How dangerous can a narrative be?

Photo shot by Ross D. Franklin of the Associated Press on Oct. 13, 2013.

By Will Brown

One man prefers to stay in his lane and let his actions speak for him. The other speaks and then backs up his bravado with performance. Both men are highly successful, relatively well compensated, college educated men from California communities where stories of such success are underreported.

Yet, if you watched or listened to the narrative that is being formed about Marshawn Lynch and Richard Sherman one might think these two Seattle Seahawks teammates spent more time in San Quentin than honing their craft at universities on separate sides of San Francisco Bay.

Lynch is the Seahawks running back who was fined $50,000 by the National Football League earlier this month for not speaking with the media. The Oakland-bred former Cal-Berkley running back, who was undoubtedly pressured to speak at Tuesday’s Super Bowl media day, spoke for six minutes before saying the scene wasn’t for him and left.

His departure was not well received.

Marshawn Lynch's media fiasco was an embarrassment to everyone there. Column - http://t.co/Q8KQynQFZd
— Gregg Doyel (@GreggDoyelCBS) January 28, 2014

USA Today said Lynch “ditched media day, then swore on live television”, NFL.com dubbed it “Marshawn Lynch’s Media Day misadventure”, ESPN.com said “Lynch snubs Super Bowl media.” The Denver Post didn’t mention Lynch, while the Seattle Times simply posted a link to Lynch’s two-minute interview later Tuesday with Deion Sanders.

Why should the dearth of words from a 27-year-old football player be scrutinized with such fervor? Because less than a fortnight ago Lynch’s 25-year-old teammate, Sherman, was vilified for speaking with passion and emotion after the biggest achievement of his professional life.

If you are a black man and uber successful it’s only a matter of time before someone believes it’s their right to remind you what happened to Icarus when he flew too close to the sun.

Men like Michael Vick, Ray Lewis and Kobe Bryant are among those who brought the downfall on themselves through their actions. Conversely, there are men like Sherman and Lynch who are more complex than what is characterized by the sports media.

It’s not solely professionals that receive such characterizations.

DeBray Bonner was a high school running back in rural South Texas. He spent two years at a small-school power, got in trouble, transferred to a high school 40 miles away, didn’t fit in there and wound up at Woodsboro High School. He parlayed a very good senior season into a scholarship offer from Minot State, a Division II program in North Dakota.

On the day Bonner signed a National Letter of Intent to play for the Beavers, last February, the man responsible for editing the story written about Bonner called him a “thug.” The supervisor of this editor also called Bonner a “thug” despite the fact neither man had ever met the running back or his family.

Bonner, nor his family, ever found out that the local newspaper thought so little of him.

He did not make it to Minot State, instead enrolling at Allan Hancock College in Santa Maria, Calif. to play football and earn a two-year degree. If you have ever seen Woodsboro, Texas, you would know just how much of an accomplishment that is.

But, let’s return to Lynch.

If one paid closer attention to what Lynch said in the interview with Sanders instead of what was said about him, they would find a man who prefers to let his actions speak for him.

Sanders: You camera-shy? You just don't want to talk, really.

Lynch: I'm just about that action, boss.

Sanders: You about to go get it. You just like to do.

Lynch: That's what it is. I ain't never seen no talking winning nothing. Been like that since I was little. I was raised like that.

Oakland and Compton are two California cities that have produced their fair share of criminals, thugs and scoundrels. Lynch and Sherman are not among them.

. @Skittles is auctioning off “Seattle Mix” packs to benefit my charity @fam1stfam starting tonight at 10 PM CT. http://t.co/MBwwDFbool #ad

— Shawn Lynch (@MoneyLynch) January 29, 2014

For more than a week, a segment of the sporting world grumbled how Sherman, could be so arrogant and classless in the immediate aftermath of victory. Yet, when Lynch chooses to let his actions speak louder than his words, he’s mischaracterized as a miscreant.

“Race played a major part in how my behavior was received, but I think it went beyond that,” Sherman wrote on SportsIllustrated.com this week.  “Would the reaction have been the same if I was clean-cut, without the dreadlocks? Maybe if I looked more acceptable in conservative circles, my rant would have been understood as passion. These prejudices still play a factor in our views because it’s human nature to quickly stereotype and label someone. We all have that.”

Lynch and Sherman are the newest characters in a narrative that has not changed in the 15 years since Stephen Balkaran wrote an essay on Mass Media and Racism in the October 1999 edition of Yale Political Quarterly.

