Editor’s note: The following article is an op-ed, and the views expressed are the author’s own. Read more opinions on theGrio.
Stereotypes come in all shapes and sizes, from who’s super athletic and takes prison calls from their dad, to who’s super smart and takes advanced STEM classes in college. The problem comes when we ascribe such oversimplified concepts to one group of people, ignoring the fact that every group has members with similar attributes.
NFL rookie quarterback C.J. Stroud grew up near Hollywood, under circumstances often depicted in movies involving young Black men. He’s the star athlete whose life changed at 13 when his father went to jail. Struggles followed but mom held it together for the family, and now Stroud has sped from Rookie of the Year talk to Most Valuable Player discussions.
Where’s the anonymous NFL executive who issued a “red alert” before the draft? He warned teams to avoid Stroud because he performed miserably on a standardized test. Fortunately, the leaked score didn’t stop Houston from drafting Stroud with the No. 2 pick, and it didn’t stop Stroud from torching rookie passing records through nine games.
But did you hear the one about the young Black man from a two-parent household (both executives) who eventually became an aerospace engineer and the Minnesota Vikings starting quarterback? Josh Dobbs, one of the all-time brainiest players at the game’s most mentally demanding position, is routinely lauded for his intelligence. That couldn’t be further from the standard mold that’s popular within writers’ rooms and central casting. Yet Dobbs is the protagonist who’s 2-0 with Minnesota in an absolutely wild tale.
The script has flipped in unprecedented fashion, moving into the Age of the Black QB. Players at the NFL’s most crucial, cerebral and…
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