Welcome to the board, Ta Waki Mumba. Nice informative post.
I posted this in another thread a few months ago when the topic was Vanderjagt. It's pertinent to what you were saying about the "funny little man who sits on the sidelines":
"I've been thinking for a while now about white kickers and the caste system, and I believe the white monopoly at this position benefits the current system. I've never heard a racially conscious white person make a positive comment about how all the kickers are white other than in a joking, self-deprecating kind of way, like they would if any other position in football was all white (other than long snapper). No one takes any particular pride in it.
"That would seem to be because the white kicker looks out of place on a football team, almost comically so at times. In soccer the same white monopoly would be a real asset in refuting false claims of "black athletic superiority," but in football what we have symbolically is the scrawny white kicker, and then the "real" football players, the big, tough black guys. It actually reinforces the basic propaganda line of the caste system.
"The kickers represent the white loser, the dork, the open object of contempt on the team. When he makes a kick he rarely gets credit, because that's what he's supposed to do. But when he misses a short field goal attempt, or shanks a punt . . . look out!
"Vanderjagt went the entire 2003 season without missing a field goal attempt. He had the greatest season at his position ever yet has earned no respect for it. He, like all placekickers and punters, is supposed to act the role of a step n' fetch it, thrilled just to be on the team."
