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Anonymous NFL execs say they’re not blackballing Kaepernick. They’re just racist.

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http://www.slate.com/articles/sport...balled_nfl_execs_say_they_re_just_racist.html

He Doesn’t Fit the System
Anonymous NFL execs say they’re not blackballing Colin Kaepernick. They’re just racist.
By Josh Levin


170831_SNUT_Kaepernick-Griffin-NFL.jpg.CROP.promo-xlarge2.jpg

What do Colin Kaepernick and Robert Griffin III have in common?

Photo illustration by Slate. Photos by Sean M. Haffey/Getty Images and Nick Cammett/Diamond Images/Getty Images.

With a week to go before the start of the NFL regular season, Colin Kaepernick remains unsigned. In an “investigation” for Sports Illustrated’s MMQB—one that begins, helpfully, with the Merriam-Webster definition of blackball—Albert Breer explains that Kaepernick’s “situation is more complicated than many want to concede.” Breer quotes three NFL executives and one coach, all of whom were “granted anonymity in pursuit of honesty.” None of the four said his anthem protests played a role in their decision not to offer him a contract. All four said that Kaepernick simply isn’t a good on-field fit.

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Although Breer doesn’t seem to understand what these answers show in aggregate, you don’t have to be a scholar of critical race theory to understand what’s going on here.

Here’s the source Breer calls “Executive 1”:

Physically, Kaepernick’s more talented, but familiarity with a backup at that position, knowing exactly what you’re going to get, is more important than the “wow” factor. … It’s like with [Robert Griffin III]; you had him playing a certain way, and he was a hell of a player. But as soon as defenses figured out what they were, and a specific way to play them, that’s where they had to be able to start to win from the pocket. If you can’t do that in this league, it’s tough.
And Executive 2:

For us, it was a system thing. What he does well is totally outside what most teams do. And so here’s my question: I understand the Kaepernick deal, why it’s news, but nobody’s talking about RG3? I know since it’s Kaepernick, it’s what sells, but the problem that RG3 has getting a job is the same as Kaepernick for a lot of teams.
Executive 3:

I don’t like the guy as a player. I don’t think he can play. … He’s inaccurate, inconsistent reading defenses. … And you consider that, why isn’t there a debate about RG3?
In three separate conversations, three different executives made the same comparison between Kaepernick and Robert Griffin III. On one level, it’s strange that they all said the exact same thing. On another level, it’s not strange at all.

every advanced statin existence shows he was one of the worst quarterbacks in the NFL last year. Also, the injury-plagued Griffin got hurt and missed 11 games after he’d been plugged in as the Cleveland Browns’ starter. It’s not Griffin’s fault that he injured his shoulder. Even so, he’s been bedeviled by injuries throughout his career and has only played five games in the past two seasons. I would not be super excited to sign Robert Griffin III circa September 2017.

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Kaepernick wasn’t exactly Tom Brady last season, but he was a lot better than Griffin. At this stage, Kaepernick has the skills and résumé to be an NFL starter, and he has a track record of good health. Griffin has none of those things. That’s how the quarterbacks are different. Here’s how they’re similar: They’re both black.

If you think race isn’t relevant here, take a listen to Breer’s anonymous coach:

[Kaepernick is] not a pocket passer. So if you bring him in as a backup, and you’re not Seattle or Carolina, and you don’t have those things built in, it’s like you’re running a different offense with your 1s and your 2s. Mike Shanahan had a great theory on this—he wanted to draft Russell Wilson (in 2012), because if something happened to Robert (Griffin), the transition would be clean and easy. So Kaepernick almost has to be in a place where they’ll build a system for him, and teams don’t do that for backups.
Seattle and Carolina are quarterbacked by Russell Wilson and Cam Newton, both of whom are black. So Kaepernick is not being blackballed. It’s just that the only place for him in the NFL is as a backup quarterback on a team with a black starter.

