When did the NFL become mostly black?

[GiovaniMarcon]

At what point did the NFL become more than 50% black?

It's nauseating to see so few white players on the field nowadays. I liked football when I was a kid but as I've become more racially aware I see the discrimination against the white players ever more clearly.

Are other whites (besides people who come to this site) starting to see this as well, and getting sick of it?

The players are blacker, but they seem worse than the white players from the 70s. Far less fundamentally skilled, more drama-queenish, less disciplined and lazier, even if these new people use more steroids and take interesting liberties with spoken English.

 

[whiteathlete33]

I believe it happened in the late 70's. That is when all the corners and running backs started to be black. As is stated on this site no white running back has run for 1000 yards in a quarter century. Out of the millions of white kids in this country not one is capable of being a running back according to the NFL. Luke Staley was our best chance for a 1000 yard back but he got screwed as well.

 

[sport historian]

I recall reading an article about the LA Rams of 30 years ago saying that they were an even 50-50 split white and black, except for kicker Frank Corral, who was Mexican. The NFL tipped majority black on every team during the early 1980's.

 

[Don Wassall]

Ibelieve the Jets were the last majority white team, which may seem surprising to some looking at how black they've gone over the past decade. There most likely were some barely majority white teams after the early to mid '80s, but only for a season or two, such as the Bills of the early '90s. The Rams were very close to majority white several years ago. Every now and then the Colts get close.


I don't think the racial breakdown going back a number of years is available on the Internet. NFL corporate headquarters undoubtedly has data going back for decades, and so would anti-white groups such as the ones Richard Lapchick has been paid by.

 

[ToughJ.Riggins]

Yeah wasn't Lapchick the one who gave the NFL a B+ for diversity? What a joke. It's more like an A+ if you are a black man trying to get an NFL job an F if you are white.

 

[ToughJ.Riggins]

And whiteathlette33, it was in the '85-'86 season that Craig James rushed for 1,000 yards, so basically 23 seasons w/o a white 1,000 yard rusher.
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From Wikipedia:

His first pro campaign in Washington saw James and the Feds struggle to a 4-14 record. He rushed for 823 yards and 4 TDs in 14 games (starting 14). He also caught 40 passes out of the backfield that season.

The following year in 1984, James suffered a knee injury on Sun. March 4th in a game at RFK against the Philadelphia Stars. He was placed on injured reserve later that week. He was subsequently released by the cash-strapped Federals a month later allowing him to join the Patriots for their training camp in August that year.

With the Patriots, he was named Offensive Player of the Year by the Vince Lombardi Committee in 1985 and started in both the 1985 Pro Bowl and Super Bowl XX.

In the 1985-86 season, James rushed for 1,227 yards, becoming the last white player to rush for more than 1,000 yards in a season. He was a major factor in the Patriots 31-14 upset win over the Miami Dolphins in the AFC title game, rushing for a career postseason high 105 yards. However, he was dominated by the Bears defense in Super Bowl XX, who held him to only 1 yard on 5 carries.

James retired from the NFL after the 1988 season, having rushed for 2,469 yards and eleven touchdowns in his five seasons with the Patriots. He also garnered 819 yards receiving and two touchdown catches

 

[foreverfree]

Tough J., I had no idea James was in the USFL.

Speaking of which... what was the race ratio in the USFL? IIRC Reggie White got his start there. Of course, so did the Heis-men Herschel Walker and the magic Flutie (on a visit to BC during my 2006 vacation in Boston, I saw Flutie's #22 hanging on a wall, visible from the stands, inside Alumni Stadium).

John

 

[Maple Leaf]

Surely even the most doubtfull person would be forced to admit that the NFL's player-to-position assigments resemble a rehersed script. The result of which has created a black majority cast on every team. Anyone seriously denying that discrimination exists - what on this web site is called the Caste System - is not being honest or is not paying close enough attention. The administrators of this site and some of its most prolific posters have accumulated a long list of players that should have played in the NFL but did not play at all or played very little. Caste Football has proven beyond any reasonable doubt that white players have been and are systematically discriminated against and are tacitly removed from the game.

It began in the 1950's to appease political pressure, increase clientel, and generate public interest in the game. It increased gradually in the 1960's as NFL owners used black players to expand the availability of prospective workers and create more competitiveness in the football workplace and stabilize, if not drivedown, wage demands. Televison and televised sports expanded greatly during that period. Owners made more money through television. Players increasingly wanted a bigger share of team revenue. The owners fixed the problem. The owners could not very well move their businesses to Mexico or China like other companies do so... they brought in more and more and more blacks.

After the last strike in 1987 the NFL went and levelled off in the early 1990's to the modern average of a 70% black and 30% white ratio.

But the owners will not have the last laugh. As whites have been removed from the game white interest in the game has slowly waned. The Superbowl still draws 25%+/- numbers but regular season ratings are slowly dropping. All things change. Take a look at professional boxing these days.

 

[whiteathlete33]

I love football but watching these almost all black squads makes me sick. I am actually watching less football these days myself.

 

[DWFan]

It was before my time, but I get a kick out of the Washington Redskins. While the Chiefs (I'm pretty sure about that, but not totally) were the first team to be majority black, the Redskins wouldn't hire anyone but whites or Native Americans. Robert Kennedy had to shake them down (threatening to bar them from the stadium) and the Redskins' owner just went ahead and got rid of the team instead of complying.

 

[Colonel_Reb]

I know the NFL was majority blackin 1985. Probably in 1982 or 83 was when it became majority black as far as rosters go.