dice wrote:that was in 2003. i recall at the time thinking "people still see race at the QB position?" because even then i hadn't heard it brought up in what seemed like ages.
i mean, one of the big stories of the nfl over the next 15+ years from this point was coaches very gradually realizing that offenses could be tailored to skills traditionally associated with black quarterbacks who had previously been dismissed as legitimate top-tier players/prospects at the position.
you could argue semantics — it's not like there's a pure racial breakdown of white guy = pocket passer; black guy = scrambling qb. designing an offense around a traditional pocket passer isn't an overtly racist act, you can have legitimate concerns about the viability of a mobile quarterback over a long time horizon, good nfl teams have been quick to adopt more flexible schemes once it was clear that the league had undervalued certain skills at the position. even if you were willing to admit that race played a role in determining who got to play qb in the nfl, you could argue that role was largely confined to lower levels, where you'd be more likely to find a bad decision maker whose backward thinking would steer him away from starting a black kid at qb (or from empowering that kid to play the position in the same way he would a white kid).
but, functionally, the end result is the same: for most of the history of the nfl, there was a power structure in place that failed to capitalize on the talent pool at the quarterback position, and that failure led to an underrepresentation of black quarterbacks relative to modern levels. that's a racialized bias.
i think it's inarguable there has been a shift in the racial dynamic at the position, and that presumably can be tied to a shift in the way players are developed and prospects have been evaluated. a dozen teams didn't have a black starting qb prior to the 21st century. no black qb was picked no. 1 before michael vick; there have been 4 in the past 15 years. there were 10 black starting qbs on opening day 2020, the most in league history.
given all that, i think it's very reasonable to believe that racial biases in player evaluation weren't completely eradicated over the course of 20 years or whatever. it's not like all the guys who had jobs in 2000 are out of the league now, or didn't influence the makeup of front office personnel that followed them. it's obviously inarguable that there are far fewer race-based obstacles for black quarterbacks, but among the many factors that shape the very human decision-making process of nfl teams, it's naive to insist that race couldn't possibly still play a role.