As I wrote a few weeks ago, the idea that Kaepernick isn’t a natural fit for the NFL is based on the outmoded belief that black quarterbacks are necessarily “mobile quarterbacks” and that they need specially engineered offenses to showcase what they do best. But as SB Nation’s Stephen White has shown, “the overwhelming majority of passes that [Kaepernick] threw last year came from the pocket.” In addition, Kaepernick performed better from inside the pocket than he did while throwing the ball on the run.

Want More Sports? Subscribe to Hang Up and Listen.
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Josh Levin and Stefan Fatsis talk with athletes, coaches, and journalists about the most fascinating subjects in the world of sports.

These notions of what Colin Kaepernick can and can’t do, then, are not based on what Colin Kaepernick can and can’t do. Rather, they’re distillations of decades of received wisdom about what players who share Kaepernick’s skin color can and can’t do. (And that’s the case, by the way, even if one or more of these anonymous NFL power brokers isn’t white.)

Top Comment

The author seems like he has at least a basic knowledge of the game, so he should know better than this. "He doesn't fit our system" isn't code for "we don't want black players. 1.9k CommentsJoin In

Near the bottom of his Kaepernick item, Breer quotes an unnamed AFC executive who says that “at the end of the day, we’re part of the ultimate meritocracy. So if someone feels like this guy can help win games, he’ll be in the league.” Ah, yes, the ultimate meritocracy, a league in which 70 percent of the players are black and the overwhelming majority of quarterbacks are white.

Thanks to Breer’s story, it’s now clear that some proportion of NFL decision-makers think Kaepernick and the league’s other prominent unsigned black quarterback are exactly the same. There’s only one word that describes that line of thinking, and it’s not meritocracy.
 
I hate when people say "He doesn't fit a system".

You wouldn't put Tom Brady in Aaron Rodgers system.

You wouldn't put Peyton Manning in Tom Brady's system.

You wouldn't put Aaron Rodgers in Cam Newton's system


The main job of an offensive coordinator is to play to the quarterback' strength not fit them to "your" system....It makes no sense at all.
 
ansatsusha_gouki said:
I hate when people say "He doesn't fit a system".

You wouldn't put Tom Brady in Aaron Rodgers system.

You wouldn't put Peyton Manning in Tom Brady's system.

You wouldn't put Aaron Rodgers in Cam Newton's system


The main job of an offensive coordinator is to play to the quarterback' strength not fit them to "your" system....It makes no sense at all.
Click to expand...

^^^^^^^


BOOM
 
ansatsusha_gouki said:
I hate when people say "He doesn't fit a system".

You wouldn't put Tom Brady in Aaron Rodgers system.

You wouldn't put Peyton Manning in Tom Brady's system.

You wouldn't put Aaron Rodgers in Cam Newton's system


The main job of an offensive coordinator is to play to the quarterback' strength not fit them to "your" system....It makes no sense at all.
Click to expand...

They only ever say that for “Black” QB’s
 
ansatsusha_gouki said:
I hate when people say "He doesn't fit a system".

You wouldn't put Tom Brady in Aaron Rodgers system.

You wouldn't put Peyton Manning in Tom Brady's system.

You wouldn't put Aaron Rodgers in Cam Newton's system


The main job of an offensive coordinator is to play to the quarterback' strength not fit them to "your" system....It makes no sense at all.
Click to expand...
Yep...
 
playahaitian said:
http://www.slate.com/articles/sport...balled_nfl_execs_say_they_re_just_racist.html

He Doesn’t Fit the System
Anonymous NFL execs say they’re not blackballing Colin Kaepernick. They’re just racist.
By Josh Levin


170831_SNUT_Kaepernick-Griffin-NFL.jpg.CROP.promo-xlarge2.jpg

What do Colin Kaepernick and Robert Griffin III have in common?

Photo illustration by Slate. Photos by Sean M. Haffey/Getty Images and Nick Cammett/Diamond Images/Getty Images.

