Football…America’s (Smart) Game
Football… America’s (Smart) Game
—Jeremiah Camara
It’s football season again! Testosterone and tailgating—beer and barbeque are back. Flat screens are flying off the shelves and it’s another opportunity to live vicariously through our favorite team. It’s all good right? Well, that depends on the size screen you’re watching the game from. Before we start crunching on pretzels, let’s crunch a few numbers; after all the game is about X’s and 0’s.
Black players represent around 70% of the NFL. This means that Black General Managers represent around 70% of the league—right? Wrong. Currently, there are only 3 Black GMs, no Black owners and Black NFL agents represent about 1 player out of every 150.
Now let’s call an audible at this point and do a hard count on the Black quarterbacks that will be starting for their perspective teams at the beginning of the 2010 season. Out of the 32 NFL teams there are only 6 Black head coaches and 3 Black starting QB’s.
Football, perhaps more than any other sport, has the best marketing campaign. Beer advertisers love football because of its machismo image. There is even a 24 hour, year round network dedicated entirely to football (the NFL Network). Football has managed to capture our hearts in ways no other sport has in recent years?
Football is the most corporately structured sport in America. The game of football, like the corporate game, has many levels of specialty. There’s the important sounding offensive and defensive coordinator, the special teams coach and the critically important coach who teaches the quarterback—who’s also a coach in his own right. Each coach is allowed to hire their own assistant. NFL playbooks are thicker and more complex than medical school textbooks and NFL coaches are often referred to as geniuses. Ever seen an NFL press conference? It’s as serious as a conference on foreign terrorism.
The real geniuses, however, of the NFL are the owners, agents, GMs and top level executives. Their uniforms stay clean on Sundays, and they rake in the biggest bucks. Granted, DeMaurice Smith, a Black man, is the NFL’s Union Executive Director but he’s a former trial lawyer with little experience for the position. Many believe the NFL put Smith out in front for image purposes. The NFL, like corporate America, will do anything to protect its image.
More than most sports, football mimics the real world. Outside of corporate America, football is the most visible example of the White brain/Black brute continuum. White quarterbacks represent the “overseers” barking out orders, taking charge and leading the field-hands into battle. Let’s be real—America is used to seeing Whites in such positions and Blacks seem to feel more secure with non-Blacks handling their money. Blacks continue to serve their original purpose—making money for others. On the plantation, when the Black man did something to please his owner, he danced, looked up and thanked the heavens. On the football field, when Black players please their owners by making it into the end zone, they do the same thing. The only difference is that the football has replaced the fiddle. It’s the same scenario—the players versus the prayers.
Perhaps, not all of this can be attributed to racism. Humans are a habitual species and perhaps the Black man is accustomed to thinking of playing the game first and owning the game second. Maybe it’s a combination of racism and cultural habits. But how many generations will pass before Blacks figure out that in the long run—our brains go a lot further than our bodies. We’re approaching another season of cameras zooming in on a Black player while the broadcaster shouts—“What a dumb, boneheaded play. Those are the type of things that drive head coaches crazy.” Ahh! Football is back.
October 21, 2010 at 9:55 pm
Please check out this video on the subject given by the Hon. Minister Louis Farrakhan. Please don’t deny the message because you might not like the messenger – check out the video – it’s right on target with this post. Thanks!
September 17, 2010 at 8:40 pm
I never really looked at football as you have exposed it. It makes a lot of sense. Are we so blinded by the light that we are still being misused to make billions for other people? What will it take for Black folks to wake up? We need our brothers to re-educate their minds, take charge of their families and re-build our culture.