motivated me to finish three pieces today, two for other outlets. One deals with the HBD reality of college football recruiting (and lightly basketball recruiting). Never have we mentioned J. Phillipe Rushton's book Race, Evolution, and Behavior here, as the true HBD stuff is better suited for other sites; until now.

Black males (and women) physically mature faster than white males do, giving them an advantage when Super Prep, Scout.com, and Rivals.com begin targeting potentially FBS football recruits in their sophomore year of high school.  Many Blacks have reached their physical peak by this time, while whites are still growing. Nike, Under Armour, Reebok, and Adidas have already started reaching out to players at this point for exclusive invitations to prestigious camps where top schools like Alabama, Ohio State, LSU, Michigan, Oregon, etc., will evaluate the talent. These schools have recruiting budgets that near $1 million a year, and begin courting these players with phone calls and inundate them with a surplus of mail that might be the reason the US Postal Service still exists.

White high school players continue to grow and develop, but haven't been singled-out by recruiters at this stage of the evaluation process. So the top recruits that coaches -- and fans and alumni of each school who pay $9.95 a month for the privilege of posting at Scout.com or Rivals.com so they can follow the latest, breaking news on each precious recruit who they would NEVER interact with (indeed, they would consciously avoid) in real life -- see are the ones that nature has given an early advantage too.

More on this at Alternative Right by the end of the week. And yes, the long-awaited article that deals with white coaches who abdicated power in the 1970s, 80s, 90s and into today will be published at American Renaissance.

This isn't a college football or sports blog (and judging by a quick glance at Compete.com, people don't want it to go that route), but these are important topics. And I'm nearing the end of this run. There's a method to the maddening -- to many who read SBPDL -- I assure you.

This week you'll see an article on the United States Military Colleges (in honor of the Army-Navy game); you'll see an article called Black Men Can't Throw; you'll see a take down of the University of Washington, as I just finished reading a book about the disgrace that is Black coach Ty Willingham called Bow Down to Willingham: How White Guilt Enabled a Secretly Malicious Coach to Destroy the Once-Mighty Washington Huskies. Having just ordered Return to Glory: Inside Tyrone Willingham's Amazing First Season at Notre Dame , you'll also see an article on Notre Dame.

The goal is to then finish about 10-15 unpublished essays and get all the writings on college football found here and elsewhere prepared for Opiate of America: College Football in Black and White, which will be released on February 1, 2012. For those wondering, that's the same date as National Signing Day in the sport, where high school -- and junior college -- recruits can sign their letter of intent.

Please bear with me as I finish up these articles. It's a passion of mine, and you have to write about what you care about.

Besides, like two of the other books published under the SBPDL (Hollywood in Blackface and Captain America and Whiteness) it's important to dedicate yourself to writing about what interests you.

With that said, tonight expect a long post that describes why Atlanta is the perfect city for The Walking Dead tv show (no, The Walking Dead phenomenon). Tomorrow, you'll get the ultimate SBPDL look at what will be the epic of 2012, The Hunger Games.

And remember, SBPDL is currently trying to raise the funds to hire a web designer to take this site to the next level: no longer a blog, but something like a full-fledged site. If you enjoy what we are doing at SBPDL, please make a Yule-tide donation by clicking on the PayPal button in the right-hand corner, or contact us at SBPDL1@gmail.com for PO Box information.

You've helped us grow with increased traffic, now help us take the next step.

And if you have any complaints, please post them below or send them to me.

Tim Tebow Hate = Duke Hate: The Tebow Era Begins in the National Football League

The Tebow-era of the NFL begins Sunday

Oh no. Not another football article. This one is important. Very important. Most people won't admit it, but the National Football League (NFL) is largely a league consisting of comical - entirely interchangeable - Black athletes, engaging in stereotypical Black male behavior in turn for a salary they will inevitably piss away immediately after retiring from the gridiron. It's basically a modern-day version of a minstrel show, albeit an athletic version. 

Sure, it's the most popular professional sport in America, for a few reasons: baseball is boring, and basketball is filled with tattooed thugs that corporate America (and casual fans) find uninviting to invest in. Another reason is that each team only plays 16 games in a regular season, easily making the NFL a simple league to follow and stay interested in with games played primarily on Sunday.

The most important reason though is that the predominately white fan base have white athletes to cheer for and identify with, along with the memory of the many great teams and players that comprise the history of their beloved franchise. Just take a look at the top selling jerseys of 2010, with 15 of the top 25 jerseys for men being white players and 8 of the 10 for women being white guys.

It's important to note that the NFL is 67 percent and 31 percent Black, numbers that aren't far off from the National Basketball Assocation's (NBA) 80 percent Black, 19 percent white league. Just as Black players were once 'stacked' at certain positions in the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s (when the league was anywhere from 80 to 60 percent white), white players are now stacked at certain positions like center and quarterback.

Only 12 percent of running backs, 15 percent of wide receivers, two percent of corners, 15 percent of safeties, 26 percent of linebackers, 21 percent of defensive ends, and 11 percent of defensive tackles white guys.

Yet the face of the league has always been provided by the quarterback, a position that was 83 percent white in 2010. Peyton and Eli Manning, Tom Brady, Aaron Rodgers and  Drew Brees are all prototypical drop-back passers, garnering high wages for their play on the field and millions more in corporate endorsements off of it. The predominately white fan base of the NFL embraces these athletes, with the interchangeable Black players (the majority are thugs, evidenced by their continued inability to abide by societies laws off the field) serving as important cogs for fantasy teams and comedic relief.

