In looking at the news surrounding college football and the potential of players for the upcoming season I saw some interesting trends in the discussion of athletes and the positions they play. One article discussed the 25 fastest players in college ball. The survey was based on confirmed 40yd running times. Every single player was African American. The players held a variety of positions: RB, WR, TE etc. and the article included a slideshow with player pictures and statistics for their previous season. In another article I found a discussion of promising college quarterbacks. In this article the majority of players were white. In addition the article discussed not only their statistics, but their mentality about playing the game. Obviously a large part of the QB's function is to think about the game, but I would argue that there is a good deal of game analysis involved in positions such as TE and WR. To me it seems that these articles displayed some of the tendencies discussed in Units 1 and 2. Namely, to characterize African American athletes based on their physical attributes and white athletes based on their intellectual attributes. Thus, African American athletes are still relegated to realms of physicality and limited to specific positions which capitalize on what are perceived as their most important qualities as players.
article link: http://bleacherreport.com/articles/1271500-fast-25-the-25-speediest-guys-in-college-football
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