My Brett Law Story

[McCaffrey Dude]

Back in the early 1990's Indiana U. had a really talented rb named Brett Law. At the time he was the state of Indiana's all time leading rusher in high school. Whatever happened I am not totally sure but by his senior year before the season started he had been demoted to 5th string.
I remember seeing some obscure ESPN news report that he had worked so hard in that summer and preseason that the coach moved him back to second string.
So I got really excited because ESPN in early September had Indiana versus Cincinnati scheduled for the first game of the year.
I got really bummed out when some sideline reporter right before the game started said Indiana had this incredible young redshirt freshman talent who was going to get all of the carries named Alex Smith. Me being so used to seeing black rb's dominate college football I assumed by the name he was black.
They showed SMith warming up and I almost crapped myself. The guy was damn good. Law never did get into that game but for the next 3 years I got to enjoy Smith whenever Indiana was on. It is to bad he left after his junior year to pursue the NFL. I think if he had stayed for his senior year his draft stock would have risen incredibly.
It was the same thing with Luke Staley. Though he really did have some serious injury issues. But come on, Staley won the Doak Walker award in 2001. He should have been a first rounder easily. Such is the caste system.

 

[Don Wassall]

I watched a lot of Big Ten football in the 1990s and remember Alex Smith well, kicked major ass as a freshman and had a great career though started to get hit by injuries.

I have a lasting memory of watching Sports Center one Saturday and the quick summary of the Indiana game that day noted how Brett Law had started for an injured Alex Smith and damn if he didn't run for 200+ yards. Had a picture of him on the screen and I was stunned to see that he too was White. Never heard a word about him again after that day.

Can't remember the name of Indiana's coach at the time, but he was quoted as saying something to the effect of "blacks have taken charge of wide receiver and running back over the past 20 years, but that doesn't mean you don't give a white kid a chance."

Indiana had Alex Smith, Purdue had Mike Alstott and Michigan State had the now forgotten Scott Greene all running the ball back then. It was enjoyable watching each of them.

 

[McCaffrey Dude]

I also remember that quote. He also was quoted during that Cincinnati game that went something like this. " Don't let his skin color fool you. Alex Smith is fast. I mean really fast ". That was in 1994. I ran the 100 meters in high school and college and ran around 11.1 as an average. I also weighed about 220 pounds. I just could not get any lighter. But I was thinking, " well I am fast and there are a ton of faster white kids of my area in central NY. What is the deal here? " I think this is when I first became aware of the caste system though in 1988 I started getting into following white skill position players in college like wr John Kolesar from Michigan and anybody else I could find. I grew up a Giants and Jets fan but I remember in 1992 reading a magazine of the Buffalo Bill's draft and actually Kolesar was briefly on that team butread about some obscure wr named Brad Lamb. He was listed as running a 4.1 40. They also drafted a white corner out of Eastern Washington named Eric Shultz ( moved to safety hmmmmm ? ) so I started to talk about fast white guys with friends of mine at this gym and my friend Paul though not liking the subject said well what about Don Beebe? I was like, Don Beebe who? I was a huge fan of the Bills for a very long time after that.
It was Brad Lamb by the way that returned the opening kickoff against Dallas in 1993's Super Bowl. Unfortunately his career did not amount to much and he did 6 years in Federal prison for some fraud scheme but it was fun to watch a team that had 3 white wr's that could run 10.9 100 meters or faster ( Steve Tasker being the other one ) and they also had Chris Walsh from Stanford on that 1992-1993 team. Good stuff. Only the Patriots and Green Bay look to carry on the tradition for now.

 

[Don Wassall]

Chris Walsh and Steve Tasker could easily have been very good starting wide receivers in the NFL. Jim Kelly had the quote about Tasker being impossible to cover in practice, yet he was used only as a special teams demon for the vast majority of his career.

Walsh was the Vikings' version of Tasker. Talented and fast, but only used as a special teamer and very occasional third down receiver. I'll never forget an announcer saying that Walsh specialized in "three yard routes" one game when he was in there. The media has always been an eager enabler of the Caste System.

 

[McCaffrey Dude]

Not to get off track here but also in the early 1990's to now there actually were quite a few white corners that played in the NFL or were on a roster. I remember in 1992 the Jets had a speedy guy named DOn Boyd Odegard and a safety named RJ Koors. Koors did not stick but he was a 4.4 guy and I remember catching the Raiders last preseason game that year and they had him at corner and he had a very athletic pick 6 in that game. Steve Gregory, Scott Case, John Mangum, Dustin Fox, Todd Franz, Kaesviharn among quite a few that actually got a legit chance. How Gregory did not stay at corner is beyond me. He was unreal his freshman year at Syracuse.

 

[Leonardfan]

Brad Hoover the former FB for the Panthers is really my first vivid memory of questioning the caste system. Even before witnessing his great performance back in 2000 against the packers on Mnf I always felt myself rooting for white players but didn't think there was anything wrong with it. Wayne Chrebet became one of my favorite football players during high school. I was a kid who grew up during the 90s and never understood why blacks lacked sportsmanship but valued self promotion and idiotic celebrations in team sports. As a kid playing sports growing up I was taught by my dad to display good sportsmanship and always hustle.

