College Football - the Opiate of America

Why is it that SBPDL spends so much time discussing college football? A cursory glance at our archives would undoubtedly pull up more than 10 posts that deal exclusively with college football and Black people.

Why though, do we expend this energy? One reason: we have stated time and time again that without sports, there wouldn’t be any positive images of Black people in this country. Sports have helped create illusions in America about race and worse, given birth to nasty stereotypes about Black people, athletic ability and intelligence:

“Are performance disparities between black and white athletes really a function of fundamental differences in physique and physiology, or are they a result of environmental and cultural contingencies?

Contrary to what some may argue, an objective examination of these issues attempts to fairly examine the evidence, and to challenge beliefs held and conveyed by individuals such as Al Campanis and Jimmy ‘the Greek" Snyder. In the end, we may find that these individuals, like many others are not really bigots, but simply misinformed about what really is known about race and performance.”

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, in one of his early Sherlock Holmes novel, had the eponymous character state:

"I have no data yet. It is a capital mistake to theorize before one has data. Insensibly one begins to twist facts to suit theories, instead of theories to suit facts.”

The world we live currently exists thanks to the shaky foundational pillars of egalitarianism. However, when utilizing data and facts present to us in the 2010 United States of America, a murky picture is painted that portends to those pillars crashing down soon.

College football is a wonderful control sample for such endeavors into looking at quantifiable data to come up with interesting theories about human biodiversity and the athlete-students who participate in these contests represent an interesting cross-section of the United States population in our controlled experiment.

College football fans and alumni of major colleges are overwhelming white. Major colleges field teams that have almost 50 percent white and 50 percent Black players upon them, save Air Force and BYU.

Black people, a mere 13 percent of the United States, represent 14 percent of the millennial population (18-29):

The diversity of this generation is as impressive as its size. Right now, Millennial adults are 60 percent white and 40 percent minority (18 percent Hispanic, 14 percent black, 5 percent Asian, and 3 percent other).

Interestingly, more Black males are in jail than attend college, so this makes those Black people eligible for scholarships to major colleges to play football an even smaller percentage:

More than three times as many black people live in prison cells as in college dorms, the government said in a report to be released Thursday….

Blacks made up 41 percent of the nation’s 2 million prison and jail inmates in 2006. Non-Hispanic whites made up 37 percent and Hispanics made up 19 percent.”

Yet, watching college football games, one would get the impression that the United States is an overwhelming Black nation. This is not the case however.

Worse, with the unbelievable amount of money spent on educating and tutoring athlete-students to stay eligible, the numbers of Black people receiving degrees ( as compared to white athletes) belie a most distressing reality:

But there still is the issue of the differing graduation rates for white and African-American football players: of the bowl-bound teams, 21 (31 percent) graduated less than half of their African-American football student-athletes, while only two schools graduated less than half of their white football student-athletes.

Richard Lapchick, the director of the Institute and the author of the study "Keeping Score When It Counts: Assessing the 2009-10 Bowl-bound College Football Teams -- Academic Performance Improves but Race Still Matters" said the academic reforms enacted by late NCAA president Myles Brand have been effective but there is more work to do.

This year, the graduation success rate for African-American football student-athletes is 59 percent, which is the same as 2008-09. The GSR for white football student-athletes went from 76 percent in 2008-09 to 77 percent this year. This resulted in a 1 percent increase in the gap (17 to 18 percent).

The overall football student-athlete GSR improved slightly from 65.3 to 65.7 percent.

"The academic reform package hasn't solved the problem of the gap between African-American and white student-athletes although both groups are doing better than they have been," Lapchick said. "Part of it is not the responsibility of college sports. Part of it is such a huge percentage of African-Americans are coming from urban school districts where the education available is nowhere near the education in suburban areas."

Stories of star Black college athletes getting easy grades to stay eligible are so common they have become part of the accepted writ of passage an athlete gets at college.

Have you seen the film, Invictus? What brought about the end of apartheid in South Africa? Sports and rugby would be the answer, for rugby is the opiate of the white South Africans:

John Carlin, author of "Playing the Enemy," said Mandela used the World Cup final to win the allegiance of a group of people who had largely applauded his 27-year imprisonment, and threatened to push South Africa into a civil war.