Many people believe that Black players were discriminated against and kept from playing quarterback in the NFL for purely racist reasons. That they weren't smart enough. Isn't it an equally racist belief that Black athletes are better athletes, making it irrelevant to recruit white high school receivers, running backs or defensive backs to major colleges? Ask a guy like Peyton Hillis what type of welcome he got from integrating the running back position in 2010, running over, around and through majority Black hands and paying the price for it by being called "white boy" in the process.

Even a white receiver like the Miami Dolphins Brian Hartline faces criticism for being a white guy at a predominately Black position, much like Black players once faced in the NFL when their numbers were minimal on teams in the 1950s and 1960s.

When your average NFL team has anywhere from 10 - 20 white players, you know that the various franchises will have racial divisions. Enter the push for the Black quarterback, whose unique "talents" would revolutionize the game of football. Names like Donovan McNabb, Kordell Stewart, Cam Newton, Vince Young, JeMarcus Russell, and of course, Michael Vick, would make irrelevant the old-school, drop-back quarterback.

But this hasn't happened, largely because Michael Vick spent a few years in jail for his sociopath avocation of bankrolling dog fighting. The media seems to have a fetish out of hyping the flavor of the month Black quarterback as the bridge to the next generation of quarterback, most notably Cam Newton.

Interestingly, it is the man Newton backed-up at the University of Florida (before he got kicked out left for academic dishonest, stealing a laptop a JUCO school and ultimately Auburn) that represents the next generation of NFL quarterback. The problem? He's a white guy and a devout Christian who ministers to primarily Black inmates in prisons as an avocation. His name is Tim Tebow. We've written about him before, and we write about him now as he prepares for his first NFL start this Sunday.

Peyton Manning is the face of the NFL, but after undergoing three neck surgeries, it appears unlikely he will ever lace up his cleats again. Enter Tebow, a person of outstanding moral character who fans in Denver love - after he was drafted, his jersey instantly became one of the top selling in the nation - and corporate America loves as a spokesperson. White fans love Tebow, as he succeeded for four years in the Southeastern Conference (SEC), a league that is even Blacker (in terms of starters) than the NFL. He's the Great White Hope, whose passion for the game is unparalleled in a league filled with interchangeable Black thugs who celebrate every minor lay they make, while Tebow celebrates every play his team makes.

Perhaps this is one reason Tebow is so polarizing, because he is so passionate and because he is white. Fans of opposing SEC teams made fun of Tebow for his infamous crying incident after losing to lowly Mississippi State, but did they do this because its okay to hate a white player (a lot like the intense Duke Hate in college basketball) and uncool to be antagonistic to a Black player?

The SEC consists of universities boasting schools whose student bodies are overwhelmingly white, while the football teams are largely, academically embarrassingly Black athletes. With Tebow, the Florida Gators had a white player who ran all over the purported best athletes in the country for four years, being the type of running and throwing quarterback that Michael Vick was supposed to be. But his talents were questioned and scrutinized, with many NFL analysts suggesting one of the most potent and prolific quarterbacks in college football history should play a different position if he hoped to go pro.

Tebow was selected in the first round of the 2010 NFL draft by the Denver Broncos, and was shown celebrating with his family at this announcement. It was this candid shot with his family that prompted one sports talk show host to say it looked like a Nazi rally:

“Just when you thought you knew everything about Tim Tebow, a Boston sports radio station informed us that he is probably a Nazi. The host was joking, but then so was Don Imus when he insulted Rutgers’ women’s basketball team. CBS fired him. Will it do the same when the race-based insults are directed at Tebow? Why do I get the feeling Tebow will be Denver’s starting quarterback before Fred Toettcher is out of a job? 

“‘Toucher,’ as he is known to his listeners on 98.5 The Sports Hub, had this observation on Tebow’s draft-night gathering. ‘It looked like some kind of Nazi rally … so lily-white is what I’m trying to say. Yeah, Stepford Wives.’ Come to think of it, I didn’t see much diversity at the Tebow house. Maybe all that missionary stuff is just a cover, and his family has really spent years setting up a skinhead movement in the Philippines.

In the first round of the NFL Draft, heavily hyped Black players are selected and television cameras capture this moment as they celebrate with their families. Never has a sports writer or talk show host said, "Gosh, that looks like a welfare office," or, "so that's what a welcome back from prison party looks like." Or my favorite, "someone just got on EBT cards." No, sports writers offer compliments to the Black athlete selected, as football offers the primary vocation- okay, only - where they have the opportunity to earn millions.

Tim Tebow Hate = Duke Hate: It's okay to hate the white guy

Again, Tim Tebow Hate is reminiscent of Duke Hate, a team of white basketball players competing for a top academic college in a sport dominated by Black 'scholars' from Black Undertow cities. Just as Duke is unbearably white, Tim Tebow is unbearably white. Opposing fans are allowed to hate Tebow, but the NFL needs Tim Tebow, as even Grantland.com admits:

The NFL needs Tim Tebow to succeed.


Not because it needs a chiseled, smiley face to sell to the red states, but rather because what the most profitable, successful league in the country lacks right now is star power. Favre is gone. So is Terrell Owens. Peyton Manning will probably not play a meaningful down in 2011. Three of the league's 10 biggest names are marketed almost entirely on their hair. And although Brady still appears to be in his prime, the days of him occupying tabloid headlines are over. If you take a hard look at the upcoming stars, who could really play a leading role in the NFL's ongoing drama? Philip Rivers? Matt Ryan? Joe Flacco?

The Tebow-era begins this Sunday for Denver and for the NFL. Unlike Michael Vick, Tebow will not renege on his contract and engage in sociopath behavior - that Black people have no problem with-  though some people equate his outspoken Christian beliefs in such a manner.