With a week to go before the start of the NFL regular season, Colin Kaepernick remains unsigned. In an “investigation” for Sports Illustrated’s MMQB—one that begins, helpfully, with the Merriam-Webster definition of blackball—Albert Breer explains that Kaepernick’s “situation is more complicated than many want to concede.” Breer quotes three NFL executives and one coach, all of whom were “granted anonymity in pursuit of honesty.” None of the four said his anthem protests played a role in their decision not to offer him a contract. All four said that Kaepernick simply isn’t a good on-field fit.

ADVERTISING
Although Breer doesn’t seem to understand what these answers show in aggregate, you don’t have to be a scholar of critical race theory to understand what’s going on here.

Here’s the source Breer calls “Executive 1”:

Physically, Kaepernick’s more talented, but familiarity with a backup at that position, knowing exactly what you’re going to get, is more important than the “wow” factor. … It’s like with [Robert Griffin III]; you had him playing a certain way, and he was a hell of a player. But as soon as defenses figured out what they were, and a specific way to play them, that’s where they had to be able to start to win from the pocket. If you can’t do that in this league, it’s tough.
And Executive 2:

For us, it was a system thing. What he does well is totally outside what most teams do. And so here’s my question: I understand the Kaepernick deal, why it’s news, but nobody’s talking about RG3? I know since it’s Kaepernick, it’s what sells, but the problem that RG3 has getting a job is the same as Kaepernick for a lot of teams.
Executive 3:

I don’t like the guy as a player. I don’t think he can play. … He’s inaccurate, inconsistent reading defenses. … And you consider that, why isn’t there a debate about RG3?
In three separate conversations, three different executives made the same comparison between Kaepernick and Robert Griffin III. On one level, it’s strange that they all said the exact same thing. On another level, it’s not strange at all.

every advanced statin existence shows he was one of the worst quarterbacks in the NFL last year. Also, the injury-plagued Griffin got hurt and missed 11 games after he’d been plugged in as the Cleveland Browns’ starter. It’s not Griffin’s fault that he injured his shoulder. Even so, he’s been bedeviled by injuries throughout his career and has only played five games in the past two seasons. I would not be super excited to sign Robert Griffin III circa September 2017.

ADVERTISING
inRead invented by Teads
Kaepernick wasn’t exactly Tom Brady last season, but he was a lot better than Griffin. At this stage, Kaepernick has the skills and résumé to be an NFL starter, and he has a track record of good health. Griffin has none of those things. That’s how the quarterbacks are different. Here’s how they’re similar: They’re both black.

If you think race isn’t relevant here, take a listen to Breer’s anonymous coach:

[Kaepernick is] not a pocket passer. So if you bring him in as a backup, and you’re not Seattle or Carolina, and you don’t have those things built in, it’s like you’re running a different offense with your 1s and your 2s. Mike Shanahan had a great theory on this—he wanted to draft Russell Wilson (in 2012), because if something happened to Robert (Griffin), the transition would be clean and easy. So Kaepernick almost has to be in a place where they’ll build a system for him, and teams don’t do that for backups.
Seattle and Carolina are quarterbacked by Russell Wilson and Cam Newton, both of whom are black. So Kaepernick is not being blackballed. It’s just that the only place for him in the NFL is as a backup quarterback on a team with a black starter.

As I wrote a few weeks ago, the idea that Kaepernick isn’t a natural fit for the NFL is based on the outmoded belief that black quarterbacks are necessarily “mobile quarterbacks” and that they need specially engineered offenses to showcase what they do best. But as SB Nation’s Stephen White has shown, “the overwhelming majority of passes that [Kaepernick] threw last year came from the pocket.” In addition, Kaepernick performed better from inside the pocket than he did while throwing the ball on the run.