"It was on that day [the day of the Rugby World Cup final] that white South Africa finally, categorically accepted him as their rightful president, the president of all South Africans," Carlin said.

Afrikaners are the descendents of the Dutch pioneers that settled South Africa in the 17th century. They became the primary enforcers of apartheid, a brutal system of racial segregation.

In his book, Carlin described Pienaar as the "big blonde son of apartheid," a 6-foot-4, 240-pound man who grew up worshipping the violent sport of rugby, an obsession for many Afrikaners. Rugby is known as "the opium of the Afrikaner," says Carlin."

College Football is the opiate of white America and the door to success in America for Black people. As we pointed out with Michael Oher, however, facts about Black people in college football aren’t always positive.

Take for instance Terrance Cody, a behemoth of a Black interior defensive lineman for the University of Alabama. Were it not for football, it is difficult to envision what he would do for a living since he seems to have difficulty ascertaining what his major is at the school he plays for, as at a press conference before the BCS National Title game against Texas, he had this to opine:

So as the Crimson Tide’s 6-5, 354-pound nose guard met with the media on Sunday, it’s no surprise that his corner of the ballroom at the Newport Beach Marriott and Spa was usually filled with the most laughter…

Later, Cody was talking about being on track to graduate in May and said he still needed two more classes. Somebody asked him what his degree was in. He paused, stammered for a few seconds, looked up and smiled and then muttered something under his breath.

“I keep forgetting it … consumer science, I think,” Cody said.”

For those unaware - like Cody - Alabama doesn't offer a major in consumer science. It must be stated here that Cody had an upbringing much like Michael Oher:

“Cody had played only two years of high school football, as a freshman and a senior, because of a combination of factors. He said he struggled academically, had to help take care of his seven younger siblings and ended up “running with the wrong crowd.” It was why he ended up in junior college.

Cody said he grew up poor, not always having shoes that fit his size-18 feet. His mother worked two jobs, as a traveling nurse and a bus driver, to care for him and his siblings. His parents were not married, but his father, a construction worker, was a big part of his life until he died in a car accident. Cody was 11.

At the end of his junior year of high school, Cody moved in with the family of a high school teammate, Jason Milliken. The stability was important.”

And how could Cody not get amazing academic help at Alabama, considering the school invests heavily in keeping these athletes eligible to play:

“One of the secrets behind the academic success for current Tide athletes is Alabama’s Center for Athletic Student Services (CASS), headed by Jon Dever. In April 2005, a $10.3 million renovation of Bryant Hall was completed, transforming the former athletic dormitory into the Paul W. Bryant Academic Center, a state of the art academic center benefiting more than 425 Crimson Tide student athletes.

The 52,300 square-foot building is among the finest in the country. It houses a 48-seat computer lab, a math lab with 18 laptop computers aiding athletes when they travel, a reading lab with six computers, a writing lab, two 50-seat classrooms, a 140-seat classroom, and 32 individual study/tutor rooms.

The Bryant Academic Center serves not only as a functioning full-service academic facility but also as the home for the CASS staff and the Champs’ Lifeskills program. Moore calls the center “the crown jewel in the Alabama athletic department’s Crimson Tradition Fund facility enhancement campaign.”

He might be an All-American, but he is curiously absent from the 2009 ESPN Academic All-American team, led by Florida Quarterback Tim Tebow and a nearly all-white supporting cast, including white Michigan State receiver Blair White, who plans on being a dentist after graduation.

Sadly, many of White’s Michigan State teammates – all of whom are Black - can’t say the same, as they were suspended for a brawl prior to the teams bowl game with Texas Tech (they won). The all-Black suspended “band of brothers” were engaged in a friendly WWE-style battle royale with a Black fraternity:

“Eight members of the MSU football team were suspended by head coach Mark Dantonio on Monday following the ongoing results of an investigation by MSU police into a Nov. 22 altercation at Rather Hall.”

We already did a long essay regarding Black college football athletes inability to stay out of trouble, but this story was yet another example of a recurring pattern at college campuses as diverse as Knoxville, TN and Boise State, ID.

Who is it that riots at college football games? Who hates losing to Boise State? Why is there only one Myron Rolle?

The answer is simply another addition into the growing tableau of Stuff Black People Don’t Like.

The opiate of white Americans is football. College football and the National Football League (NFL) offer the masses entertainment and pleasure, much as rugby did the South Africans.