Denver fans love Tim Tebow. Judging by the sales of his jersey, a lot of fans across the nation love Tebow. He has put up solid numbers in his appearances as an NFL quarterback, and he'll finally get his chance to start this Sunday.

You can't judge an athlete until they actually perform - or fail to perform - on the field of play. A lot of people don't like Tebow because of the whole Duke Hate phenomenon. Come Sunday, the NFL will garner a new face, one who Black writer Jason Whitlock wrote represented the re-emergence of the Great White Athlete.

The prototypical drop back passing quarterback is a white guy, like Dan Marino, Terry Bradshaw, Joe Montana, Brett Farve or Troy Aikman. The media has long been hopeful that a Black messiah would come along and revolutionize the position. But Tim Tebow will now be given the opportunity to represent the next step in the evolution of the quarterback.

Funny, didn't Steve Young already do this?

So when you hear people talk about Tim Tebow in negative terms, automatically qualify it as a hybrid of Duke Hate. You're allowed to hate Duke, because the school is an elite institution that actually recruits white athletes and plays a white style of the game. Openly hating things that are white is a hallmark, a cornerstone of Black-Run America (BRA).

You're allowed to hate Tim Tebow, because he's just a dude that has embraced an unbearable form of whiteness. But like Peyton Hillis, he'll have the chance to run over primarily Black defenses.

And like it or not, he's about to become the face of the NFL.

Remember, the NBA is a dying league that no one cares about (ESPN keeps the league alive). It's only 10 percent Blacker than pro football. The NFL needs a white face to hide a primarily Black product that really isn't that great. It's primarily a league of Black guys who dance and prance around after every pass break up, catch, tackle, or touchdown and then tweet about it.

Thoughts on the 2011 NFL Draft: The Caste System Becomes Clearer

 (This was posted at SBPDL.net. We post it here because it is an important piece on the NFL Draft of 2012. Sports, movies and television have provided the primary avenues for creating (manufacturing) positive views of "the Blacks" in the eyes of a public that overwhelmingly avoids contact with them. In July, The Opiate of America comes out. Friday, Hollywood in Blackface comes out. Check out Castefootball.us for an interesting discussion on the 2011 NFL draft and other aspects of sports that you won't find on ESPN).

Last year, we wrote a long post on the 2010 Draft. The landscape of the NFL has changed significantly since that time. A white running back by the name of Peyton Hillis emerged as a fan favorite and was voted by fans to appear on the 2o12 cover of the most popular video game, Madden NFL Football.

Despite running 4.6 40, ESPN questioned 300-pound Zack Clayton's athleticism

The whitest team in the league, the Green Bay Packers, won the Super Bowl over a team that was the genesis for the Rooney Rule, the Pittsburgh Steelers. Quickly becoming the Blackest team in the league (even having three Black quarterbacks) and rarely drafting a white player - none the past two years - the Steelers represent an attempt to turn a football franchise into a facsimile of an NBA franchise.

Soon, the only white players will be the kicker, punter, and holder, though ESPN the Magazine did publish an article asking, "Where are all the Black kickers?":

In the NFL's 91 seasons, very few African-Americans, or black men of any nationality, have earned a living launching the ball with their foot. In the 1960s and '70s, Gene "Golden Toe" Mingo made a career of placekicking (while playing a few other positions) for five AFL and NFL teams. In the past decade, Cedric Oglesby and Justin Medlock had brief placekicking stints. And two Nigerian-born soccer-style kickers, Obed Ariri and Donald Igwebuike, also made the NFL after starring at Clemson.

Equally few African-American punters have secured regular-season NFL jobs -- most notably Greg Coleman and the late Reggie Roby, who between them kicked for seven different NFL teams over 12- and 16-year careers, respectively. Currently, though, the NFL's only black kicking specialist is Browns punter Reggie Hodges (his father is black, his mother white).

Given their pro scarcity, it's no surprise that black kickers are nearly as rare in college. Kicking guru Gary Zauner, an NFL special-teams coordinator for 13 seasons, holds off-season showcases with pro scouts for hopeful kickers. When asked to identify the best African-American placekicking prospect today, Zauner says, "I'm not able to name one."

That's because only one of 120 college teams in FBS had a black kicker or punter appear in a game last season -- Arizona punter Keenyn Crier. Even in the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference, with its 13 historically black colleges and universities (11 have football programs, including Morgan State), most kickers are white or Hispanic. Which is why, when one of Morgan State's two specialists trots onto the field, opponents stare. "I've heard, 'Man, you're black, you can't kick, what are you doin' kicking?'" says the 20-year-old Adams. "Other teams are surprised to see a black kicker. Then to learn I'm actually good at it ... "

Don't hold your breath waiting for an article published by either Sport Illustrated or EPSN that asks "Where are all the white corner backs?" or "Where are all the white running backs?" for these questions of are immaterial to the direction the NFL is headed. Richard Lapchick publishes a score card for college and professional sports, and only those sports that promote and hire Black people and other minorities get a passing grade.

Those with a "distressing lack of diversity" (read too white) fail to get a passing grade.

Thus the goal of an article on the lack of Black kickers in the NFL is an attempt at interjecting racism into the equation, since the league is 69 percent Black.

Top NFL Combine numbers weren't enough for Jeff Maehl

The NFL, like the NBA, has made it a goal to anoint talents like Dez Bryant and Michael Vick as the faces of the league, though the bulk of fans still identify with Peyton Manning, Tom Brady, and, if the Madden NFL Sportsnation poll is any indication, a white running back who runs over the competition named Peyton Hillis.