“One of the main reasons for the inadequate coverage of the underlying causes of racial stereotypes in the U.S. is that the condition of blacks itself is not a matter of high interest to the white majority. Their interest in black America is focused upon situations in which their imagined fear becomes a real problem.”

Laughs and liveliness,

-Wb

Is a football championship worth more than an education?

By Will Brown

When the mammoth-sized man from the Muck caught a touchdown pass late Monday night there was a lot of money on the line. But, for now Kelvin Benjamin won’t see a penny of it.

Benjamin, a 6-foot-5-inch, 234-pound mismatch-waiting-to-happen from Belle Glade, Florida, caught a touchdown with 19 seconds remaining to allow Florida State University to clinch its first national championship in football in 14 years.

Photo taken from the Associated Press.

At the elite levels of football and men’s basketball the players are disproportionately black and the crowds cheering them on are usually not. Meanwhile, there are coaches and universities that are making hundreds of thousands of dollars — if not more — off the labor of these young men.

Darren Rovell, a sports business reporter with ESPN, stated on Twitter that the Seminoles win was worth between $1.5 and $2.5 million in licensing revenue for university. Rovell also reported FSU football coach Jimbo Fisher earned an additional $225,000 Monday night as his contract provided $125,000 for winning the national championship and $100,000 for an undefeated season.

Access to a free education was supposed to balance the inherent inequality of major college athletics; however, a large majority of those who are participating are not graduating. Florida State is not the only university that exploits athletes. Florida State is just one of the best at it.

The Center for the Study of Race and Equality in Education reported in December that Florida State had the lowest graduation rate for black football players of the 10 schools that played in the five major bowl games. That may sound like a mouthful. But in short Fisher has enriched himself, with that bonus as well as with a new contract that will pay him more than $4 million annually, off the backs of young men, many of whom will not receive a penny or an education for their work.

To date, neither Fisher, nor Florida State, have been asked why just 37 percent of black football players at the university graduate within six years. Auburn officials should have been asked a similar questions about its 51 percent graduation rate for black football players.

According to the Center for the Study of Race and Equality in Education, Florida State was fourth in black male student-athlete "overrepresentation" and Auburn was 22^nd. Their research found, 3.9 percent of undergraduates at the Tallahassee-based school are black men. Meanwhile, 75.4 percent of football and men’s basketball players are black men. Auburn has an even lower percentage of black men among its undergraduates at 3.6 percent. However, the school only has 67 percent of its football and men’s basketball team comprised of brothas.

“What we deem troubling, however, is the disgracefully small number of Black male students in the undergraduate population versus their large representation on revenue-generating sports teams,” the 20-page report stated. “These are campuses on which admissions officers and others often maintain that academically qualified Black men cannot be found; yet their football and basketball teams are overwhelmingly comprised of Black male student-athletes.”

Some may argue that the number of black men who pursue opportunities in professional sports before exhausting their eligibility is a reason graduation rates are so low. Others would state not every athlete is interested in being a college student. Both are true; but, there numerous examples of athletes handling business in the classroom and on the field.

Former Seminoles quarterback E.J. Manuel earned a communications degree from FSU before being selected in the first round of the 2013 NFL Draft. Teddy Bridgewater, one of the top quarterback prospects coming out of college this year, earned a degree in December in Sports Administration from the University of Louisville. And who can forget Robert Griffin III the former Baylor quarterback who was working on a master's degree when he won the 2011 Heisman Trophy.

The debate on whether college athletes in revenue-generating sports should be paid is one worth having. As valid as that discussion is, it should not be lumped into the one about the appallingly low graduation rates for those who play for the revenue-generating teams.

Players, coaches, administrators and even fans are responsible for the low graduation rates in major college athletics.

Let’s start with the players, who need to make the most of an opportunity to graduate college without racking up debt. Coaches must do more than refine the athletic tools of those in their care because college is a time for academic, social and emotional growth as well. Since administrators and college presidents will never schedule fewer games, because that cuts into the revenue, these powerbrokers could work on not scheduling contests that make it difficult, if not impossible, for students to be students. Finally, fans should demand that the players are young men who can represent them athletically and academically.

There was tasteless mocking of some Seminoles football players on social media over their syntax after Monday’s win. Instead of asking why players on college football teams are not great speakers, we would be better served asking why they are not graduating.

Laughs and liveliness,

-Wb