The quarterback position has historically been a racially dominated position in American football. Some of the most recognizable and glorified quarterbacks, such as Tom Brady, are of this nature for many distinct reasons. This can range from being the greatest of all time, having a high football intelligence quotient (IQ), being the face of the franchise, giving one’s team high morale, etc. While these features are what one may deem as the qualities of the prototypical quarterback, these qualities have been mostly associated with the race that has dominated the position, which have been white quarterbacks. These characteristics are represented to the viewer by sports media outlets, such as large corporations like ESPN. There have not been that many Black quarterbacks in the NFL, but there are more entering the sport in the present time. Some of these recognizable faces include Colin Kaepernick, Cam Newton, and Lamar Jackson. These quarterbacks have and can possess qualities of the prototypical quarterback, but I are here to question whether a quarterback’s racial identity influences the way media represents these quarterbacks and the qualities they possess.
The Black quarterback is still treated as a new concept in the NFL. The National Football League was established in 1920 (“National Football League,” 2022), and over the last 100 years, the quarterback position has historically been held by white players. The NFL started with a few Black players after the league was officially established, but Black players were treated with major bias, as they were given short leashes and would be constantly removed in favor of white players. This would occur until the year of 1933, when the league officially became segregated. The NFL was a racially white-only league until 1946, when it became officially integrated (“Black players in Professional American Football,” 2022). It took until 1968 for the first Black quarterback to make a start at the position. The first Black quarterback was taken in the first round of the NFL draft in 1968, but he was quickly switched to the receiver position and never started in the quarterback position. Some teams took several decades to have a Black player start at the quarterback position; The New York Giants did not start a Black quarterback until 2017. The first Black quarterback did not win a super bowl until 1988, and it took until 2003 for the first Black quarterback to win the most valuable player award of the league (List of Starting Black NFL Quarterbacks, 2022).
While there have been many milestones finally achieved by Black quarterbacks, these players may still be treated as extraordinary in the media. One of the most popular media sources for sports media is ESPN. ESPN was founded in 1979 and has had a grip on sports media since the 1990’s when it became more popular in comparison to other sports outlets. They obtained their grip on popular sports media consumption using popular analysts and expanding their network with partnerships with other large media corporations and creating subsidies of ESPN such as the radio channels they provide (“History of ESPN,” 2022). ESPN has many segments focused on the quarterbacks of the NFL, as they are the most recognizable position to the sports fan as the offense in football runs through the hands of the quarterback, and they are often attributed with a team’s success or failure. The position is therefore covered heavily. ESPN has been owned by Disney since 1996, and it has many sister networks that it owns that are separate channels, such as ESPN channels focused on international, non-English-speaking audiences (“ESPN,” 2022). While ESPN has dominated sports media in the past, they have seen a decrease in viewership each year, which could be attributed to the many controversies that they have faced, many which are based racial issues (“Criticism of ESPN,” 2022). These include but are not limited to instances such as the coverage of crimes by stars when it comes to their race; draft coverage; and racial favoritism when selecting analysts for reporting positions (“Criticism of ESPN,” 2022).
Research Question & Variables
The question that shall be studied during the research study will be,
“What is the effect of racial identity on the media portrayals of NFL quarterbacks on ESPN?”
The independent variable of the study is racial identity. The racial identity of the quarterbacks that will be studied are white and Black, as these are the two races of quarterbacks that have occupied the position in the past and right now. This has been chosen as the independent variable because racial identity is a common cause of bias, so the goal is to determine whether racial identity brings out bias in our dependent variable, which is media portrayal. When I speak about media portrayal, I am talking about the way that sports media represents quarterbacks through portraying topics about them in positive or negative manners, as well as the reactions to these topics. It could also be how a media outlet chooses to structure the portrayal, such as the racial identity of the analysts that cover these quarterbacks, or the amount of time spent covering these quarterbacks. The unit of observation in this study will be ESPN, as I will specifically focus on a popular and credible media source that has dominated sports media for an exceptionally long time now. ESPN does media coverage on all popular sports, with football being one of the most popular sports to cover in American culture. I will answer my research question by looking at different segments provided by ESPN about NFL quarterbacks and looking at the way they have been portrayed to see whether racial identity affects media portrayals these quarterbacks.
Header Attribution
Title: Football Field
Author: Daniel X. O’Neal
Source:
Link to Author’s Flickr Page: https://www.flickr.com/photos/juggernautco/
Link to Flickr Page: https://www.flickr.com/photos/juggernautco/5647809356
License: CC-BY