Sam Sharpe-USA TODAY Sports
Nine of the 32 starting NFL quarterbacks this past weekend were African American. Carolina Panthers‘ quarterback Cam Newton was told this fact during a recent press conference and was asked if it was big deal.
“Absolutely not. You don’t have a bar mitzvah just because you’re starting an African-American quarterback in this league,” said Newton.
The third-year QB also added that he feels race doesn’t factor into teams’ decisions on who to start at the position. His answers may have surprised some people, however, I feel that he’s right on the money with his assessment. This is 2013, not 1983.
Things have changed in a big way. Not only in the NFL, but all across the United States. Discrimination is not near as prominent and our society has made great strides in regards to treating people of all different races and nationalities, the same.
As far as NFL teams are concerned, they would just be flat out stupid to decline a player a chance at a position based on race. A coach’s job is to put the best players on the field to give his team a chance at winning. It’s hard to say for sure, but it seems pretty clear to me that the black quarterback stereotypes that used to exist, are all but gone. There’s no denying that some of the best signal-callers in the game today are African American.
As the years go by, my guess is that we’ll see more and more races of people enter the league. Right now it’s primarily made up of black and white players, but just as the QB position has evolved, so will the rest of the game. America is more of a melting pot than ever and it’s only a matter of time before we see many different races and cultures represented on a larger scale in the NFL.
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