In the 2011 NFL Draft, the continued push to turn the league into a Richard Lapchick approved forum for positive levels of diversity went on unabated with Cameron Newton of Auburn University as the first overall pick to the Carolina Panthers. Having had his attitude and character questioned by a white talent evaluator only to have Warren Moon come to his rescue and resuscitate 30-year-old stereotypes of "Black players not being smart enough" to play quarterback as the reason for such criticism, Newton's undeniable talent was enough to secure the top draft slot.

Go here for the 2011 NFL Draft results for all seven rounds. Instead of talking about the entire draft, we will focus on just three players: Stanford's Owen Marecic, Auburn's Zack Clayton and Oregon's Jeff Maehl.

The New York Times did a fantastic story on Marcecic, a white fullback and linebacker who played both ways Stanford, while also majoring in a real degree. NFL.com wrote a piece praising the selection of this bruising fullback by the Cleveland Browns and we concur.

The Browns, quietly becoming a team of rooting interest for many people around the country because of the white running back Peyton Hillis, have now drafted a competent fullback in Marcecic who will - along with quarterback Colt McCoy - comprise the first starting all-white backfield in the NFL since, well, we aren't sure when.

Auburn's Zack Clayton, a white defensive tackle, was picked in the seventh round by Tennessee. Here's an article from the Opelika-Auburn News from from April that discussed Clayton's long road to the NFL:

Zach Clayton’s pre-draft experience has been on the absolute opposite end of the spectrum from former teammates Cam Newton and Nick Fairley.

Instead of publicized, media-only workouts with a professional position coach, the Opelika High grad had sessions in the Hutsell-Rosen Track Complex, nestled into the corner by the equipment shed with his father, Jerry, an Auburn assistant track and field coach.

Instead of appearances on ESPN’s First Take, sitdowns with Jon Gruden or the possibility of gracing a video game cover, Clayton worked four hours a day to improve his agility, balance and other skills that would translate to the next level.

“All I have to do is wake up and work out,” Clayton said. “It’s not like I have to manage time, study, have a social life. I just have to wake up and work out. It’s great. Some would say I’m living the dream.”

Instead of taking a flyer for most of Auburn’s Pro Day and letting the NFL Combine speak for itself, Clayton used the media and scouting crush on hand for Newton and Fairley to make his case as to why a team should take a chance on him.

“A lot of teams came to our Pro Day,” Clayton said wryly. “We had a couple big prospects there.”

The first big test was Auburn’s Pro Day on March 8.

“Basically, the theme was to try and make him more athletic,” Jerry Clayton said. “From what he had done in the past with (Tigers strength and conditioning coach Kevin) Yoxall and the strength program, we knew his Pro Day numbers would be pretty good.

“It was unanticipated by some of the scouts and the other people there. But we all felt he was capable of doing that.”

Clayton topped the 13-player field in the bench press (27 reps at 225 pounds), recorded a standing long jump of 10 feet and a vertical jump of 33.5 inches.

Even more surprisingly, he recorded consecutive times of 4.68 and 4.71 seconds in the 40-yard dash.

The stopwatch and notepad crowd began to take notice.

“The goal was to get some of the teams that hadn’t heard of me or weren’t really looking at me to go and take a second look at the film,” Clayton said. “Make a few of them say, ‘Who is this guy?’ and ‘What did he do during the season?’ I think it worked out real well.”

Running a 4.6 at nearly 300 pounds is scary athleticism. A long jump of 10 feet and a vertical of 33.5 is incredible. So how did ESPN describe the 7th round pick?:

He is a limited athlete who has excellent strength and power at the point of attack.

If Clayton represents a "limited athlete" its only because ESPN didn't spend three months hyping him up as they did plenty of other athletes on their pre-draft shows. If Clayton's 4.6 40 time - when he weighs 300 pounds - is "limited athleticism" I'd hate to see what ESPN defines as "unlimited athleticism."

Which brings us to Jeff Maehl, a walk-on wide receiver (as so many talented white players who play receiver, safety and linebacker for major college football teams are these days) at Oregon who scorched Pac-10 defenses during his career and went undrafted in the 2011 NFL draft.

Before the NCAA Championship game against Auburn, this was written about Maehl (strangely, the Montgomery Advertiser has removed this article from its records, but it is mentioned here):

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. -- The question seemed innocent enough, but Oregon receivers coach Scott Frost didn't view it that way.


When a reporter noted that wide receiver Jeff Maehl has deceptive speed, often turning short passes into long gains, Frost took exception to the perceived implication.


"Unfortunately, he's a white receiver so you give him that stereo type," Frost said. "I don't know why you give him that stereotype, but he's gonna run a better 40 time than three fourths of the receiving coming out in the draft."


Fair enough. Maehl is more than a possession receiver who runs precise routes. His leaping 45-yard touchdown catch in the USC game was highlight-reel material.


Maehl is aware of the stereotype surrounding "white receivers" and if anything it has worked to his ad vantage.


"I guess that's just kind of my advantage if teams think I might be slow or something," said Maehl, a 6-foot-1, 184-pound senior from Paradise, Calif. "I'm guessing it's out there in the media and in the back of some guys' heads, that's probably what they're thinking."


If Auburn underestimates Maehl's wheels in the BCS national championship game, the Tigers likely will pay the price. The Tigers have given up an average of 250.4 yards passing per game, 105th among the 120 FBS schools.


With minimal fanfare, Maehl has put together one of the best sea sons for a receiver in school history. He has 68 receptions for 943 yards and a single-season record 12 touchdowns, and was named first-team all-Pac-10.


"(Defensive backs) don't think he has a lot of moves, (but) he's real quick with his first step and after that he has a long stride," said wideout D.J. Davis.