Whatever happened to South Africa? That is yet another reason why sports matter here SBPDL.

#1001. The 2010 Outback Bowl

For those who awoke in the wee hours of January 1^st, 2010, a college football contest of monumental importance was played that will have lasting ramifications. If you were lucky enough to view this game – braving the 11 a.m. kickoff – then history unfolded on your television screen.

Much like the Alabama-Southern California game played in 1970, where a lily-white Crimson Tide team played an integrated USC team and lost big, the 2010 Outback Bowl marked a most inauspicious moment for Black people everywhere.

Sports - it has been stated time and time again at SBPDL - gives Americans the only positive images of Black people that they see. One Sports Illustrated writer, Frank Deford, wrote that Obama’s election was paved by the Black superstar athlete:

“Obviously, there are so many factors that have been applied, incrementally, over a long time to bring us to a place where an African-American can be elected president. But I cannot help believing that the ubiquity and esteem of the black man in sport has played a significant part in this transformation of the body politic's thinking.

You see, the way the black athlete has evolved in the public mind has made him something of a precursor for African-Americans in other visible fields. Originally, in fact, blacks in sport were confined strictly to the arena. Many of the biggest stars -- Jim Brown, Bill Russell, Muhammad Ali -- seemed downright threatening. They only underscored the image of African-American leaders as confrontational. For so long, endorsements invariably went to lesser white athletes, because advertisers simply assumed that a product's association with even a non-controversial black star must be off-putting to white consumers.

But, my -- as well we know -- how that changed.

By the 1990s, Michael Jordan was accepted as the most prominent pitchman on the planet, and he has been primarily succeeded by Tiger Woods. Moreover, outspoken and even prickly black sportsmen like Charles Barkley or Shaquille O'Neal are accepted, and even admired, for their candor.

From a cultural point of view, this sea change in attitude signaled that race did not constitute that much of a perceptual difference in public figures . . . which, ultimately, of course, leads us from the playing field to entertainment to politics to, at last, the presidential race and Barack Obama.”

Mr. Deford correctly points out the view taken here that Black people in sports have “mainstreamed” positive images of Black people to the general viewing public, who digest sports with an appetite that is hard to satiate.

Black people look to college football as a means to end: the opportunity to spend four years getting an academic scholarship to play football and the potential of a multi-million dollar contract in the National Football League waiting for at the end of tunnel.

With more Black males in jail then in college currently, those lucky Black males who make it onto college fields across the nation have a chance to improve the national perception of Black people in the American mind and remove any negative stigma that people might attribute to Black people (why are so many Black people in jail to begin with?).

The 2010 Outback Bowl hosted the Auburn Tigers against the Northwestern Wildcats. Auburn – a university in East Alabama that is over 92 percent white – has a football team that is roughly made-up of a 50-50 white/Black split. Northwestern is a private school in Chicago that has a much more diverse campus (60 percent white/ six percent Black), yet a football team that is more than 70 percent white.

Northwestern is an academically rigorous institution, and, although Auburn might be highly rated public institution, doesn’t offer the same level of education as the private school in Illinois.

Before we discuss the 2010 Outback Bowl, it is important to point out a few interesting points. Both schools strive to keep players eligible, so that they can compete every Saturday in the fall. College football is an immensely lucrative business, as this article from Forbes will attest:

“It makes sense that a national champion like last year's University of Texas Longhorns grossed over $60 million in 2005, according to the U.S. Department of Education’s Equity in Athletics filings. (The 2006 season doesn't really end until the last bowl game next month.) But it can also be incredibly lucrative to lose, so long as a team has the right conference affiliation.

Among the on-field dregs of 2005 was 2-9 Washington, a member of the Pac-10 conference. The school's listed revenue was $31.7 million. Big 10 cellar dweller Illinois parlayed a 2-9 performance in 2005 into $19 million, just bellow the $19.8 million that 3-8 Kentucky claimed for 2005’s last-place finish in the Southeast Conference (SEC).”

To keep these students eligible, millions are spent on tutoring these athlete-students, as this article points out:

“Before the first kickoff this season, The Associated Press began a survey of the 65 schools from the six major conferences involved in the Bowl Championship Series plus independent Notre Dame. The AP obtained at least some financial information from 45 schools about the resources they devote to graduating athletes.

