Macq Weighs in on Black QB's Who Run

First I would like to start by saying that the comments made about Donovan Mcnabb in November by J. Whyatt Mondesire were stupid. Calling Mcnabb an Uncle Tom because he did not scramble any more is beyond idiotic. However I think Mondesire's overall point was lost in the controversy. I believe his overall point was that black quarterbacks are still seen as athletes first and Quarterbacks second. Back in the day the reason blakcs were not allowed to play the position was because we were thought to be intelectually inferior. So when an accomplished quarterback is described by only his athleticism and not his decision making then we as a society are back to square one.

I began thinking about this last week. ESPN was running promos for Saturdays Wild Card matchup between the Jaguars and the Patriots. And as usual they were showing highlights of the two stars in the game who, in this instance, both happened to be quarterbacks. They showed Tom Brady throwing passes, and then when they got to Byron Leftwitch they showed him throw one pass and then showed a highlight of him scrambling. I then started thinking in my head that Leftwitch, by his own admission is not a scrambler by any stretch of the imagination. In fact Tom Brady averages more yards per run (3.3) than Leftwitch does (2.2). So why are the highlights of Leftwitch are tapes of him "scrambling".



Then the final inspiration for this post came with yesterdays Rose Bowl. Vince Young was amazing yesterday. Not only with his running, but I was especially amazed with his passing ability. Many times he scrambled to give his recievers more time to get open. He ended the night completing 75% of his passes (30-40) for 267 yards. He also rushed 19 times for 200 yards. However on ESPN's highlights this morning I counted 3 highlights of Vince Young passing the ball. The rest of the highlights, maybe 15 in all, were of Young running. Somehow again ESPN forgot that Young was a QUARTERBACK who also RUNS.

Back to Mcnabb. I believe that Mcnabb has curtailed his running because he did not want to be pigeonholed into the classification of a running quarterback. However I do not blame him. Just listen to the wording used to describe Peyton Manning. He is "cerebral", "high football IQ", and "intelligent". Tom brady is described as being a "field general", meanwhile Daunte Culpepper is a "load to bring down" or "fast for a man his size". Next time you are watching a game notice how many times the announcer compliments a white quarterback on something having to do with his decision making or something dealing with intelligence, and then notice how many times a black quarterback is complimented on his athleticism. Mcnabb simply did not want to fall into that trap. Racism at the quarterback position is alive and well, it has just changed forms.