Michael Vick vs. Peyton Hillis for the Cover of the Madden 2011?

White running backs are getting a lot love in the SportsNation vote for the Madden video game cover

Black Run America (BRA) even dictates rules for professional sports.Any sport without sufficient Black representation is always on the lookout for its version of a Tiger Woods, though Woods isn't really Black and never opened up the game of golf for Black participants. (By the way, look for the rules of sports in Black Run America as an upcoming post.)

We already know that the National Basketball Association (NBA) went all in on the thug game. Short-term monetary success was followed by long-term desertion by the white fan base, putting the league in financial jeopardy.

Michael Vick and Dez Bryant represent the direction the National Football League (NFL) is headed. In an ESPN poll conducted to celebrate Black History Month, a huge disconnect emerged over how Black and white football fans view Vick:

African-American sports fans who took part in the online survey also indicated the media had been biased in its treatment of black athletes. By a margin of 57 percent to 7 percent, the African-Americans surveyed say the media unfairly criticizes black athletes more than white athletes, while the white fans suggest there is no difference in the media's handling of various cases.


Of black sports fans surveyed, 65 percent say they admire Vick, compared with just 25 percent of the white fans.

That same survey showed that sports fans view collegiate and professional athletics as highly progressive, i.e., an opportunity for positive examples of Black people to emerge where every other segment of society fails to produce them.
 
What will be said next is no conspiracy theory: Toby Gerhart showed us in the 2010 NFL Draft that white running backs (and by extension, white athletes who play wide receiver, safety and other positions reserved for Black players) are discriminated against.

Enter Peyton Hillis, a white running back who in 2008 showed he could be a star in the league for the Denver Broncos. Riding the bench in 2009 for that same team, Hillis was traded to Cleveland, where he infuriated Black defenses around the league by running through and around them.


In one season, Hillis showed that the decision by the NFL (and college scouts) to discriminate against white athletes was the wrong one to make. He exposed the caste system for all the world to see.

Though the NFL has gone all-in (like the NBA before them) on the Black athlete -- see the hilarious story of Warren Moon's Black reactionary attack on those who criticize the smug Cam Newton, completely disregarding the vicious assaults on Tim Tebow before last year's draft -- it seems white fans aren't going along with that message.

For some reason, the makers of the immensely popular John Madden NFL video game franchise allowed fans to pick the NFL athlete who would grace the 2011 cover. Before we tell you how the vote came down, a quick word on just how popular the franchise has become:

You can measure the impact of "Madden" through its sales: as many as 2 million copies in a single week, 85 million copies since the game's inception and more than $3 billion in total revenue. You can chart the game's ascent, shoulder to shoulder, alongside the $20 billion-a-year video game industry, which is either co-opting Hollywood (see "Tomb Raider" and "Prince of Persia") or topping it (opening-week gross of "Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2": $550 million; "The Dark Knight": $204 million).


You can witness the cultural power of "Madden": grown men lining up outside Walmarts for the game's annual midnight release; rock bands, such as Good Charlotte, going mainstream via inclusion on the "Madden" soundtrack; a pokerlike underground circuit of cash tournaments; the black-cat mojo of the "Madden" cover curse superseding the Sports Illustrated cover jinx; Madden himself being recognized less for his Hall of Fame coaching and broadcasting career than for a game that beat him into Canton.

Care to guess who the final vote is coming down too? Michael Vick and Peyton Hillis. Another white running back, Danny Woodhead of New England, made the final eight. It won't be announced until tomorrow, but Hillis is beating white Green Bay quarterback Aaron Rodgers, making a final vote between the former dog fighting champion Vick and the discriminated against Hillis a likely match-up:

Rodgers was trailing Hillis 56% to 44% in the Madden NFL '12 cover-vote semifinal heading into April 12th, 2011. Rodgers featured decisive victories against Ndamukong Suh(notes) (72% to 28%) and Sam Bradford(notes) (76% to 24%) before a competitive third-round victory against Danny Woodhead(notes) (56% to 44%). Hillis secured victories against Ray Rice(notes) (62% to 38%), Matt Ryan(notes) (51% to 49%), and Jamaal Charles(notes) (60% to 40%).

When I viewed the tournament bracket in March, I thought EA Sports was making a deliberate attempt to make Rodgers's bracket an automatic bid to reach the finals. I'd reckon that EA wasn't anticipating the positive response that the Caucasian tailbacks have received.


Statistically and from a career achievements standpoint, Woodhead was one of the weakest candidates. Woodhead is a situational running back for the New England Patriots. He accumulated 547 rushing yards and five touchdowns on 97 attempts in his first season of significant action. Woodhead also had 34 receptions for 379 yards and one touchdown.


