NFL's Sordid Treatment of Black Quarterbacks Blasted

LOS ANGELES - Feb. 3, 2023 - PRLog -- "There is a good reason for the euphoria legions of Blacks feel and express about the historic first of two African American quarterbacks, Patrick Mahomes and Jalen Hurts facing off in the Superbowl," says noted political analyst Earl Ofari Hutchinson," It's been a long, agonizing, painful road for them and the NFL to get to that historic point. "

Hutchinson walks through the NFL's sordid history of exclusion of Black quarterbacks in his YouTube mini-documentary, The Black Quarterback-The NFL's Sordid History.

The NFL template to enforce the color bar at quarterback went like this.

No matter how talented a Black college quarterback was during those years, no NFL team would draft him to play quarterback," recounts Hutchinson," If a team did draft him, he would get in the game only if there was an injury to the starting white quarterback, and he was the last resort. Then he would throw almost no passes. More commonly, if drafted he'd immediately be switched to another position, usually defensive back, or wide receiver.

This pointed to the age-old standard NFL rationales for regarding the quarterback position as "for whites only." Blacks are great runners. They are great athletes. They are raw physical talents. But as for quarterbacking forget it. It's a cerebral thinking man's, leadership position. It's by far the most high-profile position on an NFL team.

A 2015 study in the Journal of Sports Economics pointed to one other lingering dilemma for Black quarterbacks the margin for failure for them is paper thin. The study found that Black quarterbacks in the NFL were far more likely to be benched for any real or perceived failure on the field than a white quarterback.

Much is being made about the "historic first" of a Superbowl with two Black quarterbacks facing off. This, in itself, is the greatest cautionary reminder about the NFL's sordid past treatment of Black quarterbacks. Fortunately, at least for this game anyway, that has seemingly changed.

But Hutchinson's The Black Quarterback-The NFL's Sordid History is a grim reminder of what it took for that change to finally happen.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KKl0ZWhIazo