BrAinPaiNt said:
I am curious if you ever questioned Ryan Leaf or Brian Griese's intelligence...or lack of Intelligence....how about Jeff George, Tim Couch, Todd Blackledge, Rick Mirer, David Klingler, Heath Schuler...just to name a few.
That's a nice string of flops, BP. But with black QBs, the criticism comes before the guy has a chance to show what he can do and continues long after he has or hasn't flopped. Some of it is fueled by the feeling a "running" QB is not cerebrally equipped to excel at passing. When an athlete can both run and pass, and is also white, a la Tarkenton, or Elway, it is an asset. Cunningham, a fine QB, was something else entirely. Vick, with all his exceptional ability, is being rated as a passer far below what his actual performance indicates. Some of this does not show itself in stats, but by WATCHING the amazing plays, and the speed with which he gets the ball out. He is far more accurate than his detractors enjoy claiming. But somehow this unusual ability is viewed as a form of "subtractive" athleticism.
Your list. Jeff George is universally known as an ego ridden head case, not a moron. Leaf as extremely immature, but to the very stupid end he was claimed to be "HIGHLY intelligent". ??? Couch's defense reading developmental curve has been critiqued enough by Browns fans, but I never saw it extended to discussion on his innate capacity to learn. I never heard or read it said of Blackridge, Klinger, or Schuler that they lacked intelligence. I am sure fans somewhere, sometime, referred to them as "'braindead", but the wider debate, to my knowledge, was not that they lacked the mental capabilites to master the position, or to be a leader. It was always "speed of game" issues.
Vinnie T was referred to once, cruelly, as "a million dollar arm with a ten cent head". This was when his TD:INT ratio was just brutal, when he tried to complete passes from his knees after bring knocked down. But the criticism, if unkind, was linked to debate about actual performance, and blessedly ended when he got his act together under Bill. There was no residual discourse about his lack of intelligence.
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Mirer is a player I really have it in for. After what he did to the Jets and Bill in 99, his inadequacy, and the blasted WHINING he did in NY, and thereafter about that 'unfair' beastly Tuna. Mirer, that loser! I never liked him to begin with as he came from Notre Dame, and Mr. Genius Walsh trumpeted him like the second coming. But I flat out hated the crybaby when he blanked us over in NY. And yet, even tho he had hundreds of Jets fans wishing him literally and figuratively DEAD, I never once saw it suggested he lacked the gray matter to play pro QB. His own take was "I just never get to play in the right system", boo hoo. Hasn't he been in ALL of them by now?
Likewise, I never saw Hutch's "lack of pocket presence" attributed to anything other than a physically based learning curve. Even those who said Chad would "never get it" maintained his flaws were based on lack of fast physical response, not lack of fast enough mental processing.
Part of quarterback "I&I", instinct and intelligence, is sensing a rush, knowing what to do in such a split second situation, and making a sound decision with the ball. This is primarily a "mental" response, but needs lightening quick translation to physical action. Like throwing picks under pressure, it's about what the head hasn’t told the body to do fast enough, or do right. And this can and often DOES, improve with time. Yet in all the many many endless Hutch debates, I never once saw Chad's 'intelligence' questioned.
Or how about one of the QBs that was the start of the "Dumb" QBs...Terry Bradshaw...however to be fair here...Terry claims that he was referred to as a dumb QB because of some racisist view points where the steelers started Joe Gilliam and that the white qb (Bradshaw in this case) must be really dumb if they were going to start a black QB.....that was what Bradshaw said lead to him being known as a dumb QB....not sure if it is true or not but I seen him say that on an interview
Yes, sigh. That kind of closes the case. How dumb must a white QB be if a black one is smarter? Even the one example of the dumb white QB is put into perspective by the congenital inferiority of the black one.
I have heard Bradshaw speak out several times on how devastating he felt that unfair and totally wrong criticism to be. TB felt stigmatized by it, and he had to work very hard not to let it affect his game. Labels have that effect on folks. They can cause both debilitating and facilitating anxiety, but the scars seldom heal..
Bradshaw singled out Hollywood Henderson in one long TV segment once, forget exactly what HH said of Terry, but it was the classic case of the "pot calling the kettle black", and it stayed with TB long.
My personal definition of intelligence is the ability to lead an intelligent life, making more sound choices than dumbarse ones.. By that light, Bradshaw is a freaking genius (tho some of the choices on those ex-wives didn't strike me as his finest hour), and Henderson something considerably less. Had Quincy Carter reacted to Bill Parcells stern regime by sulking, pouting, more melting down and self-victimizing, I sure as shooting would consider him an idiot. But he reacted intelligently to the challenge, with hard work and dedication. He may never get his speed of game issues solved. Like Tim Couch is struggling to do, he may never get to the rare exceptionally fast processing of a successful NFL QB (these guys are indeed cognitively exceptional - just to have gotten as far as they have), but if he fails like so so many in the past have, it will not be because he lacks "mental capabilities".
It's a debate, a kind of discourse, our semantic choices, and ways to frame arguments that indicate we haven't come as far as we as a society like to think we have…it's usually covert, but there is most definitely a double standard "there".
As a fan I reserve the time honored right of calling any player, in the heat of battle, a dumbarse, imbecile, moron, nitwit, etc, names based referentially on lack of intelligence, but which in common use are no more critical of it as Bill Parcells yelling "throw it you stupid &^%$" at his QBs in practices.
The other debate, the serious one about what "mental capacity" is and how to assess it, I prefer to leave to that handful of cognitive and developmental psychologists who have made an impact in the field, none of whom I have yet seen on a sports board.
