<h1 id="article-title">Here's the link and article forty-four mentioned.</h1>
http://bleacherreport.com/articles/291461-why-toby-gerharts-race-will-prevent-him-from-winning-the-heisman
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</h1><h1 id="article-title">Why Toby Gerhart's Race Will Prevent Him from Winning the Heisman</h1>
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Bryan Kelly
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Bryan Kelly</h4>
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Written on
November 16, 2009</span>
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It was news to meâ€"as it probably was to everyone else, including Pete Carrollâ€"that Toby Gerhart set the
record for rushing yards all-time in the state of California as a high school player.
When you consider the outstanding running backs that played their
high school ball as native sons of the Golden Stateâ€"OJ Simpson, Jahvid
Best, Reggie Bush, Marcus Allen, hell, even Ken Simontonâ€"that's a
pretty staggering accomplishment.
So it should also not be news that this season, Gerhart's 1,395
yards are best in the Pac-10 and third best in the country, and his 19
rushing touchdowns are second only to Ricky Dobbs, who quarterbacks
Navy's triple option rush offense.
He's put up 223 yards and 178 yards against the (supposedly) two
best defenses in the conference, posting back-to-back top 10 upsets for
the former Pac-10 bottom dweller.
In that Oregon game, Gerhart rushed a bruising 38 times, then came
back the next week to pound USC for 29 more in the Coliseum, scoring
three of the Cardinal touchdowns in the 55-21 rout.
But none of that will matter. At least, not for individual
accolades. Toby Gerhart is a white football player in the wrong
position for white people.
Like the skepticism that voters showed towards the Iowa Hawkeyes
throughout the year, no one with a ballot thinks Toby Gerhart's rushing
statistics are legitimate. They're waiting for a game in which he
rushes for under a 100 yards to declare, "A-ha! He's a flash in the
pan! He's benefiting from a great offensive line! Not enough credit was
being given to Andrew Luck! Now, if he just
threw the ball..."
Why? Because a white running back is called a fullback, or a slot
receiver who forgot to motion out of the backfield (and even then,
we're talking Wes Welker, the guys at BYU, and few else).
Because no one believes white people have the innate physical gifts
to succeed at the running back position like black players do. White
players throw, play tight end, punt, and kick; black players run, or
catch and run. That is the simple, immutable order of things.
And finally, because Gerhart's style of running is not fancy. He
runs powerful and upright and he hits the hole quicklyâ€"like a fullback,
except faster and with better balance.
What he doesn't do is dance around. He won't flip unless you hit him
right. Juking and spinning are pretty out of the question. He'd rather
knock you down than leap over you, and he'd certainly rather hit you
than run around you.
His runs will not make you go, "Oh, damn!" in that way Reggie Bush's
or Jahvid Best's could. They're rather like watching a prize fight,
where the boxer about to win is slowly stringing together a bruising,
deadly combination.
That his running style is of particularly low "intelligence" and
appears to demand less "skill" certainly doesn't help matters. Nor does
it help that he plays for Stanford, a historical bottom-dweller in the
Pac-10 that only recently began flirting with a winning record, on the
wrong coast.
To the voters, Toby Gerhart is, if I can venture the term, a "system
runner," a trumped-up fullback in a power-running game who's shown
uncommon speed and balance, but is nowhere near the "other" running
backs in terms of skill because of his race. This will be what prevents
him from winning the Heisman.
Now, I am certainly not saying the Heisman is biased against white
people. That'd be a tough argument to make, given that only two black
players have won this decade.
But Gerhart is still the victim of a subtle, persistent racism
against white running backsâ€"and against blacks in the quarterback
position, for what it's worth. And though this subtle racism can be
supported by NFL combines and Wonderlic tests, it harms those small few
who are the exception.
Donovan McNabb is probably one of the greatest players this decade,
and certainly one of the most exciting to watch, lack of Super Bowl
rings aside. But in those games, or stretches of games, where he's
struggled, it is his intelligence, not his ability, that is routinely
questioned.
We can fire the Rush Limbaughs of the sports announcing world all we
want (although is Keith Olbermann really a better choice?). The belief
that McNabb, or Jason Campbell, or Vince Young, cannot succeed because
they're not naturally bright will persist each time they face
difficulty in games.
On the other side of the coin is Gerhart. Heisman voters will be
quick to point out his 82 yards against Wake Forest in Stanford's 24-17
loss in week two, or his 96 yards in the Cardinal's 38-28 loss to
Oregon State.
If Gerhart was the Great White Hope, why didn't his natural ability help him rise above those struggles?
The truth is that
every running back strugglesâ€"through
injury, but also just by being off, not seeing the hole, facing
defenses that have their "move" all figured out. But when Gerhartâ€"and
Stanfordâ€"lose, their hype takes a precipitous tumble.
Those aren't bad breaks in the pollsâ€"you think BCS voters had an
easy time voting the Cardinal ahead of their darling USC this week?
No, the penalty is more severe because respect for this program and this player was never there to begin with.
Gerhart's great games, even if they outnumber the bad ones 4:1, are
aberrations to a de facto rule: White people cannot play tailback at
the same level as black people.
I'd like to believe this is all wrong; that Stanford will win out
and flirt with the Pac-10 title, and Gerhart will sway the Heisman
voters to his cause once he storms Cal and trucks Notre Dame's defense
for 200 yards apiece, even with defenses gunning for him.
Maybe a rogue Heisman campaign has begun in the time it took to write this.
I hope so. Gerhart deserves better than our embarrassing,
stereotypical biases and our disrespect. He's not the Great White
Hopeâ€"I have no idea who or what that could beâ€"but he's a damn good
running back and arguably the most productive player at his position on
the year.
If a black man can win the presidency, why can't a white running
back who leads the nation in touchdowns be called the greatest college
football player of the year?