"Some times we make fun of him, call him a little gazelle or a deer."


Maehl is fourth in career receptions (169) at Oregon and needs nine in the national title game to tie Samie Parker for the season and career mark in receptions. His 24 receiving touchdowns matches a school record shared by Keenan Howry and Cristin McLemore. Not bad for a player who began his college career as a safety.


"He's just a football player. He does everything," Oregon coach Chip Kelly said. "He covers kicks for us. He'll block for you, he runs great routes, he's got great hands, he can jump. He¹s just been an unbelievable player."

Mark Herzlich would have a been a great PR boost for any team

Jeff Maehl, despite putting up incredible numbers at the NFL combine, went undrafted. Like Jordy Nelson who walked-on at Kansas State and was overlooked by college scouts, Maehl has faced an uphill battle his entire career.

At least Nelson got selected in the 2008 NFL draft and shined in the 2011 Super Bowl.

There's not much else to say about the NFL Draft, other then that Boston College linebacker Mark Herzlich, who survived cancer to come back and play in 2010 after sitting out the 2009 season. Having put up astounding numbers in 2008, the white linebackers failure to be picked will serve as motivation:

In the summer of 2009, all Mark Herzlich wanted to do was return to the footballfield. But the 2008 ACC defensive player of the year was stuck in a hospital five days a week, undergoing radiation treatments intended to kill the cancer in his leg. The closest he could get to a real football field was a virtual one.

To pass the time, he and Zack Migeot, his best friend since kindergarten, played video games, among them a version of NCAA college football. There Mark Herzlich was, on the screen. The real Mark Herzlich sat on his bed, connected to a machine that was keeping him alive for real, while he was connected to another machine that brought him to life, virtually. “When I made a nice play, I would talk to myself — ‘nice play, Mark,’ ” Herzlich said.

That sounds heavy and full of meaning and symbolism now, but back then it just sounded loud, as Herzlich and Migeot screamed and yelled so much during the games that they had to be moved to a private room so they wouldn’t bother other patients. Herzlich beat the cancer and made a triumphant return to linebacker at Boston College, and today he starts to write the next chapter in his already incredible recovery story.

But this chapter starts on a difficult note: He went undrafted. “It was a disappointing and tiring day. It got to the point when I just felt like things were turning against me and tried to just keep my head up,” he said.

Far from giving up, he is set on proving he belongs in the NFL. “Apparently people are saying I can’t play football,” he said. “Well, I have heard that before.”

Yes, yes he has. And his reaction to it was nothing short of remarkable.

Herzlich’s presence in the draft was a confounding one for NFL teams. To watch Herzlich’s 2008 game tape is to watch a bruising, methodical, smart linebacker destroy the ACC. He was projected as a first-round pick. But cancer cost him the 2009 season, and in 2010, he did not play like a first-round pick. But a big reason was a stress fracture in his foot robbed him of all but three practices before the season. The more he played, the better he played, and by the end of the season, he closely resembled his old self. He and his coaches say by the time the NFL season starts, he will be even farther along in his football recovery, perhaps all the way back.

Herzlich, profiled here in USA Today, would have made a smart 6th or 7th round selection by a team looking to garner not only positive public relations, but selecting a tenacious football player who overcame adversity and cancer. The NFL needs positive role models and the canonization of Peyton Hillis by fans all across the country is proof positive of the type of player they want to see succeed.

Overcoming cancer and coming back to play football is an incredible story. The dude can play at the professional level and the NFL teams just dropped the ball on not drafting this player whose story is a perfect script for a Disney movie.

Unlike Remember the Titans, it won't be made up.

The NFL is a joke. The league is dead-set on becoming the NBA, and yet the fanbase clamors for actual heroes, role models to cheer for instead of the manufactured, ESPN approved players.

Toby Gerhart, the Wonderlic and the Upcoming NFL Draft: a White Running Back Crashing the Party

Toby Gerhart stands as an albatross, carrying the heavy burden of being the lone white running back to be considered a top draft pick for the National Football League (NFL) in years.

The Heisman Trophy runner-up and Doak Walker award winner is the inconvenient beneficiary of genes from a white female and a white male, a lethal combination for any ambitious white high school or collegiate running back hoping for an NFL career:

They will usually accept the backhanded compliments without complaint: "Hey, you're pretty fast for a white dude." They will smile when they get tagged with a nickname like Eminem or K-Fed. (Get it? They're Caucasian guys trying to do what African-Americans tend to do better.) White running backs will take all the good-natured teasing you've got, and they'll ask for only one thing in return -- the football.

Doesn't seem like much, does it? Just give them the ball and with it the chance to prove that productive rushers come in more than one shade. But coaches don't seem to have that handoff in their playbook. You're more likely to see Bill Belichick dance the hokeypokey on the sideline than find a white tailback in the NFL. There isn't a single white feature back on any of the 32 teams; the Bengals' Brian Leonard leads all white rushers in carries, with 25 (for 67 yards). White running backs break through slightly more often on the college level, where Stanford's Toby Gerhart leads in the nation in rushing -- but there is only one other white back, Nevada's Luke Lippincott, among the top 50 ground-gainers. Of the BCS teams Stanford is the only one whose primary running back is white.

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

Thus, Gerhart is a "Great White Hope": that individual who comes along every half century who gives the majority of fans who purchases tickets (white people) hope that they will have someone who looks like them to cheer for, as opposed to a professional baby-maker like Travis Henry.

