RGIII Benched because he is Black? Michael Irvin...

[DJ's left nut]

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?

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.