The picture formed by the data is one of schools frequently spending more than $1 million annually on academic support with some spending hundreds of thousands of dollars more in 2008 than they did in 2004, the AP found. Eight BCS schools reported spending increases of more than 70 percent in the last five years. Four increased spending by more than 100 percent.

Helping athletes graduate has become its own profession. A group for people in the field has nearly doubled to around 1,000 in just two years.

Glitzy academic support centers are popping up everywhere. A few weeks after Mississippi State opened a $10 million center last month, South Carolina upped the ante with a groundbreaking ceremony for a $13 million facility.

In Tuscaloosa in April 2005, a $10.3 million renovation of Bryant Hall was completed, transforming the former athletic dormitory into the Paul W. Bryant Academic Center, a state of the art academic center benefiting more than 425 Crimson Tide student athletes.

Oklahoma, with a 30,000 square-foot facility that cost between $7 million and $8 million, spent $2.45 million helping all its athletes last year.”

Even with all that academic help, Black football athlete-students at Auburn had a difficult time graduating, compared to the white athletes at both Auburn and Northwestern:

At Northwestern, 93 percent of white football players graduate, compared to 90 percent for Auburn. Black players graduate 90 percent of the time at Northwestern, compared to 48 percent of the time for Auburn.

This is highly problematic, sense so much money is spent to graduate players:

"The wide gap between white and African‐American football student‐athletes’ graduation success rates grew in spite of the slight progress with overall graduation rates. Lapchick said, “Each year the mosttroubling information in the graduation success rate study is the disparity between the GSR of African‐American and white football student‐athletes.

This year, the GSR for African‐American football student-athletes is 59 percent, which is identical to the 2008‐09 report. The GSR for white football student-athletes went from 76 percent in 2008‐09 to 77 percent this year. This resulted in a one percent increase in the gap (17 to 18 percent). The overall football student‐athlete GSR improved slightly from 65.3 to 65.7 percent.”

Lapchick noted, “It must be emphasized that African‐American and white football players graduate at a higher rate than their male non‐athletic peers in the student body. The graduation rate for African‐American male students as a whole is only 38 percent, in comparison to the 62 percent graduation rate for white male students – an unacceptable 24 percent gap.”

With all this stated, Northwestern and Auburn battled it out (Auburn started five white players – 22 percent of the starting 22 vs. the more than 90 percent student body - compared to Northwestern fielding a team that had 18 white starts vs. four Black starters) to a 38-35 overtime thriller, which the Tigers won (a full report of the game can be found here).

Pete Fiutak, a writer for collegefootballnews.com had this to say about the game:

“What team should I root for? That’s one of the most common questions I get from fans when it comes to teams and conferences other than their own. Nothing against Auburn, but if you don’t have a rooting interest the other way, Northwestern is one of those teams that you should want to succeed if you’re a fan of what (cliché warning) college football should be all about.

Northwestern players really are student athletes who have to use all their resources, all their skills, and all their brains to compete at such a high level. I’ve always fought the good fight against the erroneous notion that the SEC and teams from the South are always faster and more athletic than the supposedly slow and stodgy Big Ten, but that really is the case when it comes to Northwestern. The Wildcats have some NFL prospects and some solid players, but they don’t have nearly as many athletes as a team like Auburn has. Thanks to the attitude of head coach Pat Fitzgerald, who doesn’t give his team any excuses and demands that his team believes it can beat anyone at any time, Northwestern carved out a great season and came back time and again to come within a decent field goal kicker of winning the Outback.”

The announcers for the game – courtesy of ESPN – found the lack of speed on Northwestern’s offensive side of the ball, a major detriment to their ability to win the game. However, Northwestern torched Auburn’s all-Black defense (if something is lily-white, what is something that is all-Black?) for 525 yards passing.

Black people watching this game saw white players from Northwestern play their hearts out and dominate an Auburn defense that was pegged as faster and stronger.

Two costly personal foul penalties by Black players for Auburn – which were described as selfish by ESPN’s announcer – put the Tigers in a position to lose momentum, and potentially the game.

We will look back and realize that in 2009, Black power in America reached its zenith. On January 1, 2010, Stuff Black People Don’t Like started off with a sporting shot that will reverberate through the minds of all who watched it, as The Outback Bowl saw a nearly all- white team narrowly lose to a team that relies on Black players, at a rate is 13 times the actual Black enrollment at Auburn University.