 

[McCaffrey Dude]

The funny thing about sportsmanship is that I was just watching some Danny Woodhead highlights on youtube and there was one play where he caught a first down pass and he did the obligatory jump toward the end zone and point plus another highlight where he runs for a td and does some kind of pirate jig would be the best way to describe it. Also the really good TE ( name escapes me ) for the Giants via the Miami Hurricanes was known for doing a lot of silly antics as well. If we had more whites in the NFL we probably would see more of it.
Then again look at Marvin Harrison. I always thought he was one of the classiest NFL players out there. He allegedly choked some teen fan in Hawaii and then pretty much got away with murder when he shot some dude at a car wash he owned. Life is a fickle thing.

 

[TwentyTwo]

Bring back some serious memories with all of those names....

Other Tailbacks that come to mind USC's Scott Lockwood...who like in his ONLY NFL game allowed to start w NE Patriots had 100+ yards rushing....& Gil Fenerty who led the Saints in Rushing one season when he actually got to start a few games....The Alex Smith saga (& so many others were very frustrating storylines to follow)

Add CB Stan Smagala back in he late 80's? He was a Lights-out Corner Back at Notre Dame with Sprinter speed...only to be moved to Free Safety in the NFL.....Scott Case actually led the NFL one season w 10 INT's? John Mangum was a badger at Corner Back at Bama...couldn't believe the Bears converted him to Safety

When Don Beebe's name comes up...think of WR Jeff Query from same Class; even faster...& played for the Packers

 

[McCaffrey Dude]

Bring back some serious memories with all of those names....

Other Tailbacks that come to mind USC's Scott Lockwood...who like in his ONLY NFL game allowed to start w NE Patriots had 100+ yards rushing....& Gil Fenerty who led the Saints in Rushing one season when he actually got to start a few games....The Alex Smith saga (& so many others were very frustrating storylines to follow)

Add CB Stan Smagala back in he late 80's? He was a Lights-out Corner Back at Notre Dame with Sprinter speed...only to be moved to Free Safety in the NFL.....Scott Case actually led the NFL one season w 10 INT's? John Mangum was a badger at Corner Back at Bama...couldn't believe the Bears converted him to Safety

When Don Beebe's name comes up...think of WR Jeff Query from same Class; even faster...& played for the Packers

I have brought this up a long time ago but the best game I ever saw was USC and Notre Dame in November 0f 88'. I remember Smagala had the pick 6 off Rodney Peete. But Lockwood was a beast. Not in that game but USC had 2 really good black rbs he shared time with. But wr Eric Affholter should have bee in the NFL and small but speedy wr Gary Wellman did play 3 years for the Oilers. I remember in December of 92 when Lockwood ran for over 100 in his only start for the Patriots. DWF coach Bill Parcells cut Lockwood the next season because he said Lockwood had " balance problems". That he just kept falling down before contact. Horcsecrap. Also ND had Pat Eilers at split end. He never dominated but he was a hell of a blocker and got to carry the ball a little that season. I was a huge ND fan back then. When they beat USC they played West Virginia and won the national title but their defense took like 4 serious violent penalties that were really stupid because the game was close at the time. Also de Jeff Alm used to seem to knock down 2 passes a game at the line. He committed suicide on a bridge when he crashed drunk into a guard rail and killed his friend. And then linebacker Mike Stonebreaker was a beast as well. Just the name put fear into opponents.
FYI I loved Jeff Query but he was no way as fast as Beebe. I remember when Beebe torched the Steelers for 4 tds in one game.

 

[icsept]

I watched a lot of Big Ten football in the 1990s and remember Alex Smith well, kicked major ass as a freshman and had a great career though started to get hit by injuries.

I have a lasting memory of watching Sports Center one Saturday and the quick summary of the Indiana game that day noted how Brett Law had started for an injured Alex Smith and damn if he didn't run for 200+ yards. Had a picture of him on the screen and I was stunned to see that he too was White. Never heard a word about him again after that day.

Can't remember the name of Indiana's coach at the time, but he was quoted as saying something to the effect of "blacks have taken charge of wide receiver and running back over the past 20 years, but that doesn't mean you don't give a white kid a chance."

Indiana had Alex Smith, Purdue had Mike Alstott and Michigan State had the now forgotten Scott Greene all running the ball back then. It was enjoyable watching each of them.

Also, Michigan State's Blake Ezor was a good one.

 

[Booth]

Michigan had Rob Lytle who led them to the Rose Bowl. Michigan State had Kirk Gibson won was the fastest wide receiver in the Big Ten. I almost forgot Craig James who made up one-half of the pony express with Eric Dickerson,the last white back to rush for a 1,000 yds. in the NFL before Peyton Hillis did it in 2012.