Author Topic: White guy breaking the color barrier? (Read 382 times)

Teddy Roosevelt · « **on:** April 16, 2007, 01:35:42 PM »

Draft preview: White men can't run? Don't tell Rutgers' Leonard

Brian Leonard is not your ordinary running back.

He is white.

That might sound blunt and racially insensitive, but it's also true. There are plenty of white fullbacks on NFL rosters, but there is not one white running back who received carries -- other than fullbacks -- last season.

Leonard, a running back/fullback from Rutgers, hopes to change that.

"I'm trying to dispel the stereotype about white running backs," Leonard said. "You don't see a lot of white running backs. I would work my butt off to make sure I earned the respect of playing the position."

As Leonard prepares for the April 28 NFL Draft, he does so with the hope that teams aren't just pigeonholing him as a fullback. Even though he played that position the past two years, he's hoping teams see him more as a feature back.

"I don't consider myself just a fullback," he said. "I'm best with the ball in my hands. I can run it and catch it. Just using me as a lead blocker isn't getting the best out of me. I'll do it if that's what teams want, but it won't be getting the most out of me."

Fullbacks are rarely drafted high. So Leonard did something before the Senior Bowl to show scouts he wasn't just a fullback. He shed weight, showed up at 225 pounds, and proved that he was much more than just a linebacker-crunching blocker. The scouts said he had a good week in Mobile.

"He was much more explosive than I expected," said an AFC scout.

Fullbacks perform a thankless job, their car-crash blocks in the hole what helps to give all the glory to the running backs.

Who wouldn't want to be a running back then?

Leonard would like the chance. But the problem is white running backs have gone the way of the vinyl records and the Twist: prominent things of the 1960s that have faded away over time.

They're disappearing. They're as extinct as the New Zealand Laughing Owl.

Since 1980, there have been 90 running backs taken in the first round of the NFL Draft, not counting fullbacks. All 90 were black. There were two white fullbacks selected in the first round since 1980. Brad Muster in 1988 by the Chicago Bears and the other, Tommy Vardell, by the Cleveland Browns in 1992.
Advertisement

So who was the last white running back picked in the first round? It was John Cappelletti, who was picked 11th by the Los Angeles Rams in 1974, which means it's been 33 years. Since Leonard is not projected as a first-round pick, the trend should continue.

Leonard is 6-feet-1½, 235 pounds, runs the 40 in 4.52 and has the versatility to run inside the tackles, outside the end and catch the ball out of the backfield. But last year he was a fullback at Rutgers, leading the way for Ray Rice to run through holes.

When he was coming out of high school in New York, Leonard was recruited as a linebacker, safety and running back. Most schools saw him on defense. But Leonard wanted to play running back.

He considered Syracuse, but Rutgers made him a promise to keep him at running back. He was buried on the Rutgers depth chart as a redshirt freshman in camp in 2003, but during a practice that next summer the coaching staff was angry with the way the backs were running.

"Get in there, Leonard," one of them yelled.

"I ran for 30 yards on one play and then 40 the next," Leonard said. "They wanted somebody to run downhill, and I was that guy."

He ran for 880 yards and caught 53 passes as a freshman. He moved to fullback the next season, but still got carries as a runner, getting 192 for 733 yards. In 2005, he became a full-time fullback, with Rice moving in as the feature back. It stayed that way in 2006 when he carried just 93 times.

"I didn't get as many carries, and I could have come out after my junior season, but I felt that I wanted to go back and help Rutgers become a championship program," Leonard said. "The scouts know that I can carry the football as well as catch it and block it, even if I didn't carry it as much last season."

Some scouts think Leonard has the durability and skill to be effective as a single back. Other scouts say he will be at his best as a fullback.

"I will do whatever the team wants, but to just say I'm a fullback isn't right," Leonard said.

In the 1960s and 1970s, black quarterbacks were often told to move to other positions if they wanted a chance to play. Who knows how many potentially great quarterbacks were lost in that stupidity.

Now some 40 years after those mistakes, are teams making them again when it comes to white running backs? We're talking about high schools moving them to other positions, therefore never letting them get the chance to play running back on the next level, which means never making it to the NFL.

The last white running back to lead the NFL in rushing was Jim Taylor of the Green Bay Packers in 1962. Taylor, by the way, was a fullback.

Brian Leonard hopes to someday change that.

http://sportsline.com/nfl/story/10129176/2

Now_Im_Not_Banned · « **Reply #1 on:** April 16, 2007, 01:36:40 PM »

Someone's getting fired...

Don Jacob · « **Reply #2 on:** April 17, 2007, 12:44:39 PM »

:: totally kidding here::

they'll be a honky RB over my dead body if i have anything to say about this!

Teddy Roosevelt · « **Reply #3 on:** April 17, 2007, 06:28:50 PM »

This made me laugh because he made it seem like White people were being discriminated against. Something you usualyy here from Black people.

Shallow · « **Reply #4 on:** April 17, 2007, 07:10:13 PM »

Well I don't think it's NFL racism, more like slightly racist pushing at the young ages, but that's neither her nor there. If the NFL were to ever have a white running back again and he was even close to great as a starter he'd be one of the biggest stars in the league right away. People love shit that stands out. Black golfers, white rappers etc. As long as they are very good they get famous and treated like the best whether they are or not. If a white guy were to win the NBA dunk competition he'd be a huge star.

7even · « **Reply #5 on:** April 18, 2007, 03:57:38 AM »

^yea but taking a white guy when it is completely out of the norm is also a huge risk, because if he blows eventually you fucked up majorly. I dont consider this real racism, we don't have to act as if there were no tendacies to differences whatsoever