SBPDL will begin a sister website that will chronicle college football, starting with the 2010 National Signing Day event in February. Until then, track down a copy of this football game. It will forever be included in the annals of Stuff Black People Don’t Like.

Remember, without sports, Black people would have no positive images. The rate at which young Black people are being incarcerated might ensure that future college football teams actually reflect the student body from which they play. And like Northwestern, might actually comprise student-athletes.

Though they lost, Black people realize the horror that could come from this game, for the Northwestern Wildcats close defeat to the Auburn Tigers represents is as significant as Tiger Woods fall from grace.

#464. No Off-Field Issues in College Football

(SBPDL note - this entry will be expanded upon indefinitely.)

Let's be frank for a moment. College football is a spectacular sport, absolutely fantastic. Going back to watch your alma mater compete and seeing the sights and sounds of your old stomping grounds rekindles memories long since dormant of rush parties, girls you used to know and should instill at least of modicum of pride in your school.

For those incapable of feeling a surge of energy from 80,000+ people singing the fight song of your alma mater in unison and cheering on the exploits of the players on the field as if their very lives depended upon the outcome of the game, well you might need to visit a doctor to ascertain if you are still human.

Some college football cathedrals seat more over 100,000 people and average attendance for some conferences is a jaw-dropping 75,000 for the 13 football Saturday’s in the fall:

“In 2005, a total of 5,593,699 fans attended 75 games hosted at SEC institutions, an average of 74,583 fans per game, which is also best in the nation. SEC stadiums were filled to 97.43 percent of capacity for each home game in 2005, which was also best in the nation. The SEC has led the nation in percentage of capacity since the statistic was first kept in 1983."

More importantly, college football is a big time business as many school’s entire sports budget for a fiscal year can be paid by one football fall Saturday:

“It makes sense that a national champion like last year's University of Texas Longhorns grossed over $60 million in 2005, according to the U.S. Department of Education’s Equity in Athletics filings. (The 2006 season doesn't really end until the last bowl game next month.) But it can also be incredibly lucrative to lose, so long as a team has the right conference affiliation.

Among the on-field dregs of 2005 was 2-9 Washington, a member of the Pac-10 conference. The school's listed revenue was $31.7 million. Big 10 cellar dweller Illinois parlayed a 2-9 performance in 2005 into $19 million, just below the $19.8 million that 3-8 Kentucky claimed for 2005’s last-place finish in the Southeast Conference (SEC).

So, the college athletes playing in these games are hugely important employees to the overall branding of the team and positioning of the program as a major commodity to future recruits who will act as stewards to that programs continued success.

However, with 50 percent of college football competitors being Black people, it is important to point out a trend that can be easily discerned at virtually every school - even the Naval Academy isn't immune from this epidemic - for Black people find themselves incapable of keeping their names out of the press for their on-field talent, but also for their off-field behavior:

"Three University of Tennessee football players and a female companion are in the Knox County Detention Facility this morning on charges of attempted armed robbery.

Janzen Jackson, Mike Edwards and Nu’Keese Richardson, all 18, were charged this morning after an armed robbery attempt at a Pilot station on Cumberland Avenue, according to the Knoxville Police Department.

Each player and the woman face three counts of attempted armed robbery. The woman also faces drug charges.

UT athletic director Mike Hamilton released a statement this morning about the episode.

“At this time we are currently evaluating the circumstances surrounding an incident involving Mike Edwards, Janzen Jackson and Nu’Keese Richardson,” Hamilton said. “Any decisions or comments regarding their status will not be made until the evaluations are complete.”

An isolated example you might ask? No, this is the true Knoxville Horror to those who follow University of Tennessee football, for any news event that shines a negative light upon their beloved Volunteer program is more important to dispel than any murder that might have happened in that city (here's a 2005 USA Today story about Tennessee Football):

"On the back of the card are the home and cell phone numbers of the Tennessee coaching staff so players can call for help.

The Think Card is part of a safety net of counselors, tutors and role models the university has been constructing since 1995 after eight football players had run-ins with the law in a one-year span.

But during the last 16 months, players frequently have fallen through. Tennessee football players have been in at least 20 incidents involving shoplifting, assault, gun charges, motor vehicle citations, disturbing the peace and failing a drug test."