As previously mentioned, Rodgers barely beat Woodhead. Hillis poses an even greater obstacle because he has a more established resume and Browns loyalists. Hillis rushed for 1,173 yards and 11 touchdowns on 270 carries in 2011. He also caught 61 passes for 477 yards. Hillis was the first white running back to eclipse 1,000 yards since Craig James of the 1985 New England Patriots. Hillis was the heart of a team that was transitioning into the Colt McCoy(notes) era.

That the NBA faces financial problems and the NFL does not is because the latter has white players that the predominately white fan base can cheer for and relate to. Tom Brady, Peyton Manning, Wes Welker, Brian Urlacher, Clay Matthews, Matt Ryan and a host of other white athletes are household names whereas the NBA is unable to provide the same amount of white players for the fan base to cheer for (the NFL is 31 percent white compared to the NBA at 19 percent).

The emergence of white running backs like Hillis and Woodhead has shown that, yes, white guys can run the ball too. It's just that they have been denied that opportunity by a caste system that moves whites to fullback or away from the tailback position. Larrybrownsports.com reports:

What we’re talking about now is the undeniable truth that Peyton Hillis is extremely popular because he is a rarity: a white superstar running back. Being a white back has hurt Hillis in the past because he was discriminated against, but now that he’s received an opportunity to be a featured back, he’s proven he can succeed, and he’s become a national fan favorite as a result.

10 running backs outrushed Hillis last season. Steven Jackson, Michael Turner, and Adrian Peterson all run as hard and with as much of a punishing style as he does. Maurice Jones-Drew, Chris Johnson, and Ray Rice have shown more spectacular moves and shiftiness in their rushing.


All three were eliminated in the first two rounds, all three are black.

If Peyton Hillis defeats Vick to be on the cover of the 2011 Madden game, and if the NFL Lockout ends, one can expect the almost entirely-Black defenses Hillis faces to be gunning for him, trying to deny him a second-straight 1,000 yard rushing season.

That's the burden a white superstar athlete faces (remember what "Pistol" Pete Maravich faced playing in the all-Black NBA of the 1970s). A lot of great white hope athletes exist, but they rarely get recruited by major colleges to play running back or receiver. White guys can't run, right?

Just ask Brock Forsey about that truth.

Michael Vick vs. Peyton Hillis for the cover of the 2011 Madden NFL video game. It's a well-known fact that the Madden NFL game is one of the only video games Black people play, and having a white running back grace the cover could be absolutely hilarious.

The NFL and NCAA have long tried to keep white athletes from running with the football at the tailback position; judging by how white sports fans voted for both Woodhead and Hillis in the Madden contest, that seems to be something they want too see.

Michael Vick or Peyton Hillis. The National Football League has decided it wants to have a sport dominated by players like Vick. Going all-in on Black athletes and the "thug" game doomed the NBA and drove away white sports fans.

The NFL discriminates against white players. If it were a true meritocracy, it would undoubtedly have more players like Hillis.

But because of the caste system, guys like Vick and Dez Bryant are promoted over white athletes.

We hope that Hillis lands the cover of the game. Vote here.

We recommend telling all of your friends on Twitter, FaceBook, Digg, and on forums to vote for Hillis as well.

And be sure to tell them SBPDL sent you.
 
One day soon, the NBA will be looking for its version of a Peyton Hillis. Hockey, Nascar, swimming and tennis will still be looking for its Tiger Woods.

#457. The "Doak Walker Award" Name

The 2009 college football season has started and already we have one causality: LaGarrette Blount. He has been suspended for the 2009 season for assaulting a white Boise State player after that team was victorious over Blount's Oregon Ducks 19-8.

Unfortunately, his suspension removes him from contention for the Doak Walker Award, given annual to the nation's top running back. Blount was expected to compete for that distinction, but his well-place right hand leaves him more suited for the Octagon of the UFC.

Who was Doak Walker, you might ask?

Doak Walker was a famous running back for Southern Methodist University, where he was an All-American and a Heisman Trophy winner:

"Walker attended Southern Methodist University (SMU), where he played running back, defensive back, and place kicker. He also threw and caught passes, punted, and returned kicks. Walker's impact on SMU and football in the Dallas area led to the Cotton Bowl being referred to as "The House That Doak Built." Walker was also a member of Phi Delta Theta Fraternity and lettered on the SMU basketball and baseball teams. In 2007, he was ranked #4 on ESPN's list of the top 25 players In college football history."