Strangely, Gerhart was being projected as fullback for the NFL, despite his insane 2009 numbers as a tailback for the Stanford Cardinal. That was until he put up incredible numbers at the NFL Combine, that compare him to 1st Round tailbacks from the past few years:

03/03/10 - Toby Gerhart had heard all the stories about exhausting interviews, endless medical tests and stressful on-field drills — about the NFL scouting combine being a nerve-racking experience for draft prospects. "I thought it was fun," Gerhart said Monday. "I had a real good time." In more ways than one. The highlight of Gerhart's four days in Indianapolis was running the 40-yard dash in 4.53 seconds — fast enough to silence the skeptics, impress the scouts and solidify his status as one of the top tailbacks in the draft.

"For me, there was a lot riding on the 40, because the big question mark was the speed," Gerhart said. —I just told myself, 'Stay relaxed and do what you do. Don't try to overrun.' " Anything over 4.6 seconds and Gerhart, a power runner who weighs 231 pounds, would have been projected as a fullback — and fallen several rounds in the draft. But the 40-yard-dash time, combined with impressive results in the bench press and vertical leap, place Gerhart firmly in the tailback grouping. His time, which he recorded Sunday, was faster than that of former Ohio State bruiser Chris Wells (4.59 seconds), who was drafted at the end of the first round by Arizona last year. - Jon Wilner, The Mercury News

Speed and brawn are a lethal combination, but packaged in the body of a white tailback create a potential marketing sensation for whichever NFL picks him up. Worse, Gerhart deemed the Wonderlic Test (the bane of many Black potential NFL participants) "easy", as he scored a phenomenal 30, a score many deviations ahead of the individuals who run the ball for a living in the NFL:

It looks like that Stanford education is already starting to pay dividends for running back Toby Gerhart.

The Heisman Trophy finalist—who led the country in rushing yards (1,871) and touchdowns (28) in 2009—brought home the top score in the Wonderlic exam among this year’s running back class with a 30, according to a league source.

The Wonderlic test is a 12-minute, 50 question exam aimed at evaluating a prospect’s problem-solving abilities.

There has been much debate (especially from our readers) as to whether or not the test has any real significance in determining how a college football player will perform at the next level.

Some of the other top performers among the running backs include BYU’s Manase Tonga (29), LSU’s Charles Scott (26), Tennessee’s Montario Hardesty (25), Mississippi State’s Anthony Dixon (25) and North Dakota State’s Pat Paschall (25).

Rounding out the bottom of the class was Clemson’s C.J. Spiller, who scored a 10.

Other Notable Scores

Jahvid Best (California): 24
LeGarrette Blount (Oregon): 16
Jonathan Dwyer (Georgia Tech): 17
Ryan Mathews (Fresno State): 16
Dexter McCluster (Ole Miss): 18

The Wonderlic Test is just that, a simple intelligence test that has no true predicative correlation with NFL success but merely provides fodder for sports writers and fans to debate the relative intelligence (or lack thereof) of the heroes they will cheer for on Sunday:

If the NFL draft is a meat market, the NFL draft combine is where the beef is weighed and measured. Beginning today in Indianapolis, and for several days, our future Sunday heroes will take a full physical, sit for X-rays, face an interview, bench press 225 pounds for show and dough, jump broadly and vertically, and run the 40. And, of course, they'll take the Wonderlic. (Click here, and you can take it, too.)

The Wonderlic is an IQ test with only 50 questions -- it's a short version of the longer test routinely given to kids. Players have just 12 minutes to take it, and most don't finish. But, in fact, the average NFL test-taker scores a little above average.

The first questions on the test are easy, but they get harder and harder.

An easy question: In the following set of words, which word is different from the others? 1) copper, 2) nickel, 3) aluminum, 4) wood, 5) bronze.

A tougher one: A rectangular bin, completely filled, holds 640 cubic feet of grain. If the bin is 8 feet wide and 10 feet long, how deep is it?

Some teams consider the test results critical. Others say they dismiss the results, except for players who score at the extremes. What's an extreme? Well, former Bengals punter and Harvard grad Pat McInally scored a perfect 50 -- the only NFL player known to do so -- while at least one player, it is rumored, scored a 1. Charlie Wonderlic Jr., president of Wonderlic Inc., says, "A score of 10 is literacy, that's about all we can say." If that's the case, more than a few pros are being delivered the Books-on-Tape version of the playbook.

Each year, about 2.5 million job applicants, in every line of work, take the Wonderlic. The average NFL combiner scores about the same as the average applicant for any other job, a 21. A 20 indicates the test-taker has an IQ of 100, which is average.

Some people disagree with the whole idea of IQ testing because they believe the tests are culturally biased and inaccurate. But Charlie Wonderlic doesn't make grand claims for the score derived from his test. "What the score does is help match training methods with a player's ability," he says. "It could be a playbook -- what is the best way to teach a player a play? On the field, the higher the IQ, the greater the ability to understand and handle contingencies and make sound decisions on the fly."

In general, says Wonderlic, "The closer you are to the ball, the higher your score."

This assessment roughly corresponds to the averages revealed, according to the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel, by an NFL personnel man in Paul Zimmerman's "The New Thinking man's Guide to Pro Football," which are:

Offensive tackles: 26
Centers: 25
Quarterbacks: 24
Guards: 23
Tight Ends: 22
Safeties: 19
Middle linebackers: 19
Cornerbacks: 18
Wide receivers: 17
Fullbacks: 17
Halfbacks: 16

The average scores in other professions look like this:

Chemist: 31
Programmer: 29
Newswriter: 26
Sales: 24
Bank teller: 22
Clerical Worker: 21
Security Guard: 17
Warehouse: 15

Gerhart's score of a 30 places him in uncharted territory for a running back, who average a pedestrian 16 on the Wonderlic (which means most of those tailbacks you cheer for on Sunday would have the luxury of a security guard or warehouse worker as a vocation, save for their gift of running a football).