Tennessee isn't getting a great return on investment for its initial monetary decisions, as the recruiting of these off-field news makers isn't what they were brought to Knoxville to do:

"The University of Tennessee is the runaway spending leader, according to the findings of a Press-Register investigation into recruiting costs for major sports programs among the SEC's 11 public institutions. Expenditure totals from 2006-08 found that the Vols spent an average of $1.15 million annually on football recruiting."

$1.15 million annually is spent by the University of Tennessee to import college football players who by and large are making more headlines off the field than on it lately. Great financial move by the university and a great way to build these players resumes, er rap sheets.

Alas, off-field issues affect every major college football program and lead to major attrition for programs who invest large sums of money into recruitment, only to see players taken away in the back of a police van and equipped with an ankle bracelet instead of cleats (of course, BYU only loses players to mission trips for two-years).

Penn State seems to have imported the same problem that Tennessee yearly brings to Knoxville in February (national signing day for new recruits):

"Off-field issues have managed to do to Joe Paterno what four decades as Penn State’s head coach never really could: tire him out.

“I have to fight sometimes to get out of bed,” Paterno said Monday night. “It’s been a long year. But in a lot of ways, it’s been a good year.”

It goes with the territory now: to win in college football, you must have Black players on your team, and with Black players on your team comes the unfortunate trend of having a criminal element in the mix where it might not have existed otherwise. Take the University of Georgia and the University of Alabama for example:

"Georgia had eight players arrested last offseason, which resulted in six players being either suspended or dismissed.

Some saw a connection between the lack of discipline on the field with Georgia's play on it - the Bulldogs were among the most penalized teams in the nation.

Richt admitted off-field problems created a negative perception about the team. He called it a "distraction," on the eve of last season."

and the BAMA story:

"Remember when "The U" was especially noted for having an abnormal amount of so-called "thugs" on their football team?

Those days aren't too far out of recent memory, but long enough ago that the Canes have forgotten most of their troubles.

Maybe they don't remember them because Nick Saban, former coach of the Dolphins, brought the mystique of players being arrested in Miami to the University of Alabama. The Crimson Tide has become the Cincinnati Bengals of the NCAA as of late.

With eight players arrested since Saban's arrival in T-town, the Tide need to worry about what the kids are doing off the gridiron, as opposed to how they perform on it."

What were some of those arrests for in Tuscaloosa?:

"Alabama linebacker Jimmy Johns was arrested on felony drug charges Tuesday and kicked off the team, the latest in a string of off-the-field problems for coach Nick Saban's squad.

Johns, who moved to defense for his senior year after playing running back and receiver in 2007, was "pretty wide open" selling cocaine to students on and around the University of Alabama campus but tried to hide what he was doing from teammates, police said.

"He didn't want them to know he was involved in it," said Capt. Jeff Snyder of the West Alabama Narcotics Task Force."

A curious search on Google of off-field problems in college football brings back nearly 1 million hits, with every school from the University of Texas to Oregon State represented.

What is the problem? Is their something in the water in all these beautiful college towns that negatively effects only Black people?

Or does Stuff Black People Don't Like include no off-field issues in college football, for the hope of emulating Chad Ochocinco's media savvy can only be attained by entering the police blotter for some Black players?

Check here to see which school's have won the Fulmer Cup, given each year to the university with the most off-field problems.

#73. Tim Tebow

Football has long been the great racial equalizer in the United States and perhaps the ultimate tool in bringing about equality in opportunity for Black people.

Pro Football was integrated in 1946 and Americans who had never conversed with Black people were now rooting them on as they scored touchdowns for the home team:

"The integration of major professional sports dealt a blow to segregation across the country, causing other racial barriers to fall," said Voinovich, a former mayor of Cleveland. "The players deserve to be recognized not only for their outstanding contributions on the field but for the vital roles they played in history."

College football integrated later, but used Black players from the former Confederate States as prized recruits. You see, Southern schools were some of the last to integrate (as we have discussed), and the Black players that were denied entry to all-white Southern universities found fertile grounds elsewhere (interestingly, most Black people now would be denied entry to many Southern school's and Northern school's, due to new, semi-rigorous standards, if they didn't excel at football).

