Originally Posted by staylor26:
If you paid any attention, you’d realize how scared or in denial people in the media are to give this take.
Instead you get “Lamar is an underrated pocket passer” (which was literally said on Monday).
We talked about this last year somewhere - maybe the Mahomes thread.
There's clearly a large segment of the analyst crowd, former players, that see him as 'their guy' because they simply relate to him well.
Is it overtly racist? I mean...probably not. But he definitely gets a hell of a lot more leeway for flat out bad play than his contemporaries get. I've heard "I wouldn't pin that loss on Lamar" more times than I can count from guys trying to hand-waive 180 yard performances because of some run he made in the 3rd quarter.
It's never his fault.
Here's the best analogue I can make. We never blame Patrick. Why? Because he's our boy. We're fans and we don't want it to be his fault. Well a whole slew of analysts are just fans of Lamar Jackson and they go on national television and treat him with the kind of kid gloves that we treat Patrick with.
Patrick Mahomes loses one AFCCG and going to SF people were asking 'would a loss doom his legacy?'. He wins and a year later, when he's being absolutely obliterated anytime he drops back, he's got guys saying he's overrated.
Meanwhile any commentary on that game, had it been Lamar Jackson under center, would've started with "I'm not going to say Lamar lost them this game..."
He just gets treated differently. Not from white quarterbacks, from essentially all quarterbacks. [Reply]
Originally Posted by DJ's left nut:
We talked about this last year somewhere - maybe the Mahomes thread.
There's clearly a large segment of the analyst crowd, former players, that see him as 'their guy' because they simply relate to him well.
Is it overtly racist? I mean...probably not. But he definitely gets a hell of a lot more leeway for flat out bad play than his contemporaries get. I've heard "I wouldn't pin that loss on Lamar" more times than I can count from guys trying to hand-waive 180 yard performances because of some run he made in the 3rd quarter.
It's never his fault.
Here's the best analogue I can make. We never blame Patrick. Why? Because he's our boy. We're fans and we don't want it to be his fault. Well a whole slew of analysts are just fans of Lamar Jackson and they go on national television and treat him with the kind of kid gloves that we treat Patrick with.
Patrick Mahomes loses one AFCCG and going to SF people were asking 'would a loss doom his legacy?'. He wins and a year later, when he's being absolutely obliterated anytime he drops back, he's got guys saying he's overrated.
Meanwhile any commentary on that game, had it been Lamar Jackson under center, would've started with "I'm not going to say Lamar lost them this game..."
He just gets treated differently. Not from white quarterbacks, from essentially all quarterbacks.
Couldn’t agree more with ALL of this. I don’t think every black QB gets treated this way at all. Quite the opposite. He’s definitely special, and that’s what I meant by the “great black hope” of QB’s. [Reply]
Originally Posted by staylor26:
If you paid any attention, you’d realize how scared or in denial people in the media are to give this take.
Instead you get “Lamar is an underrated pocket passer” (which was literally said on Monday).
Still don’t buy it.
Analysts rarely ever broach the subject of not being able to read a defense. I’m not sure I’ve heard that mentioned much for any struggling QB. Black QBs don’t get special treatment there.
I think the bigger issue here is that Lamar Jackson is actually a great football player. Guy’s 30-8 as a starter and a former MVP. That’s going to buy you a hell of a lot of rope. [Reply]
Originally Posted by ThaVirus:
Still don’t buy it.
Analysts rarely ever broach the subject of not being able to read a defense. I’m not sure I’ve heard that mentioned much for any struggling QB. Black QBs don’t get special treatment there.
I think the bigger issue here is that Lamar Jackson is actually a great football player. Guy’s 30-8 as a starter and a former MVP. That’s going to buy you a hell of a lot of rope.
You seem to be misunderstanding my point. It’s not all black QB’s. It’s Lamar. He gets treated different from every QB, like DJ pointed out.
I suggest you read DJ’s post to get a better understanding of the point I was trying to make. [Reply]
Originally Posted by staylor26:
Couldn’t agree more with ALL of this. I don’t think every black QB gets treated this way at all. Quite the opposite. He’s definitely special, and that’s what I meant by the “great black hope” of QB’s.
I guess my question is - why would anyone expect it to be otherwise?