Want More Sports? Subscribe to Hang Up and Listen.
160606_HUAL_PodcastArt_02.jpg.CROP.promo-small2.jpg

Josh Levin and Stefan Fatsis talk with athletes, coaches, and journalists about the most fascinating subjects in the world of sports.

These notions of what Colin Kaepernick can and can’t do, then, are not based on what Colin Kaepernick can and can’t do. Rather, they’re distillations of decades of received wisdom about what players who share Kaepernick’s skin color can and can’t do. (And that’s the case, by the way, even if one or more of these anonymous NFL power brokers isn’t white.)

Top Comment

The author seems like he has at least a basic knowledge of the game, so he should know better than this. "He doesn't fit our system" isn't code for "we don't want black players. 1.9k CommentsJoin In

Near the bottom of his Kaepernick item, Breer quotes an unnamed AFC executive who says that “at the end of the day, we’re part of the ultimate meritocracy. So if someone feels like this guy can help win games, he’ll be in the league.” Ah, yes, the ultimate meritocracy, a league in which 70 percent of the players are black and the overwhelming majority of quarterbacks are white.

Thanks to Breer’s story, it’s now clear that some proportion of NFL decision-makers think Kaepernick and the league’s other prominent unsigned black quarterback are exactly the same. There’s only one word that describes that line of thinking, and it’s not meritocracy.
Click to expand...
Those execs and coach are illiterate and unable to count OR they are lying
playahaitian said:
But as soon as defenses figured out what they were, and a specific way to play them, that’s where they had to be able to start to win from the pocket. If you can’t do that in this league, it’s tough.
Click to expand...
they say this bs about every black qb
 
It Was Roger Goodell Vs. Jerry Jones On National Anthem Protests

ESPN’s Seth Wickersham and Don Van Natta Jr. have a great track record of illuminating the shifting and engrossing dynamics among the NFL’s owners—it was they who reported on the revenge motive behind the Deflategate punishments, and they who explained how Jerry Jones was the driving force behind relocation—and they’re back at it today with a tick-tock of last week’s league meetings in New York on how to deal with the national anthem protests. It is, as always, supremely worth your time.

The story is based on “nearly two dozen” interviews with owners, players, and executives, making it the most complete account of the meetings, and it’s filled with on-the-ground anecdotes like these:

At one point, Buffalo Bills co-owner Terry Pegula, moved by Anquan Boldin’s story about his cousin being shot and killed by a police officer, complimented him on how impressive he was but kept calling him “Antwan.” Then Pegula suggested that Boldin would be the perfect NFL spokesman on social issues not only because he had walked away from the game to pursue causes but because, the owner said, it couldn’t be a “white owner but needs to be someone who’s black.”

Some people quickly glanced at one another; others looked down, cringing. But the discussion resumed, and soon the session was running so long — by 90 minutes — that nobody knew how to end it. At one point, Robert Kraft mumbled to the two Jets players seated on either side of him, “Can we just shut the fuck up and end this?”

The through-line of the story is a battle, not between owners and players, but between a group of owners intent on ending the protests to protect their bottom lines, and a faction led by Roger Goodell(!) that appears more sympathetic to players and surprisingly willful about defending their right to protest and trying to turn their anger into something constructive.


Goodell, despite his reported reservations, supported “full-bore” a multi-part plan to give players more opportunities to express themselves on the field, to help them take their grievances to lawmakers, and to throw the NFL’s marketing machine behind it all. (It is a business, after all. But I suppose cynicism in service of the right side of a cause is better than apolitical cynicism.)

[T]he commissioner moved around the room to guide the conversation about [the plan’s] pluses. Many times he told the owners they weren’t hearing the players’ core arguments. “We’re all in this together,” Goodell told them. The players and the union executives, who have been at odds with Goodell for years, were impressed. “It was the proudest I’ve ever been in the NFL,” one owner said later. This was Goodell leading in a manner they’d rarely seen: He was not playing a zero-sum game, he was not risk-averse and his compassion clearly lay with the players in the face of severe pressure from hard-line owners and business executives.