CJ Spiller's score (a Black running back from Clemson) of 10 is qualified as "literate". Good for him!

Tim Tebow, the universally loathed quarterback from the University of Florida, scored a 22 and was universally chided for his "low" score, a tell-tale sign of his inability to grasp a complex NFL playbook (wait, we thought the Wonderlic was a predictor of NFL failure or success)?

Tebow is hated because he doesn't have the same complexion of Michael Vick and yet performs with a greater drive and determination than Ron Mexico had for his side venture of dog rearing.

Tebow's score of 22 on the Wonderlic is only 2 points off the quarterback average, and correlates to an IQ of between 100 - 105, as opposed to Vince Young's outstanding 15:

A Palm Beach Post writer claims to have the Wonderlic test scores of Tim Tebow and other notable QB prospects from this year's NFL Scouting Combine.

Dolphins beat writer Edgar Thompson has posted the following comment on his Twitter page:

Gators QB Tim Tebow scored a 22 on his Wonderlic, Jimmy Clausen 23, Colt McCoy 25 and Sam Bradford 36 out of 50, per NFL source.

The Wonderlic Test is a 12-minute, 50-question test used to assess the aptitude and problem-solving abilities of NFL players.

If Thompson's source is correct, Tebow scored the lowest of the four big QB prospects in the draft.

Other noteworthy QB scores:

• Matthew Stafford - 38
• Mark Sanchez - 28
• Josh Freeman - 27
• Brett Favre -22
• Michael Vick - 20
• Dan Marino - 16
• Vince Young - 15

Such as the cases of Favre and Marino, a high Wonderlic score doesn't always equal NFL success.

Last year's first round draft pick for the Gators, Percy Harvin, also named the NFL Offensive Rookie of the Year, scored a 12 on his Wonderlic test.

There are those who would ditch the Wonderlic Test as an outdated method of testing intelligence, for when the scores are tallied a racial gap appears that mirrors the racial gap in learning between Black-and-white students at all levels of education.

Eric Decker, a wide receiver prospect from the Big Ten's Minnesota Golden Gopher program, scored a 43 out of 50. He too, has the same calamitous skin condition that plagues both Gerhart's and Tebow's pro chances: white skin.

And with the NFL being a league that is 69 percent Black, continually drafting prospective employees who perform lowly on the Wonderlic Test seems an exercise in futility (considering that 78 percent of NFL players go bankrupt after they retire from the league, it is obvious economic literacy and saving money for the future is a low priority for Black players).

Tim Tebow is hated and bad-mouthed constantly by critics and scouts, because they see in the Heisman Trophy winner all of the hopes and dreams for solid Black quarterback in the frame of a white, overtly Christian gunslinger.

Toby Gerhart, that rare white running back that can't be shuttled to fullback, is not only a talented football player, but also is blessed with cognitive gifts that will rival accountants and lawyers for the franchise that eventually drafts him.

In The Blind Side, Michael Lewis relates a tale from the lips of Tom Lemming (one of the top high school football scouts... ever), and how any white high school tailback or receiver is automatically discriminated against. They have little chance for success and for being recruited by a top college (unlike the virtually illiterate Michael Oher or any Black football player not named Myron Rolle).

Stuff Black People Don't Like wishes both Tim Tebow and Toby Gerhart success in the upcoming NFL Draft. They are both outstanding players and young men who run counter to the prevailing trends noticeable in the league as chronicled by Jeff Benedict in his outstanding book Pros and Cons: The Criminals Who Play in the NFL.

#977. Real Leadership from the 3rd District in Florida

"Democracy is the theory that the common people know what they want and deserve to get it good and hard."

These words flowed from the pen of H.L. Mencken and hit you with the ferocity of a Kimbo Slice right hook. When you think about the United States in 2009, the quip from Mencken rings especially true when you consider the idea known as gerrymandering:

"Gerrymandering is a form of boundary delimitation (redistricting) in which electoral district or constituency boundaries are deliberately modified for electoral purposes, thereby producing a contorted or unusual shape. The resulting district is known as a gerrymander; however, that noun can also refer to the process.

Gerrymandering may be used to achieve desired electoral results for a particular party, or may be used to help or hinder a particular group of constituents, such a political, racial, linguistic, religious or class group.

When used to allege that a given party is gaining a disproportionate power, the term gerrymandering has negative connotations. However, a gerrymander may also be used for purposes perceived as positive, notably in US federal voting districts boundaries which produce a proportion of constituencies with an African-American or other minority in the majority (these are then called "minority-majority districts")."

Every state in the Union has an example of gerrymandering (an interesting slide show of gerrymandering in various states can be found here), and numerous states that have Black people in practice this to ENSURE that they receive a voice. Democracy in action.

Business Week published an interesting article that discussed the effects of gerrymandering that have directly lead to the creation of a new generation of Black leaders, many of whom remain ensconced in office to this day:

"To most Americans, gerrymandering is probably something of a dirty word. It implies the creation of oddly shaped congressional districts designed to give one political party an unfair advantage over another while creating legislatures that are not reflective of the voting population.

Although that’s often been the case, the racial gerrymandering following the 1990 Census was designed to make Congress more reflective of the voting population by increasing the number of minority representatives.

The courts created new majority-minority districts in Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Maryland, North Carolina, South Carolina, Texas, and Virginia, and strengthened minority control of an existing majority-minority district in Mississippi...

....Examined in this light, it appears that the liberal strength in the southern House delegations increased noticeably between 1992 and 1996. The fraction of liberals in the South grew from an average of 38 percent in 1986-1990 to an average of 44 percent in 1992-1996, Shotts found. “I was stunned by the data,” he said.