If somehow a woman became a quarterback, my daughters would absolutely want her jersey and want to see her succeed. If my wife were a broadcaster she'd absolutely be a fan of that quarterback and regardless of her overt intent, her 'fandom' would make itself evident in her analysis.
If I were hispanic and there were a hispanic quarterback, hell yes I'd want to see a guy that looks/sounds like me be successful and I'd pull hard as hell for him to do so. Why? Novelty. Finally someone I can relate to is out there making things happen! If someone had my last name I'd cheer for that guy when he's not playing my team. Because there just aren't many dudes with my last name.
In time this too shall pass. But the analysts we're talking about played when black quarterbacks were still relative novelties. There just weren't many of them. And when you have a guy in Jackson who was raised by a single mother in a hardscrabble neighborhood in Florida after his father died when he was young - man, that's a story pretty similar to a lot of these dudes. Or close friends of theirs. They relate to Lamar Jackson. They see themselves in him and want him to succeed. And while they don't try to overtly give him a pass - they're fans. It's gonna color how they view his performance, just as it colors ours when Mahomes is a little bit off.
It's not even racism - it's just human nature. In 20 years when the media is full of analysis who played during a time when a black quarterback was 'just a quarterback', you won't see it as much. But I don't see how anyone can't take a fairly sterile view of the whole thing and say "well...yeah...of course..." [Reply]
I don’t know why you guys obsess over tearing down Lamar Jackson? He’s obviously has holes in his game but he’s a fun, exciting player to watch. Seems like a good dude too.
I get tired of the Qb attitudes around here that’s basically “he’s not Mahomes, so he sucks” [Reply]
Originally Posted by Deberg_1990:
I don’t know why you guys obsess over tearing down Lamar Jackson? He’s obviously has holes in his game but he’s a fun, exciting player to watch. Seems like a good dude too.
I get tired of the Qb attitudes around here that’s basically “he’s not Mahomes, so he sucks”
I've enjoyed watching him play many times, Sunday night he looked like ass from what I watched.
The mainly running athletic QB's who cant throw accurately just have a short shelf life. His MVP season was well deserved but I just don't see the repeatability of it. [Reply]
Originally Posted by DJ's left nut:
I guess my question is - why would anyone expect it to be otherwise?
If somehow a woman became a quarterback, my daughters would absolutely want her jersey and want to see her succeed. If my wife were a broadcaster she'd absolutely be a fan of that quarterback and regardless of her overt intent, her 'fandom' would make itself evident in her analysis.
If I were hispanic and there were a hispanic quarterback, hell yes I'd want to see a guy that looks/sounds like me be successful and I'd pull hard as hell for him to do so. Why? Novelty. Finally someone I can relate to is out there making things happen! If someone had my last name I'd cheer for that guy when he's not playing my team. Because there just aren't many dudes with my last name.
In time this too shall pass. But the analysts we're talking about played when black quarterbacks were still relative novelties. There just weren't many of them. And when you have a guy in Jackson who was raised by a single mother in a hardscrabble neighborhood in Florida after his father died when he was young - man, that's a story pretty similar to a lot of these dudes. Or close friends of theirs. They relate to Lamar Jackson. They see themselves in him and want him to succeed. And while they don't try to overtly give him a pass - they're fans. It's gonna color how they view his performance, just as it colors ours when Mahomes is a little bit off.
It's not even racism - it's just human nature. In 20 years when the media is full of analysis who played during a time when a black quarterback was 'just a quarterback', you won't see it as much. But I don't see how anyone can't take a fairly sterile view of the whole thing and say "well...yeah...of course..."
You make a great point here. Hard to disagree. [Reply]
Originally Posted by staylor26:
You seem to be misunderstanding my point. It’s not all black QB’s. It’s Lamar. He gets treated different from every QB, like DJ pointed out.
I suggest you read DJ’s post to get a better understanding of the point I was trying to make.
I’ve read his posts but they go back and forth between “yeah, Lamar gets special treatment because he’s black” and “Lamar gets special treatment over any QB, white or black”.
It still just doesn’t track. Lamar Jackson isn’t the first black, running QB from the hood. There was Cam Newton (I don’t know much about Cam’s upbringing) before him and Michael Vick before him.
I haven’t seen many black folk hitching their wagons to Jameis Winston or Jalen Hurts.