Editor’s note: The following article is an op-ed, and the views expressed are the author’s own. Read more opinions on theGrio.
Stereotypes come in all shapes and sizes, from who’s super athletic and takes prison calls from their dad, to who’s super smart and takes advanced STEM classes in college. The problem comes when we ascribe such oversimplified concepts to one group of people, ignoring the fact that every group has members with similar attributes.
NFL rookie quarterback C.J. Stroud grew up near Hollywood, under circumstances often depicted in movies involving young Black men. He’s the star athlete whose life changed at 13 when his father went to jail. Struggles followed but mom held it together for the family, and now Stroud has sped from Rookie of the Year talk to Most Valuable Player discussions.
Where’s the anonymous NFL executive who issued a “red alert” before the draft? He warned teams to avoid Stroud because he performed miserably on a standardized test. Fortunately, the leaked score didn’t stop Houston from drafting Stroud with the No. 2 pick, and it didn’t stop Stroud from torching rookie passing records through nine games.
But did you hear the one about the young Black man from a two-parent household (both executives) who eventually became an aerospace engineer and the Minnesota Vikings starting quarterback? Josh Dobbs, one of the all-time brainiest players at the game’s most mentally demanding position, is routinely lauded for his intelligence. That couldn’t be further from the standard mold that’s popular within writers’ rooms and central casting. Yet Dobbs is the protagonist who’s 2-0 with Minnesota in an absolutely wild tale.
The script has flipped in unprecedented fashion, moving into the Age of the Black QB. Players at the NFL’s most crucial, cerebral and celebrated spot are doused in melanin, hailing from a variety of multidimensional backgrounds.
Stroud and Dobbs were among a record 14 Black quarterbacks who started in Week 1, including this year’s No. 1 pick (Bryce Young) and No. 4 pick (Anthony Richardson). Stroud is a foundational piece for Houston’s rebuild under rookie head coach DeMeco Ryans. Dobbs was a seven-year veteran with his sixth team, the Arizona Cardinals, who acquired him from the Cleveland Browns just two weeks earlier. The Vikings became his seventh team two weeks ago.
Expectations for the two QBs varied widely entering the season, but they have blown their projections to smithereens. Moreover, both men offer case studies on breaking stereotypes that don’t fit.
Black quarterbacks are supposed to be willing and able scramblers, but Stroud didn’t run much at Ohio State, where he threw to future first-round receivers like Garrett Wilson, Chris Olave and Jaxon Smith-Njigba. In addition to his score on the S2 Cognitive Test, critics questioned his ability to take off and scamper. He had a great explanation. “When dudes are open, you feed your guys the ball or they look at you like you’re crazy,” he said shortly before the draft. “If you’re open, you’re going to get the ball.”
Stroud doesn’t have the same caliber receivers in Houston, but he’s led the Texans to five victories in their last seven contests. He has passed for 826 yards and six touchdowns over the last two weeks, which include back-to-back game-winning drives in the closing seconds.
Dobbs has been more willing to use his legs, but the last two weeks have been a whirlwind, requiring more intellect than athleticism. He didn’t know the plays or most teammates’ names when he was thrown into action on Nov. 5, five days after arriving. But he replaced the injured starter early in the game and rallied the team to victory with 22 seconds left.
Head coach Kevin O’Connell was in Dobbs’ ear before every snap, giving the newcomer tips along with the play call. “I hope people understand that what Josh Dobbs was able to accomplish was very, very special, and I’m really proud of him,” O’Connell said. “What he was able to do in five days’ time was as impressive as anything I’ve seen a quarterback do.” Then Dobbs engineered another victory last Sunday in his first start for the Vikings.
Dubbed “the Passtronaut,” by NASA, Dobbs is the NFL’s feel-good story of the year, big enough to get Taylor Swift treatment on the league’s social media pages. We might’ve bet on his success — in football or outer space — based on his upbringing. His supportive parents emphasized academics and weeded out several colleges until Tennessee committed to accommodate a quarterback studying aeronautical engineering.
Quarterbacks dominate NFL draft picks
Stroud’s path easily could’ve gone left in 2016 when his father, Coleridge Bernard Stroud III, pleaded guilty to carjacking, kidnapping and robbery charges in a drug-related incident that netted a 38-years-to-life sentence, partly due to California’s Three Strikes law. Stroud’s family nearly went homeless at one point and spent his high school years living in a small apartment above a storge unit.
“He had a choice when his father went away,” Kimberly Stroud told Sports Illustrated. “He was going to let that motivate him and be the best or he was going to succumb to it and become a statistic of a kid whose parent did something they shouldn’t.”
Stroud and his father didn’t speak for more than five years but have since reconciled. Now Stroud, once reluctant to speak about his father’s incarceration, is advocating for prison reform. He brought up the subject Nov. 5 after breaking the NFL rookie record for most passing yards in a game.
“Our criminal justice system isn’t right, and it’s something that I need to probably be a little more vocal about, because what he’s going through is not right,” Stroud said. “It’s not just my dad’s situation, but the whole criminal justice system is corrupt.”
Whether the topic is prison reform or rocket science, Stroud and Dobbs aren’t sticking to sports. They won’t be put in a box.
And we love it.
Deron Snyder, from Brooklyn, is an award-winning columnist who lives near D.C. and pledged Alpha at HU-You Know! He’s reaching high, lying low, moving on, pushing off, keeping up, and throwing down. Got it? Get more at blackdoorventures.com/deron.
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