As noted in a previous post, were it not for college football, most, if not all, major university's in the United States would have only a handful of Black people in attendance. Thank God for football, for without it, diversity would be non-existent at every college in America, sans Historical Black Colleges and Universities.

Indeed, without sports, it is hard to imagine Black people ever gracing the television screens in American households - remember, Black people are only 13 percent of the population - save for Cops, Tyler Perry shows and documentaries that deal with the unsavory elements of our society (we'll come back to this later).

Football is the end all in America, a religion that surpasses Christianity in devout followers across the land. On fall Saturday's and Sunday's, millions pray to the football Gods above to bestow upon their team a victory, and the demise of their lacking in piety opponent.

And yet, amidst the sacrosanct cathedrals that dot the national landscape and each Saturday and Sunday serve as the American version of the great pilgrimage to the Kaaba, a prodigal son has risen who single-handily has become the dominant force in all of football and threatens to revolutionize the game forever.

We are not talking about Michael Vick, a man who some thought would change the game forever, but instead become fodder for late-night comics.

No, we refer to Heisman Trophy winner Tim Tebow, a 22-year-old white quarterback who has been an integral part of two-national championship teams, a role-model and ambassador for the troubled sport and the epitome of all that a student-athlete can represent, as opposed to just athlete-students:

"Tebow was born on August 14, 1987 in the Philippines to Bob and Pam Tebow, who were serving as Christian missionaries at the time. While pregnant Pam suffered a life-threatening infection with a pathogenic amoeba. Because of the drugs used to rouse her from a coma and to treat her dysentery, the fetus experienced a severe placental abruption. Doctors expected a stillbirth and recommended an abortion to protect her life.

She carried Timothy to term, and both survived. All of the Tebow children were homeschooled by their mother, who worked to instill the family’s Christian beliefs along the way."

Tebow, the son of missionaries, didn't require the generosity of a white family to raise him from poverty - like Michael Oher - but instead had the loving support of his biological parents and the strong bond of Christianity that steered him in a positive direction.

His statistics in college have been incredible, and he is a front-runner for winning his second Heisman Trophy:

			Passing									Rushing
Season	Team		GP	Rating	Att	Comp	Pct	Yds	TD	INT		Att	Yds	TD
2006	Florida Gators		14	201.7	33	22	66.7	358	5	1		89	469	8
2007	Florida Gators		13	172.5	350	234	66.9	3286	32	6		210	895	23
2008	Florida Gators		14	172.4	298	192	64.4	2747	30	4		176	673	12
	Totals		41	183.2	681	448	65.8	6159	67	11		475	2037	43

However, scouts from the NFL wonder if he can produce the same results at the professional level and question whether he can even play quarterback at all:

"On how Tebow's quarterback skills might not transfer well to the NFL: "With a Tim Tebow, there will be a big adjustment to the NFL. It takes smart accuracy, and accuracy in college isn’t the same thing as in the NFL. He's not a pure pocket passer like a Matt Stafford. Can he make all the throws? Can he make all the reads? Can he learn to release the ball quicker? That remains to be seen."

On Tebow's final projection: "I’d say third or fourth round worst-case scenario, second round as a best case. Probably a third-rounder. That’s assuming his workouts are good."

However, it is not for these reasons that Tim Tebow is included in Stuff Black People Don't Like, but for reasons far more sinister and, odd as it may simple, out of resounding jealousy.

As stated, the national pastime is no longer baseball, but football, the sport most revered by men and the one which finds those whom participate in the game, as the most worshiped and beloved men in all the land.

Black people love football for it is how so many Black males attend college, and yet, as Jeff Benedict points out in his book Pros and Cons: The Criminals who Play in the NFL, few of these Black people learn any civic or ethics lessons there:

"According to the authors' extensive research into more than 500 criminal complaints against the league's recent players, a shocking percentage have been formally charged with committing a serious crime (rape, domestic violence, assault and battery, drug dealing, DUI, etc.). This alarming rate — and the gravity of these crimes — will stun even the most ardent NFL fan. This extraordinary book uncovers the true character behind heroes of the NFL and reveals the stories of the players who have turned America's most popular sport into a national disgrace."

This book, written 13 years ago, omits much that has transpired since then, for as Yogi Berra said, "It is hard to make predictions about the future." Michael Vick, Tank Williams, Pacman Jones and his predilection for "Making it Rain", Plaxico Burress, Donte Stallworth and a litany of other Black players had failed to even suit up for an NFL game when the book was written.

