Heisman winner Lamar Jackson being overlooked because of lack of diversity among college football writers
CARRON J. PHILLIPS AUG 30, 2017 2:20 AM
Last year, Lamar Jackson opened his sophomore season with three straight video-game-like performances.
In those games, the Louisville Cardinals faced UNC-Charlotte, Syracuse and Florida State. Jackson passed for 913 yards, ran for 464 more, and scored 18 touchdowns while doing the majority of that work in the first half.
It was the beginning of one of the best seasons a player has ever had in college football history, as Jackson won almost every award last season, including the Walter Camp and Maxwell Awards, and the Heisman Trophy.
A quick Wikipedia search will tell you even more about the historic season Jackson had last year, but that may be the only place you’ll read something about him this week before the kickoff of the 2017 season. Why?
Because every major college football site or magazine has apparently forgotten that Jackson exists.
ESPN recently released its preseason All-American team, and you won’t find Jackson penciled into the quarterback slot. That nod was given to USC sophomore Sam Darnold. ‘ESPN The Magazine’ also decided to go with Darnold as the covery boy for its 2017 College Football Preview edition, instead of the reigning Heisman Trophy winner.
And speaking of the Heisman, Darnold is leading the odds in Las Vegas to be the winner this year, as Jackson sits in third place.
Sports Illustrated has Baker Mayfield as its preseason First-Team All-American quarterback, even though Mayfield was third in last year’s Heisman voting. But you won’t find Jackson as a member of the Second Team either, as that accolade was given to Darnold.
In fact, the only publication I’ve run across that’s shown Jackson any love this offseason has been The Sporting News. On two different lists, The Sporting News has Jackson listed as the top-rated quarterback entering the season, and ranked him No. 1 on its list of the best 40 players in the country.
If you want to look at the numbers, it makes sense why Darnold is such a sexy pick to be the new face of college football. The sophomore was named the starter before the Utah game last year, and even though the Trojans lost, the move wound up working in the long run. With Darnold under center, USC won its last nine games of the season.
All of this happened while Jackson’s luck on the field fizzled down the stretch. Louisville lost its last three games of the year against Houston, Kentucky and LSU. In those games, Jackson accounted for only five total touchdowns and threw three picks.
Still, Jackson was the man who was chosen to raise the Heisman over his head at the end of the season due to his remarkable year.
However, the total disrespect for Jackson this offseason is quite troubling. When Johnny Manziel returned for his sophomore year in 2013 after being the first freshman to ever win the Heisman, his face was everywhere. And as the fall of 2013 approached, it was Manziel who was leading the list of Heisman hopefuls and was on the cover of Sports Illustrated and ESPN’s The Magazine’s College Football Preview editions.
And when Tim Tebow returned to Gainesville after winning his Heisman, it was the beginning of Tebowmania.
It’s hard to ignore the fact that race may play a factor in how Jackson has been treated and almost forgotten.
Every Saturday this fall, press boxes will be filled with media members covering America’s second most popular sport. However, the skin tone of the people in the press box will be drastically different from the players on the field. According to the Huffington Post and Time Magazine, anywhere from 57% to 70% of college football players are black. Compare that to the fact that more than 90% of sports writers are white.
The lack of diversity in college football press boxes speaks to why Jackson may be getting overlooked. Because no one who looks like Jackson appears to be in the room raising a hand and saying, “Hey, I think we’re forgetting about the reigning Heisman Trophy winner,” when story ideas and planning meetings are taking place.
For instance, ask yourself this question.
In a sport that’s dominated by black men between the ages of 18-22, can you name a top black college football writer?
Anwar Richardson has been in the game for a long time and covers the University of Texas. And this season, Myron Medcalf and Joel Anderson will be doing some college football coverage for ESPN. But besides those three, it will take you some time to come up with more names to add to the list.
And something tells me that if more people of color were at these publications, then what’s happening to Jackson wouldn’t play out like this. It’s similar to the NFL Fantasy Draft slave auction incident that happened with ESPN a few weeks ago. Because if a black person is in that meeting, then that segment likely never happens.
Nobody has any idea how the 2017 season will unfold, and as good as Darnold is, he might actually live up to the hype.
But no matter what the Louisville Cardinals or Lamar Jackson do this season, it’s been a crime to watch the guy who was named the “Most Outstanding Player” in college football just a year ago return for his junior year as an afterthought.
Sadly, it’s the society we live in. Because in 2017, one of the most electrifying college football players the game has ever seen can still get whitewashed.
