Running backs plod through racial divisions, stereotypes

by Joe Arnold
Staff Writer

Editor’s Note: This is the second in a five-part series dealing with racism and diversity at Ohio University and in the Mid-American Conference

Ohio running back Chad Brinker rushed for more than 3,900 yards and was twice named All-State during his career at Martins Ferry High School. Despite being blessed with speed and deceptive power, the Mr. Ohio Football Award finalist was passed on time after time by recruiters.

One of the reasons? Race.

“A lot of recruiters will tell you straight up that race is an issue,” Brinker said. “When I was recruited, some schools told me ‘We’re looking for a 220-pound black guy that can run.’ I was a 175-pound white guy who could run. I really wish things weren’t that way.”

The things Brinker refers to are the stereotypes and the huge disparity between the number of African-American and white running backs in college and professional football.

Last season, Mid-American Conference teams’ rosters boasted an almost 3-1 ratio between African-American and white running backs. Sixty-five of the conference’s 86

running backs were African-American. In the NFL, the ratio is staggering. For every white running back, there are 17 African-American running backs. Black running backs constitute 125 of the NFL’s 133 running backs.

Ohio running backs coach Everett Sands has seen the discrepancy. A former running back, Sands said running back is still predominately an African-American position. But good coaches put the best players on the field to win as many games as possible.

“It’s important as a coach to be colorblind,” Sands said. “If a guy can play, he’s going to play. The thinking, at least as an athlete, is ‘I’m an athlete, and I’m trying to beat the other guy out, regardless of race.’”

Race mattered little for Sands during his four years at the Citadel. Sands, an African American, played ahead of Atlanta Falcons running back Travis Jervey, who is one of the NFL’s eight white running backs, in 1993.

“He (Jervey) ran a 4.3 (forty-yard dash),” Sands said. “If you can run a 4.3, you can play, and he did.”

Ohio running back Stafford Owens, one of the MAC’s African-American running backs, said he is not sure why the numbers were so unbalanced, but he said that the assumptions associated with white athletes are waning.

“There’s the stereotype that white men can’t jump, but everybody knows white men can dunk,” he said. “With black quarterbacks getting more opportunities, everybody can do everything now.”

Ohio coach Brian Knorr said there are two possible reasons why the large African-American-white gap at running backs exists in the MAC.

“We see more African-Americans running backs because of their track times,”

Knorr said. “A lot of black athletes have speed and run track.”

The second possible explanation for the discrepancy is historically and geographically based, Knorr said.

“Ohio has a culture of great athletes being put at the tailback position,” he said. “I think that comes from coach (Woody) Hayes. He believed in putting the best athletes back there. In Indiana and Pennsylvania, they put their best athletes at quarterback.”

Although convinced racism is still an American problem, Sands said it is not a crisis in college football.

“Ninety-eight percent of the coaches in the country are looking for the best players,” Sands said. “The other 2 percent don’t have their heads on straight. The bottom line is coaches want the best players — regardless of color — on the field. It’s an athletic and character thing more than a color thing.”