However, a problem exists, as Walker played football and went to college in Pre-Obama America and more importantly, well before integration. You see, Walker is a white person that played running back and still has his name attached to the trophy given to the top collegiate running back every year - a position that is dominated by Black people:

"There are 117 colleges playing Division I-A football in 2004, and none was scheduled to start a white tailback this weekend. Two schools -- Nevada, with Chance Kretschmer, and UAB, with Dan Burks -- have starting white tailbacks who are injured. Kretschmer, who rushed for 1,732 yards and 15 touchdowns as a freshman in 2001, received no scholarship offers and attended Nevada as a walk-on. Burks was a star high school player in Birmingham who was thought to be too slow to play for any "major" school."

In college football, rarely do we see the strange sight of the white running back, an oddity on par with the Black professional golfer or swimmer. Luke Staley of Brigham Young University was the last white running back to win the coveted Doak Walker Award (in 2001) and if Black people have their way, the last for a long time.

Many college football teams haven't had a white starting tailback for decades and this entrenched dominance by Black people appears to be set in stone:

"When Florida State Coach Bobby Bowden was asked to explain the decline of the white running back, he laughed so hard, he actually grabbed on to the reporter posing the question. When NFL spokesman Greg Aiello was asked whether the league kept statistics on white running backs -- perhaps the same way the league does on its black coaches -- he was incredulous.

"White running backs?" he says, laughing. "No."

Sam McGuffie, a high school star running back out of Texas, was signed by Michigan and immediately had a chance to start for team that would finish 3-9 in 2008. However, few school's looked at him, because yes, he is a white guy:

"Michigan hasn't had a white player start at tailback since Rob Lytle in 1976, which also was the last time a white tailback led the Maize and Blue in rushing..."I really don't have too much to say about that," said McGuffie, who ran for 1,711 yards and 23 touchdowns as a senior at Cy-Fair High School in Cypress, Texas, and gained YouTube fame for hurdling a defender. "If you can play the position, you can play the position."

In that same article quoted above, this quotation stands out as to Black people's belief as to why so few white running backs get a chance in college football, and why the Doak Walker Award should be renamed for a Black running back:

"I don't ever want to put a spin on it and say it's profiling," said Floyd Keith, the executive director of the Black Coaches Association. "I think it has a lot to do with the quality of player."

There have been a number of talented white running backs this past decade that refute Mr. Keith's stance, but the Black executive director the BCA has only one goal: to ensure that Black people populate as much of college football (players and coaches) as possible.

Numerous talented white players have played running back for major colleges this decade including: Tre Smith and Heath Evans at Auburn University; Brock Forsey at Boise State; Toby Gerhart of Stanford; Chance Kretschmer of Nevada; Peyton Hillis of Arkansas and Brian Leonard of Rutgers:

"I didn't get as many carries, and I could have come out after my junior season, but I felt that I wanted to go back and help Rutgers become a championship program," Leonard said. "The scouts know that I can carry the football as well as catch it and block it, even if I didn't carry it as much last season."

None of these players formed a White Running Back Association (WRBA) to ensure that white players trying to play running back are treated equitably, and they played a position that Black people believe it is their birthright to play.

However, one name does stand out among the rest of the white running backs as being the supreme player for a team that won the 2007 BCS national championship; Jacob Hester of the Louisiana State Tigers:

"LSU won the BCS national championship in college football, defeating Ohio State 38-24, with a white runner as its primary ballcarrier. Is this the first time in the history of the BCS? Jacob Hester had a standard Jacob Hester game against #1 ranked Ohio St., rushing for 86 yards on 21 carriers, finishing with over 1100 yards for the season."

Hester led LSU to the national title and was looked at as one of the top players of the 2007 season and found himself the subject of a Sports Illustrated cover-story:

"The consummate throwback player, the 6-foot, 224-pound Hester is a gifted inside runner and underrated receiver who'd sooner run over a would-be tackler than sidestep him or slap that defender's helmet in good sportsmanship than beat his own chest. Such selflessness can seem downright antique by today's standards. "

Later in that same article, a telling statement was made by Hester, as he related a tale about Black people and their defense of the ownership of the tailback position:

"Still, there have been other instances in which Hester has removed his helmet without meaning to pull a fast one—like when he's trying to towel off the part of him that is most an anachronism: his white face.

"The fact is, in today's game, it's rare to see a white running back playing the role of dominant rusher on a college football team, let alone a national champion. And Hester hears about it. In 2006, after shedding his headgear during a first-quarter timeout against Tennessee, Vols linebacker Jerod Mayo reacted as if he had seen a ghost. Said Mayo to Hester, "Shouldn't you be playing running back for Air Force?' "

The Air Force Academy still has rigorous standards, and the football team almost always starts 22 white players, thus the question from Mayo to Hester.

We have been discussing college football this week at length, because the game dominates the thinking of so many people in this country and yet, so few Black people would be attending major college's were not for the fact that they play football.

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

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

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