Quote:
Originally Posted by ThaVirus
It's kind of funny that Kaepernick has mostly avoided this type of scrutiny although he's actually half black himself. I wonder if he looked more "black" would he experience something similar?
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He started playing better. The rumblings about tattoos and immaturity started early on in the season. When he started playing well and they started winning, the whispers disappeared.
Like I said, this isn't straight up racism; had RGIII kept playing well we wouldn't have heard this. I just find it a little unsettling that most of the time a young, black QB starts to struggle, the immediate issue becomes one a 'diva' attitude and an unwillingness to lead. There have been loads of shitty QBs in this league and they didn't take these arrows. Someone mentioned Cutler - he wasn't getting blasted as a lousy leader until a little later in his career; his early struggles were simply the struggles of a young QB.
Others have mentioned Geno - the difference between those 2 is that the "Geno is a shitty leader" narrative has been largely played out; it was the focus of the draft leadup. And with Geno, there is actually some track record to suggest that Geno was a mediocre/poor leader in his years at WVU. Those were surfacing even when he was playing well.
Every single report around RGIII from college through last season was what a great person and leader he was. Suddenly when he's struggling it's not growing pains, it's a lack of personal character and accountability despite 5+ years of high level football that suggest otherwise.
That should make one take pause.