Steve McNair, a famous adulterer, was still in college.

According to Jon Entine, who wrote the book Taboo, Black people are perceived to have a monopoly of the genetic slice of athleticism that the DNA Gods bequeathed upon mankind:

"Asians are 57 percent of the world's population but are virtually invisible on the world stage of running, soccer, and basketball. The smallest of the world's major races, people of sub-Saharan African ancestry, are about 12 percent of the world's 6 billion population, yet their dominance of some sports is staggering. Blacks are 13 percent of the U.S. population but are: 80 percent of professional basketball players, 65 percent of professional football players, one-third of professional baseball players, and 70 percent of women's professional basketball players."

And yet, Tebow has been awarded so many trophies and accolades in his tenure as the Florida Gators quarterback that some wonder if every award shouldn't bear his name from now on.

Remember, it was Michael Vick that was to usher in the era of the new quarterback, prophesied with eerie exactness in the Oliver Stone movie, "Any Given Sunday", a film about a talented Black quarterback who would replace the pocket-passing white quarterback.

Yet, it was Vick who spent two-years in jail for his role in dog fighting, and Tim Tebow who ushered in the era of the "Wildcat" offense, as in 2006 he was a formidable passer and rusher out of the QB position for the Gators during their run to the BCS title.

Interestingly, Tebow has spent a lot of time behind bars and in jail(s) too, but not for reasons that mirror Vick's. No, Tebow spends his time in prison proselytizing hardened criminals and men whose vocation and avocation were murder, about the glory of God and Jesus Christ:

"At a time when Americans are leaving organized religion in large numbers, according to a 2008 Pew Research poll, Tebow is leading his own personal counterinsurgency. "Every Sunday we have a service for our players and their families," says Meyer, who remembers when "three or four kids would show up. Now the room's full." Since Tebow's arrival on campus, and in large part because of him, Florida has launched a series of community-service initiatives. Even as the football program has suffered an embarrassing string of arrests, the number of hours players devote to charitable causes has dramatically increased. "Our community service hours are completely off the charts," says Meyer, who describes his quarterback's influence on the team as "phenomenal."

"You should come with us to death row," he tells a reporter on the drive back to Gainesville. "It's gonna be great!"

On July 21, in fact, Tebow and Williams planned to head to the Florida State Prison in aptly named Starke. There, Tebow hoped to be allowed to speak to the 30 or so prisoners awaiting execution. The more incorrigible the inmate, the more Tebow relishes the chance to save him. "Sometimes it's those guys at rock bottom who are the ones looking for a change," he explains. If Lawtey was an early-season nonconference opponent for Tebow, death row was akin to Death Valley, as LSU's Tiger Stadium is known."

Tim Tebow is a college football mega-star, which means he is worshiped by the masses like few men before him, and even fewer will be after. He has the power to make grown men cry, when one of his perfect passes zips over the head of Black defensive back and ensures the Gators beat that grown man's alma mater.

Remember the Rush Limbaugh- Donovan McNabb crisis of 2003?:

"Let's review: McNabb, he said, is "overrated ... what we have here is a little social concern in the NFL. The media has been very desirous that a black quarterback can do well—black coaches and black quarterbacks doing well."

Of course you, the sports-fan who salivates for every statistic and rumor as a lonely house wive pines over her soap opera does, recall this event with great clarity. But are you prepared to deal rationally with the onslaught that will greet Tebow when he hears his name called in the 2010 Draft?

Tebow is the ultimate athlete and ambassador for the game, in fact the greatest player to ever lace up cleats in college football history. He happens to be white, enjoys spreading the word of Christ to large-congregations of Black people in prisons and yet, he won't be either an athlete who spends all his money nor one whom ends up in a book detailing the large rap sheets of NFL players.

Stuff Black People Don't Like includes Tim Tebow, the individual who has done more to shine a positive light on football then any student-athlete who came before, or will follow. His parents told he should be aborted, which many Black women do without any professional advice, Tebow is a child who never should have been. Steadfastly demolishing myths like "White Men Can't Jump" and striving to bring hope to Black people in prison (many of whom were once cheered by white alumni of college's and university's on the football field), unlike so many other privileged athletes.