Just a few words about the Tim Tebow phenomenon. With no politics.
Tebow has managed to reverse the way we talk about the quarterback position, and about athletes and race. Funny how no one noticed.
As recently as 10 years ago, when Michael Vick and Donovan McNabb were kids, black quarterbacks were described as "athletic" and white ones as "heady." It was a racist presumption, based on the fact that both Vick and Donovan were fast, agile runners while top white quarterbacks like Tom Brady and Brett Favre would drop back, survey the defense, and sling it.
This racism pervaded the whole sport. It was assumed that blacks were best in the "athletic" positions, whites in the positions requiring smarts. And this, in turn, was used as an excuse to maintain racism in the coaching ranks — it still pervades college coaching. There were very few white linebackers, and even fewer white running backs.
Tebow puts the lie to all this. He's athletic as can be, and in football terms he's as dumb as a post. He doesn't look at three or four choices, as Tom Brady does. He looks at one, or pretends to look at one while actually planning on going the other way. He also runs a lot. He's athletic and he's quick.
Meanwhile, McNabb and Vick have grown up to be fairly heady people, in a football sense. McNabb became a thrower later in his career, and Vick's always had the gun. Whatever you think of them as men (and many Atlantans and pet lovers will never see Vick as anything but a thug) the fact is they're seen as quarterbacks. This has opened the way to a host of mediocre black quarterbacks — Tavaris Jackson, David Gerrard being just two names that come to mind.
Point is that Tebow is an athlete. He's not a quarterback. He's white, not black. Black guys can be heady and white guys can be athletes. An accomplishment of a curious sort.
Oh, and go Wednesday. Now we return you to your regularly-scheduled tech blog.
