Recent Forum Topics › Forums › The Rams Huddle › Race and Pro Football
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zn.
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October 18, 2023 at 5:36 pm #146260
wvParticipantThis is titled ‘How Capitalism Ruined Football’, but i think the argument in the vid is that the new rules changes were not ‘only’ about ‘making the NFL safer’ – they were also about making the biggest-stars whiter. The Rules changes devalued Running Backs, according to this argument. RBs were primarily black. The Rules changes raised the value of QBs and WRs.
I dont agree or disagree with the argument here, I dunno.
There’s some interesting history here, about how black jockeys were replaced by white jockeys, btw.
October 18, 2023 at 5:51 pm #146261wvParticipantIf nothin else, skip to the 45 minute mark, and watch a few minutes. About ‘who’ should make the decisions about what football should look like. The owners? Or the laborers?
The guy (dunno who it is) compares the white Tom Brady to the black Barry Sanders. He argues the owners designed the new NFL to protect and highlight skill sets that Brady has. Not skill sets Barry Sanders had. The guy then argues Barry Sanders was the by far the more talented player, but the owners wanted the game to look different. It raises the question of who should have decided what the NFL should look like.
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October 18, 2023 at 6:15 pm #146264
Billy_TParticipantWV,
Have you read Caste, by Isabel Wilkerson? I’m about a third of the way through, and it’s stunning, heart-breaking, at times jaw-dropping, in its historical look at the way caste structures form. She concentrates primarily on the US, Nazi Germany, and India, but not just those places. It’s a truly important book, and I wish it were required reading for our “leaders,” corporate America, police, and in our schools.
https://www.isabelwilkerson.com/
October 19, 2023 at 4:10 pm #146267wvParticipantWV, Have you read Caste, by Isabel Wilkerson? I’m about a third of the way through, and it’s stunning, heart-breaking, at times jaw-dropping, in its historical look at the way caste structures form. She concentrates primarily on the US, Nazi Germany, and India, but not just those places. It’s a truly important book, and I wish it were required reading for our “leaders,” corporate America, police, and in our schools. https://www.isabelwilkerson.com/
I have not read it, BT, but the fact that Oprah liked it, makes me wary of it 🙂
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October 19, 2023 at 6:42 pm #146293
ZooeyParticipantHe argues the owners designed the new NFL to protect and highlight skill sets that Brady has. Not skill sets Barry Sanders had. The guy then argues Barry Sanders was the by far the more talented player, but the owners wanted the game to look different.
I agree with that.
But I think that has to do with the fact that fans prefer sensational passing games over sensational running. Also, there are a lot more QBs who can do what Brady did than there are RBs who can do what Sanders did.
October 21, 2023 at 1:24 pm #146298Billy_TParticipantWV, Have you read Caste, by Isabel Wilkerson? I’m about a third of the way through, and it’s stunning, heart-breaking, at times jaw-dropping, in its historical look at the way caste structures form. She concentrates primarily on the US, Nazi Germany, and India, but not just those places. It’s a truly important book, and I wish it were required reading for our “leaders,” corporate America, police, and in our schools. https://www.isabelwilkerson.com/
I have not read it, BT, but the fact that Oprah liked it, makes me wary of it 🙂 w v
Well, I’ve never looked to Oprah for my reading lists, or anything else. But I don’t think her stamp of approval should deter you. She’s just one of dozens of reviewers who praised Caste, and the author previously won the National Book Critics Circle award for The Warmth of Other Suns.
Your comment did give me pause, though, so I duckduckgoed Oprah’s favorites. It’s not that bad. In fact, she has some true classics on her list: Cormac McCarthy, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, William Faulkner, Tolstoy, Toni Morrison, to name just a few.
Anyway . . . I’m learning a ton from the book. Didn’t know, for instance, that the Nazis patterned their Nuremberg racial laws so closely on ours, and in a meeting of top Nazis in 1934, a few actually thought America had gone too far, especially with our one drop rule and the severity of our miscegenation laws. When Nazis think a nation has gone too far on matters of “race,” that should be the mother of all red flags. Lots of other heartbreaking facts, and she makes it easy for the reader to connect the dots. Readers don’t necessarily have to agree with her overall premise about caste to learn a hell of a lot of important historical things.
Anyway, I recommend it.
October 21, 2023 at 4:54 pm #146335znModeratorI tend to be very cognizant of race as an issue in following the NFL. For example Rams fans know that Deacon Jones was a 14th round pick because he ended up at an obscure historically black college (Mississippi Vocational) because he got kicked off of South Carolina State for attending a civil rights protest. We know about the black quarterback issue. Etc. etc. etc.
But. Barry Sanders could not lead a team to victory plus he was so rare as an individual talent that saying he is representative of black athletes at running back is itself a huge stretch.
The game favors passing when it comes to audience interest, and we know that the era of all-white qbs is over.
So, I am pretty skeptical about the argument presented in that vid in the OP.
Which is fine. Not every pass will be a completion. Not every argument on important issues will hold up. That doesn’t mean the issue of race in the NFL is all neutral and pretty-pretty. We know better.
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