Ever since 2003 when Rush Limbaugh got himself in trouble for calling attention to the sporting press’s long campaign for more black quarterbacks, I’ve been checking to see if Racial Equality in Quarterbacking has finally arrived (racial equality being defined by the white media not as blacks playing QB in the NFL at the same rate as they are represented in the population but at the same rate they’ve achieved at other positions in the NFL).
ESPN has a synthetic stat called Total Quarterback Rating for assessing NFL quarterbacks on everything they do — pass, run, avoid sacks, draw the defense offsides, etc. It looks like ESPN hasn’t updated its stats yet to account for Seattle Seahawk Russell Wilson’s fine Monday Night Game, but the top ten on the Total QBR stat is currently Philip Rivers, Peyton Manning, Aaron Rodgers, Eli Manning, Tony Romo, Andrew Luck, Mike Glennon, Brian Hoyer, Matt Ryan, and Matthew Stafford, all white guys.
I’m sure Wilson (who also is a rare NFL QB under 6? tall) will join the top ten shortly. But the next highest rated black QB is the half-black Colin Kaepernick at 22nd.
By the way, if this continues to be Philip Rivers’ year, it will be interesting listening to commentary on the fact that he and his wife, a convert to his Roman Catholicism, have seven kids. In case you are wondering, Rivers has a season and a half left on his $92 million contract.