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This was an assignment I had to do for my journalism class. My objective at no point was to offend anyone. It was instead to prove my point that regardless of what anyone may want to think, race is not the issue.

On November 23, 2010, Jemele Hill of ESPN wrote that she believes black quarterbacks are treated differently than white quarterbacks. She was prompted to write this column after Tennessee Titans quarterback Vince young was benched after a poor performance against the Washington Redskins. Titans head coach Jeff Fisher explained that Young was benched because of a thumb injury and was removed as the starter because of a poor attitude. Oakland Raiders quarterback Jason Campbell, another black quarterback, was also benched in the fourth quarter of a blow out loss to the Pittsburgh Steelers. Also, Washington Redskins quarterback Donovan McNabb was pulled in the last two minutes of a loss to the Detroit Lions in Week 8. Redskins head coach Mike Shanahan cited McNabb’s “cardiovascular health” as the reason for the sudden benching. Jemele Hill, a black woman, believes that race is the reason for the treatment of these black quarterbacks. Jemele Hill has reached a whole new level of wrong. Race has nothing to do with it.
Though racism unfortunately still exists in this world, Young, Campbell and McNabb were not benched because of the color of their skin. In the case of Young, he is very talented, young quarterback who left the game with a thumb injury that requires surgery. The reason Jeff Fisher removed him as the starter was because of his poor attitude after the loss. This is nothing new for Vince Young. Hill herself acknowledges that Young can be very immature.
As for Campbell, who has a career record of 25-35 as a starter, he was benched for playing poorly. Hill states that it’s not entirely his fault that he has a poor record as a starter because he has played for different offensive coordinators all throughout his career. So what? It is Campbell’s job, just like it is Indianapolis Colts’ quarterback Peyton Manning’s (Caucasian) and Tampa Bay Buccaneers’ Josh Freeman’s (black) jobs, to be able to understand and execute any coach’s offense. If a quarterback cannot do their job, regardless of race, they will more than likely be benched.
McNabb is similar to Campbell. Though Shanahan Donovan did not have the heart to run the two-minute offense (a hurry up offense that is used in close games by the loosing team in an attempt to come back and win), I’m going to go ahead and read behind the lines and say that Shanahan didn’t believe that McNabb could successfully orchestrate a game winning drive in under 2 minutes. At one time, when he coached the Denver Broncos, Shanahan lost confidence in Jake Plummer (Caucasian) who lead the Broncos to the AFC Championship game in 2005 and benched him in favor of unproven rookie Jay Cutler (Caucasian). Just because the bromance between Mike Shanahan and Donovan McNabb went sour doesn’t mean race had anything to do with it.
Jemele Hill was so busy victimizing her own race that she failed to mention the other black quarterbacks in the league that haven’t been benched. Michael Vick has been very good under center. The games Vick didn’t start were because of injury and because of the exceptional play of Kevin Kolb (Caucasian) who was the replaced by Vick who has remained the starter.
Josh Freeman who I mention earlier has been exceptional in his second season with the Bucs. He has lead his team to a 7-3 record. In fact, in Freeman’s rookie season, he replaced a white quarterback as the starter though the team only won three games.
David Garrard has also been playing well for the Jacksonville Jaguars. He has lead the Jags to 5-5 record. Sure a couple of those wins were all thanks to luck, but the ones that weren’t had nothing to do with race.
Vick, Freeman, and Garrard are starters because they are the best quarterbacks on their teams’ rosters. Should any of them be benched, it is not because of they are black like Hill seems to think. Prejudice has nothing to do with the benching of players.
To prove that Jemele Hill is making mountains out of mole hills, I could simply supply readers with a copy of her column and readers could see for themselves. The fact that she uses pronouns like “we” and “us” is proof enough that she wrote her column from a biased stand point. Since it is a column, she has every right in the world to do so, but her claims still have no merit. She failed to look at the facts of why Vince Young, Jason Campbell, and Donovan McNabb were benched. Instead she played the race card. Believe it or not, she is not the only one who can do that. If black quarterbacks are treated differently in the NFL, then white players are treated differently in the NBA. So if Jemele Hill wants to keep this going, then all I can say to her is have seat sweetheart and cut the deck.

too long didn't read.

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