BROOKE ROLLINS: This Super Bowl Sunday, The Race-Obsessed Press Is Focused On The Least Important Thing

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This Sunday will see a Super Bowl for the ages: the Philadelphia Eagles and the Kansas City Chiefs are, together, genuinely the very best of their respective conferences. They are also, arguably, the future of professional football. The Eagles are a well-rounded powerhouse of a team that shows every sign of incipient dynasty, and the Chiefs have been a dominating force in the AFC for years. Furthermore, the central figures in both teams — Philly’s Jalen Hurts, and KC’s Patrick Mahomes — are both extraordinary examples of their craft, rising to the fore and stepping smartly into the Brady-sized space in their profession at just the right moment. That they both have incredible personal stories is just the icing on the cake. Who wouldn’t be excited about this game, which promises great football and great drama in one of the few remaining national gather-‘round-the-television spectacles America has left?

Well, the major media for one, which outside of explicit sports reporting, has focused on exactly the wrong thing. Instead of chronicling Mahomes’s virtuoso skills, or Hurts’s Cinderella story of football redemption, they have mostly focused upon the least important thing about them: both quarterbacks are black. It will be the first time that both Super Bowl quarterbacks are black, it’s true, and that deserves a historical note — but only that. These men did not get to the pinnacle of their work by dint of race. They got there by work, by perseverance, and by excellence. These are, or ought to be, qualities applicable and instructive beyond racial boundaries.

A race-obsessed press — a perennial fixation that has tipped into absurdity in the past few years — can hardly see the man for his skin color now. We’ve been here before: when Washington Redskins quarterback Doug Williams became the first black quarterback to play in a Super Bowl back in 1988, the media exhibited a similar obsession with his race. According to the Washington Post’s Michael Wilbon, Williams was peppered with a variety of ridiculous and even insulting media questions on his race, including:

  • “Doug, do you feel like Jackie Robinson?”
  • “Doug, would you have been able to handle all of this, especially the black thing, if you had made the Super Bowl a few years back, say, when you were 25?”
  • “Doug, do you feel because of the black quarterback issue, that the whole country is looking at you and saying, ‘Well, what are you going to do?’”
  • “Doug, would it be easier if you were the second black quarterback to play in the Super Bowl?”
  • “Doug, why haven’t you used being the first black quarterback as a personal forum for yourself?”
  • “Doug, will America be pulling for the Redskins, or rooting against them because of you?”
  • “Doug, have you been contacted by the Rev. Jesse Jackson or any other black civil rights leaders?”
  • “Doug, are you upset about all the questions about your being the first black quarterback in the Super Bowl?”

Doug Williams, of course, had just led his Redskins to a dominating 11-4 record, and would shortly become the Super Bowl MVP with a 42-10 destruction of the Denver Broncos. But one of the most eminent players of his day was not seen by the media for what he did, nor even who he was — only as what he signified to them, a totem rather than a man.

As we enter this Super Bowl weekend, Jalen Hurts and Patrick Mahomes deserve better. They are black quarterbacks, yes, and that is a major part of themselves. But they are not at the summit of sports and football because they are black. They stand at the top because they are great. That greatness should be what we see in them now.

Brooke Rollins loves football when it’s the Texas A&M Aggies on the field, and is the founder, president and CEO of the America First Policy Institute.

The views and opinions expressed in this commentary are those of the author and do not reflect the official position of the Daily Caller News Foundation.

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All content created by the Daily Caller News Foundation, an independent and nonpartisan newswire service, is available without charge to any legitimate news publisher that can provide a large audience. All republished articles must include our logo, our reporter’s byline and their DCNF affiliation. For any questions about our guidelines or partnering with us, please contact licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org.

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