In the field of professional athletics, where African Americans have firmly established themselves as some of the very best performers out there, the ghosts of previous racism are never far away. Yes, the modern baseball and football halls of fame are full of portraits and marble busts of African American (and Caribbean) players who’ve achieved recognition as the best in the sport, as is certainly also the case in professional basketball. But the road forward has been stoney, hard and brutal.
Though there are several Black head football coaches now in the NFL, only two years or so ago, a major federal lawsuit had to be filed because there appeared to be a major racism problem preventing the hiring of Black head football coaches. Though last year saw several Black men in head coaching positions in the NFL, the suit is still languishing in the wings and has not been dropped.
As well as Black athletes are doing currently in American professional sports, there are persistent reminders of who is really still in charge. Take the recent case of Shadeur Sanders, a high quality draft pick in this year’s crop of new talent available to come into the professional game.
Mr. Sanders had proven himself to be a highly skilled, tough quarterback at the collegiate level for first a Black college football team (at Jackson State University in Mississippi) and then at the University of Colorado, a major white-dominant school which was and is a member of a major college conference. Mr. Sanders rang up a great quarterback resume during 4 years in college.
He ended up being ranked as a very good bet for a first round draft choice to join a current NFL team. What does that mean? In the news, it is understood that the higher you are drafted, the more confidence there is that you will have a successful career as a bon fide professional football player, and possibly a future member of the NFL Hall of Fame. Besides that, you are offered a higher starting salary. Mr. Sanders’ father and collegiate coach, Deion Sanders, had already achieved both honors—he is a football Hall of Fame member.
Yet, in spite of expectations, Shadeur Sanders was not chosen in the first round of 30 players by any team, and in the end, was only chosen as number 144th by a Cleveland Browns team already stocked with 5 other quarterbacks on the roster.
The precipitous drop from the first round of the draft to the 5th round–the 144th player chosen—was seen to be, and was, a major slight—an insult to Shadeur Sanders and to the Sanders’ family.
Was he slighted because of the view that his father was too much in the mix—that to choose Shadeur was to invite too much involvement by Deion Sanders—himself a successful college coach—in Shadeur’s coming NFL journey? Did someone work in the draft “Blackball” Shadeur for personal reasons? Was this another way to put down a braggadocious young Black man? What was this really about?
Well, those who know are not saying. And most of those doing the most talking about the incident don’t really seem to know what happened, including Shadeur Sanders.
But the young man is a gifted, highly skilled athlete. Being drafted in the “okay, we’ll take you but don’t really value you” category just might be the best position from which to enter the league.
Since so little will be expected, and so little money expended, by the Cleveland Browns football team that drafted him, Mr. Sanders gets the chance to write his own ticket. As many Black men and Black people in general have had to do over and over again, young Mister Sanders will get the chance to show them all what he can do.
He may be expected to fail by many (Cleveland now has 5 quarterbacks who must compete for the starting quarterback position for this upcoming season), but the young man is highly skilled and just may outperform all of his competitors and become Cleveland’s starting quarterback this season.
I’m betting on him (not literally). Succeed , young fellow! Show them what a great, young quarterback looks like !!! Show them that Black folks will just keep on coming…keep on coming, no matter what!
Professor David L. Horne is founder and executive director of PAPPEI, the Pan African Public Policy and Ethical Institute, which is a new 501(c)(3) pending community-based organization or non-governmental organization (NGO). It is the stepparent organization for the California Black Think Tank which still operates and which meets every fourth Friday.
