As my two or three long-time readers know, I’m pretty prejudiced. That means as long as it doesn’t conflict with one of my main rooting interests, the Eagles and the Steelers, I pretty much ride for any team that has a Black coach and/or starting quarterback. Because of that, the Vikings were one of my unofficial squads for years. Yesterday, their quarterback for much of that time, Daunte Culpepper, retired because he couldn’t get a job. (If you can’t get a job, does that mean you’re really retired? If the Bears, for instance, come calling in week 3, I don’t think he’ll sit there and be like, ‘I ain’t goin.’) While we can point to several scrubby white quarterbacks who have had nowhere near the level of success that Culpepper has had, I don’t know that the racial angle is quite the right one here. Daunte had a chance to get picked up as a backup for Green Bay a long time ago, but he chose not to. There’s an argument to be made, I suppose, but maybe he just ain’t good enough to be a starting QB in the League any more. What I’m really wondering, though, is whether the age of the Black quarterback is over. That is, have we passed the critical mass point, where Black QBs are just regular players who can fail or succeed on their own merits?
Really, I don’t think the answer to this question can be answered by starters, though. It’s the backups. That’s what makes Pep’s case so interesting. He thinks he’s still a starter. No other team in the League agrees. They ain’t gon’ sign him (or pay him) like a starter, but they’ll let him come in as a backup. I don’t think that’s quite the same thing as him being denied an opportunity to play. So if washed-up Black quarterbacks are getting chances to sign as backups, then I’d say we’re pretty much there. The high bar is fairly well set. Even without a second Super Bowl win, Black quarterbacks have had enough collective success to dead any question of whether they’re good enough to play the position. What we’re waiting on is the low bar. When you can have a Black game-manager quarterback, who’s only expected to not make turnovers, we’ll be just about there. When there’s a cadre of Black scrubs who can bounce from team to team without having really accomplished anything, then we’ll really be there. Aaron Brooks was almost that dude, but he’s out of the League too. (Meanwhile, look at the quarterback situation in Chicago. Come on. Culpepper can’t be worse than any of those dudes.)
What Culpepper’s retirement also does is cement the fact that Donovan was the class of the class. Not that there was any doubt, but I’m sayin’. As pretty as the numbers were that Culpepper put up, a certain number 84 had a lot to do with those. So in retrospect, I can’t tell if Culpepper was that dude and Moss was that dude, or if Moss was that dude and made Culpepper look better. Cuz we know Donovan was that dude with certified SCRUBS at the X and Z. (If anything’s a conspiracy, it’s Andy Reid’s refusal to keep a real, live #1 receiver on the roster.)
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Dante’s problem is that he is his own agent. He’d be in the league in a minute if he signs with one who has a cadre of other players, but then he’d have to pay a fee for services.
Charlie Batch has been able to be a professional backup. I’ll have to think about this more.
cousin charlie! (my play sisters’ mother swears he’s related to them.) i almost forgot about him, but he’s definitely there. one of the more capable backups in the league. and mike tomlin is doin the right thing by bringing byron leftwich into the stillers fold. (one more reason to root for the black and gold, i guess.)
i wonder if joe gilliam feels vindicated.
Culpepper is a dope.
With all of the teams that have suspect 1st string qb’s, take the pay cut, and go to a team that you think fits your needs, and wait it out.
Damn, the Ravens need a decent backup and starter!
oh yeah. your boys…they almost as bad as the bears.
You ask, Av, if the era of the Black QB as novelty act is over, when the real question is if it ever started.
Daunte Culpepper or no, Black QBs will continue to be judged on a double standard for the indeterminable future. The best gauge of fairness is whether Black QBs drafted in mid- and low rounds (or picked up as FAs) stick on teams as backups. Should Jason Campbell or Tavaris Jackson cease developing, will NFL teams be as quick to retain them as journeyman backups as, say, Billy Volek or Kurt Warner?
Where the hell is Byron Leftwich?
leftwich is a backup in pittsburgh. tomlin brought him and pep in for workouts after batch went down. he kept leftwich.
warner, i think is in a slightly different category. he was THE dude for a couple years, then teams found out he couldn’t handle gettin hit. but he’s still outplaying dudes for a starting job. i hear your point, though. when we get borderline scrub black qbs, then we’ve hit true equality. but i had forgot about batch. he had some decent years, but he never had a real heyday, but he’s been in the league for a grip.
You make a good point. I’m thinking we may have finally reached a point where black quarterbacks in the NFL are just quarterbacks. It’s amazing how quickly times have changed. But when money and putting fans in the seats are involved, the NFL has stopped being a bunch of dummies. At least I think so. I could definitely be wrong about this.
I mean, I think it was last year that Jacksonville had three black quarterbacks on their active roster, and you’ve got guys like Chaz Batch, Senecca Wallace, Cleo Lemon and Anthony Wright still holding clipboards. There’s not a lot, of course, but more than I can remember. So at the least there’s been progress.
Looks like D.C. just sorta cut off his nose to spite his face. I feel sorry for him but, hey, it’s been awhile since he was Dat Dude.