Pigskin Deep

Lamar Jackson is taking the world by storm.

If you haven’t been following the NFL or sporting news in general, Jackson is in heavy rotation as one the top stories of the year.

His meteoric rise from late first round pick in the 2018 NFL draft to leading MVP candidate in 2019 is nothing short of extraordinary.

But then I ask myself is it really extraordinary? The signs were already there in many cases.

In 2016 when Lamar Jackson won the Heisman he became the first winner of the award to throw for at least 30 touchdowns and rush for at least 21 touchdowns.

The Heisman Trophy has been awarded since 1935 and while some truly dynamic players have won the award no one had ever achieved what Jackson accomplished at the time he won the award.

Also, keep in mind that Lamar Jackson followed up his groundbreaking 2016 Heisman campaign with another 27 touchdowns passing and 18 rushing in 2017.

So while totaling an unprecedented 96 touchdowns his last 2 years in college why wasn’t Lamar Jackson more highly regarded as a quarterback heading into the 2018 NFL draft?

There are a number of answers that we could dilly-dally about but let’s head straight for the end zone.

Lamar Jackson is a black, mobile quarterback.

Before we dive into the stigmas of being a black, mobile quarterback, I want to bring to light a recent commentary by (at the time of this writing) the 49ers play by play announcer, Tim Ryan, who commented on the effectiveness of Lamar Jackson when running zone read plays.

“He’s really good at that fake, Lamar Jackson, but when you consider his dark skin with a dark football with a dark uniform, you could not see that thing. I mean you literally could not see when he was in and out of the mesh point and if you’re a half step slow on him in terms of your vision forget about it, he’s out of the gate.”

Before we all knew Jackson could be this amazing and a dynamic MVP candidate there were some legitimate questions about how he would transition to the NFL.

However, one of the unfair requests made by some teams heading into the draft was that Jackson work out at wide receiver.

In fact, former Colts and Bills general manager Bill Polian recently issued an apology to Lamar Jackson after leading the rabble-rousers who felt that Jackson should line up at wide receiver prior to the 2018 NFL draft.

While it is fair to wonder if Jackson would make it as a high level NFL starter it is unfair to question whether or not he should have been competing exclusively as a quarterback upon entrance into the league.

Which brings me back to Tim Ryan’s comments about Jackson.

On the surface the comments are just as deplorable as they sound, but there is something even more insidious when you examine them further.

Sure, the dark skin comment should make you uncomfortable in the pit of your stomach, but the implications that a major part of Jackson’s success should be attributed to a play that he runs because of his athletic prowess and less because of his mental acumen is troubling.

And that brings us back to the black, mobile quarterback description.

Somewhere in the verbiage is a disclaimer that says:

‘Negroes that display exceptional athletic ability in the pocket may only have the mental capacity of an escaped feral creature whose fight or flight reaction may lead to big plays but never the cerebral, heady play needed to master the position‘. 

If that last mock label seems superfluous in description how else did so many scouts miss on Lamar Jackson?

Apparently, overlooking his upside as a quarterback is going to cost somebody their job according to this recent report by Jay Glazer.

While this is an uncomfortable conversation it is one that needs to be had.

We live in a country that celebrates itself as the land of  opportunity but consistently blocks those opportunities with implicit biases.

Let this be a lesson for us to ensure we judge people by the content of their character (or resulting production based on their ability) rather than the stereotypes often associated with the color of their skin.