The owners for the first meeting with players were carefully selected; they did not include the most vocal critics of the protests. Those owners would have their say at the next day’s meeting, which involved no players. And to no one’s surprise, they were spoken for by Jerry Jones, the shadow commissioner, the true most powerful man in the NFL. It was Jones who had earlier threatened to bench any players who knelt for the anthem, and Jones appeared to be trying to whip up support for a leaguewide diktat to demand the same fealty across the NFL.

[Washington owner Dan] Snyder spoke first. He said that there were real business issues at stake, and he mentioned that in his market, the defense industry and other sponsors were angry about the protests. He didn’t put any dollars on it. To many in the room, Snyder’s speech felt like an opening act for the headlining band.

After Snyder sat down, Jones stood and left no question that it was his floor. “I’m the ranking owner here,” he said.

At first, some in the room admired Jones’ pure bravado, the mix of folksy politician and visionary salesman he has perfected. But he was angry. He said the owners had to take the business impact seriously, as the league was threatened by a polarizing issue it couldn’t contain or control. To some in the room, it was clear Jones was trying to build momentum for an anthem mandate resolution, and in the words of one owner, “he brought up a lot of fair points.” Jones believed he was one of the few showing any urgency on the matter and seemed to be more frustrated that not everybody was listening than he was passionate about the mandate.

As Jones spoke, Snyder mumbled out loud, “See, Jones gets it — 96 percent of Americans are for guys standing,” a claim some dismissed as a grand overstatement. [Texans owner Bob] McNair, a multimillion-dollar Trump campaign contributor, spoke next, echoing many of the same business concerns. “We can’t have the inmates running the prison,” McNair said.

(McNair’s comment was challenged by league executive and former player Troy Vincent, who got into a “nasty” back-and-forth with Jones. McNair later pulled Vincent aside and apologized for his choice of words.)


A funny thing happened after Jerry Jones made his speech: other owners pushed back.

[Patriots owner Robert] Kraft, who is close friends with Trump, politely rebuked the hardliners, saying that he supported the league’s marketing proposal and predicted the issue would work itself out over time. This argument seemed to find a receptive audience in the room. An unofficial count had only nine owners in favor of a mandate, though the reasons for the opposition varied: Some owners had tired of Jones always commandeering such meetings; some were jealous of his power and eager to see him go down; some saw the players-must-stand mandate as bad policy to invoke in the middle of the season; some owners were angry with Jones’ hard-line public stance on kneeling, feeling that it had backed them all into a corner. “The majority of owners understand this is important to the players and want to be supportive, even if they don’t exactly know how to be supportive,” one owner says.

Now, suddenly, Jones found himself in an unfamiliar position: He wasn’t getting his way. He knew it, and everyone knew it.

It is hard to know what to take from these accounts, and from the meetings themselves. Some owners and even some players seemed pleased with the progress that had been made; others on both sides seemed frustrated with a lack of concrete steps. (There is another owner-player meeting scheduled for next week.) But the fact is that the most strident owners against players’ right to protest did not get what they wanted. That feels like a victory.


Jones is no lion in winter, though. Before the meeting broke up for the day, the owners moved on to other orders of business, including the negotiation of the commissioner’s next contract. Jones is not actually on that committee...but he has inserted himself into the negotiation, and wields more power on it than anyone. And in that meeting, Jones spoke for 20 minutes about the league’s, and by implication, Goodell’s issues and failures—and pushed for Goodell’s next deal to be much more incentive-based. Jones would have Goodell earn his paycheck, and would hang any financial blowback from the protests around the commissioner’s neck. There are costs for doing what you believe to be the right thing; there are costs for crossing Jerry Jones.

http://www.espn.com/espn/otl/story/...l-players-forged-anthem-peace-league-meetings
 
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