When it comes to embracing Black head coaches, the NFL needs to make plenty of progress. When it comes to embracing Black quarterbacks, the NFL has made plenty of progress. But one of the highest-profile Black quarterbacks think there’s more progress to be made.
On The Shop, which has migrated from HBO to YouTube for its fifth season, Ravens quarterback Lamar Jackson discussed the lingering bias against Black quarterbacks.
“It’s dying off, but it’s still there,” LeBron James said.
“It’s still there,” Jackson said. “That’s why I need that championship. That’s why I need that championship.”
A championship wouldn’t necessarily iron out the broader mindset that potentially lingers, in some minds. As to Jackson, it would be the ultimate vindication for the clumsy effort to nudge him to receiver when he was entering the league four years ago. That’s precisely how the subject came up during the show.
But then there’s Kyler Murray, who last month found himself on the wrong end of a character assassination, with ESPN pushing a report that he’s self-centered, immature, finger-pointer. As if no other great quarterbacks, white or Black, display such traits -- especially when things don’t go their way.
The GOAT when it comes to temper tantrums is, literally, the GOAT. Although it doesn’t happen very often because of his greatness, Tom Brady doesn’t hesitate to dress down teammates, yell at coaches, destroy tablets, scream at officials, and/or ghost Nick Foles.
Self-centered, immature, finger-pointer.
Still, the football world has changed dramatically when it comes to leveling the playing field for Black quarterbacks. And it’s not just a development for the NFL. The pigeonholing often began (and maybe still begins) at lower levels of the sports, with some youth coaches pushing the best white athletes to quarterback and the best Black athletes to running back, receiver, and defensive back. So with more Black players developing as quarterbacks and more Black quarterbacks playing and thriving in college, the NFL had no choice but to accept that the biases and stereotypes had changed.