Justin Armour

[sport historian]

Does anyone have any information about a former WR named Justin Armour? He played three years in the NFL. In his last year, 1999, he caught 37 passes for the Baltimore Ravens. He was out of the league the next year.

An oddity is that I once heard him mentioned on the Dr. Laura Radio Show. It seems that Armour said publicly that he didn't drink, smoke, use drugs, and was saving himself for marriage. Some girls said that he sounded good to them, and Dr. Laura praised him.

I looked him up on databasefootball and he played college ball for Stanford. I remember him for a few highlights in 1999.

 

[Don Wassall]

I rememberJustin Armourwell. He was 6-4 with great hands, excellent route runner, smart, the usual attributes of white receivers.


Look at his NFL career if you want to see a prototypical example of how white WRs are treated:


- In his rookie year with the Bills in 1995 he had 26 catches, very good for a rookie. Bigger and better thingsmust have beenon the way, right? Wrong!


- In 1996 he doesn't play at all (may have had a knee injury as I recall)


- In '97 he winds up on the Eagles but has zero catches for the year


- In '98 he's on Denver and has a whopping one reception for the season


- In '99 he's on the Ravens and has those 37 receptions for 538 yards, 4 TDs, and an excellent average per catch of 14.5.


- By '00 he's out of the NFL for good.


Four seasons, four teams, very good productivity when he's allowed to play, career over.


In '99 in BaltimoreArmour was making some excellent big-time plays early in the season, but he was the object of jokes from the media and fans because he was supposedly so slow. He was outproducing the Ravens "real" receivers, and so quickly was consigned to the bench and his career endedright then and there. Noteam had any interest in him after '99 even though he's only 33 today and could (should) still be playing.


This is not a rarity but the norm for white receivers, actually the fact that Armour was "allowed" to play at all was somewhat exceptional.

 

[Triad]

This is an excerpt from an article praising Titans WR Tyrone Calico' "production":

" Calico's 42 career receptions and 501 yards both rank seventh among the 11 receivers drafted on the first day (Rounds 1-3) in 2003, and some of the more productive ones were taken after him. His production ranks him in the middle (fourth) among the first seven selected in the first two rounds."

So Armour's numbers even with his injuries and lack of opportunities are about average for an NFL receiver in his early years. The only differenc is players like Calico get 5, 6, 7 chances to make it while players like Armour get 1 maybe 2 shots before they're run off.

 

[sport historian]

Don,
Thanks for the information. I noticed him in 1999 as a rare white WR. He seemed to do pretty well that year. Then, he vanished from the NFL. If there is an explanation, it would seem to be that today's coaches, scouts, writers, announcers, and last but not least fans, just don't believe a white player at certain positions can be any good. Even when he is.

 

[jacknyc]

I remember that he was one of several white wide receivers from Stanford. It seemed that in the 90s, Stanford was the only school consistently turning out white WRs who made it to the NFL. Of course, most of them were given no credit there. Armour, Chris Walsh, Ed McCaffery,Mark Harris all played in the 90s.
They also turned out some good backs...Brad Muster,Jon Volpe, and Tommy Vardell.

 

[Don Wassall]

You're right about Stanford, jacknyc. I enjoyed watching "Touchdown" Tommy Vardell run the ball for the Cardinal in the early '90s. He was a first round draft pick of the Browns in '92 and ran for 644 yards from the fullback position in '93. O.J. Simpson referred toVardell as a "future Pro Bowler" during one NFL broadcast that season. Then he blew his knee out in '94 and was pretty much finished, though he was the Lions' goal line specialist for a couple seasons.


Mark Harris was an incredibly talented wide receiver. Much like Justin Armour but faster-- 6-4, great route runner, intelligent, and just incredible hands. His hands were as good as Mike Hass's. Yet he only had 13 career catches over 4 seasons with the 49ers. He was star material but was the wrong race. That's the main reason I developed a healthy dislike for then 49ers head coach Steve Mariucci as one of the NFL's most loyal Caste System followers. Mariucci did nothing to dispel that opinion when he went to Detroit and purged the Lions of Luke Staley, Bill Schroeder and David Kircus.

 

[Colonel_Reb]

I remember the name Justin Armour, but not much else. It is a shame the way he and so many others have been done. I watched a public high school football practice today and out of at least 45 players, there were 4 whites. I can only imagine what they go through every day. I imagine being a receiver or any player other than a QB or lineman in the NFL is much the same way.

 

[sport historian]

When I heard Dr. Laura praise Justin Armour (for his moral stance), he was with Denver. I checked and he rarely played, only one reception in 1998. I believe that he played out his contract with Baltimore in 1999. I seem to remember that Baltimore declined to re-sign him in 2000, and nobody else picked him up despite good production in 1999.

As I said, I had noticed him playing well in 1999, and remembered hearing about him the year before. I thought he might become a well-known player. Armour was the clean-cut, well behaved type of white athlete that went out of favor in the late 60's. The press wanted white star players to be "free spirits" like Joe Namath. If you remember the late 60's, you'll kmow what I mean.

 

[lumsdenpower]

I'm not in the subject of the thread but chek that

http://www.titansonline.com/team/players/bio.php?PRKey=300
He is a light skinned black?or he is white whit the hair style of black?

 

[white is right]

He has a German last name, and looks white. He maybe mixed race who knows. Loschmann has a German last name too but he is probably part Mexican or Native American.Edited by: white is right

 

[sport historian]

Tonight, I happened to remember this thread and did a Google search for Justin Armour. I found a "Where are they now?" piece from the Baltimore Sun. The article is from December 28, 2007.

In the article, Armour tells of a game-winning catch in overtime in Atlanta:

"I'd just come into the game and when I started downfield, the safety took one look at my big ol' white legs and let me go."

Armour caught 37 passes that season, then was told he was no longer part of the Ravens' plans. No other NFL teams wanted him, either.

"That broke my heart," Armour says in the article. "Basically, I left the league after my best season, when I thought I was starting to peak. But those stories from former players are a dime a dozen."

Armour lives in Encinitas, California with his wife, Cara, and two children. He is AD of a small, private college preparatory school.

"In 1999, I was in every game plan, i contributed and we won four of our last five games," he said. "For me, it was the ideal team to be on."

Armour was recruited to Stanford by Brian Billick, then an assistant coach. It was Billick who drummed Armour out of the game.

"Billick brought me into football and got me out of it," Armour said. "I still don't know whether to thank him or punch him."

The above quotes come from the Baltimore Sun article, which does not speculate why no team wanted Justin Armour.

 

[StarWars]

That article is very familiar. The NFL is a business, and unfortunately many of the unathletic white people I know would rather watch a black person, maybe subconsciously in revenge at athletic white people like us.