Sometimes I think that White athletes in football (and other sports) are "praised" with stereotypically White traits like being hard-working, dedicated, and determined, because if Whites were fairly praised with the same compliments commonly attributed to Black athletes (fast, gifted, etc.) it drives home the fact more clearly that, in general, Whites are just better all-around competitors.
I think that calling someone "gritty" and "hard-nosed" and "old-school" is a really nice compliment, but of course the media gives these compliments to Whites as if the compliments are dichotomy; ie, one cannot be high-motor and also an "electric talent."
It's just another example of ingrained, ignorant racism from the White media, because they know that if and when they call a Black athlete "gritty, hard-nosed, high-motor, lunch-pail, old school," they're doing so with more than a bit of tongue-in-cheek irony.
Black people have been stereotyped for hundreds of years as shiftless, overly-dramatic, and lazy (what—not true? come on) so of course to appease them and have something nice to say, compliments which should be given to ALL PROFESSIONAL ATHLETES as a default—fast, strong, athletic, etc., are given almost exclusively to Blacks because without them, there would be nothing else to say.
Oh, and Geno Smith is a fu*king retard.