Liberals who first won election to the House in 1992 after racial redistricting took effect included Eva Clayton (NC), Melvin Watt (NC), Cynthia McKinney (GA), Sanford Bishop (GA), James Clyburn (SC), Eddie Bernice Johnson (TX), Bobby Scott (VA), Earl Hilliard (AL), Corrine Brown (FL), Carrie Meek (FL), Alcee Hastings (FL)."

One name sticks out like a sore thumb in that list of distinguished leaders, Corrine Brown of Jacksonville, Florida:

"Born in Jacksonville, Florida, Brown attended Florida A&M University, from which she received a bachelor's degree in sociology. She also earned a master's degree in education from the University of Florida, where she was also awarded an educational specialist degree.^[2] She received a Honorary Doctor of Law degree from Edward Waters College in Jacksonville, and has been on the faculty at the latter two schools and at Florida Community College at Jacksonville.

Brown was elected to the Florida House of Representatives in 1982. She served five terms, gaining wide recognition in the Jacksonville area, and served as a delegate to the 1988 Democratic National Convention.

After the 1990 census, the Florida legislature carved out a new Third Congressional District in the northern part of the state. This district was designed to enclose an African-American majority within its boundaries. A horseshoe-shaped district touching on largely African-American neighborhoods in Jacksonville, Gainesville, Orlando, and Ocala, the Third District seemed likely to send Florida's first African-American to Congress since Reconstruction, and Brown decided to run."

Black people in this gerrymandered district have done a wonderful job of sending an articulate, thoughtful and intelligent individual to Washington as they continue to re-elect her, even though she lets slip a fact like this (usually reserved for when Black people are conversing amongst themselves):

"Brown, D-Fla., issued an apology on Thursday for remarks she made a day earlier when she said Hispanics and whites "all look alike to me."

Black people truly believe that all white people look alike, but Brown made the mistake of lumping Hispanics into the same stew as whitey, which is an unpalatable mix for all involved. Remember, Black people don't like to admit they are now the third largest racial group in America, after Hispanics.

Brown also took it upon herself to ENSURE that her home was protected from a tropical storm and left her constituents high and undry:

Controversy During Tropical Storm Faye

"On Friday, August 22nd 2008, during the height of Tropical Storm Faye, which was pounding the North Florida area with heavy rain and winds, Ms. Brown called up the City of Jacksonville to request pumps and sandbags be brought to her house along the Trout River because it was flooding. According to Brown, she made several phone calls to Jacksonville's Public Works Office for free sandbags, FEMA and the US Army Corps of Engineers, Home Depot to find sandbags, before she finally reached Adam Hollingsworth on Friday, chief of staff for Jacksonville Mayor John Peyton. Hollingsworth once worked for Ms. Brown before this job with the city, according to an article on the Florida Times-Union website.

City vehicles showed up, with a crew of inmates because the city uses low-risk inmates to do work, to sandbag the garage and front door after she was flooded with about a foot of water. Brown got angry with the reporter from Channel 4 doing the interview, demanding that the City of Jacksonville figure out how much it cost and she would "pay the bill" to silence any controversy. According to her neighbor, Joe Deloach, asked for the same help from the crew of inmates sandbagging Ms. Brown's property, but was denied and laughed at by the crew working on the project."

But Ms. Brown continues to be the finest politician Democracy can find to represent the Black people in the 3rd District of Florida. Perhaps no video in the history of the world showcases the wonderful education system the United States enjoys and the wonders of Democracy better than Corrine Brown congratulating her Florida Gators for winning the 2008 BCS championship.

Brown used her allocated five minutes on the hallowed floor of the United States House of Representing (er, we mean Representatives) to bestow upon the Gators a tribute that even Tim Tebow couldn't help but laugh at:

"The University of Florida may be wishing it could travel back in time and reconsider awarding U.S. Rep. Corrine Brown two advanced degrees after video of her congratulatory speech to the BCS Champion Gators hit the Internet, lest they become confused with a Center for Kids Who Can't Read Good and Wanna Learn To Do Other Stuff Good Too.

According to the official House Record, the speech was succinct, factual, and spoken clearly in the English language common in the American political arena. What actually transpired broke the time, space, and grammatical tense continuum (this is what your 8th grade teacher always warned about, and why basements are stocked with canned food). If there's one thing we can't shy away from, it's a governmental records cover up.

Rep. Brown (we're sure she's lovely, really) dressed appropriately for the role in a crazy orange silk cocoon. Upon taking the floor of the House, she proceeded to make mincemeat of sentences, the word "offense," and reading comprehension in general. Players and "Curch Urban Meyers" were "gratulated" on their "BSC" bowl victory and subjected to a hearty "Go, Gator!" (isn't this a team sport?). Speedster Percy "Harvey" was singled out for his "gustly" performance. Of UF's quarterback Tim Tebow, Ms. Brown opined: "It is matters the most the pressure he was under." Seriously, Brown has been an elected official since 1982. She can read, right?"

Mencken was a gifted writer and incredibly prescient in his warnings of the power of Democracy to give the people exactly what they want (case in point, Zod-Obama).

Black people have not received a great return on investment from the gerrymandering experiment in the 3rd District of Florida, as Brown has been re-elected time and time again, despite her inability to put together a cogent sentence.

Every time Brown makes a decision, Democracy gives it good and hard to the upstanding citizens of the 3rd District, for Stuff Black People Don't Like includes real leadership from the 3rd District of Florida, as the individual they help send to Washington DC every two years epitomizes why Democracy is the God that failed.