Deion Sanders: (Synopsis) - White guys CAN run!

Submitted by boliver46 on

Interesting story in the vein of the Good White Guy Basketball Player theme: "Not Just a Shooter"...

Troy Apke is turning heads at the combine, with a 4.35 40-yard Dash (along with a 41 inch vertical).

Deion Sanders was impressed, but couldn't tell you exactly WHY he was so impressed:

“Oh man, he can run,” Sanders said, stopping the conversation he was having with NFL Network analysts Mike Mayock and Rich Eisen.  “Why are you surprised Deion?” Mayock joked. “You know why I’m surprised. I can’t say it on TV. But he can run run,” Sanders said.  Yes, that’s (presumably) a joke about Apke being white and running fast.  “You don’t see that much. Let’s call it what it is,” Sanders said.

 

 

Along with some of the comments made yesterday about the guy from UCF with one hand, the commentary by some of these talking heads makes me shake my head.

Link

ThatTCGuy

March 6th, 2018 at 11:30 AM ^

I'm not really bothered by what Deion said. I'm more upset with Mayock clearly baiting Deion into saying something that'd get him in trouble with the networks.

snarling wolverine

March 6th, 2018 at 11:41 AM ^

I know I'm supposed to take offense, but frankly I agree - I wouldn't have expected him to run that fast, either.  Deceptive speed!

I did, however, expect him to bring his lunch bucket to the Combine and impress everyone with his grit, motor, and love of the game.

 

 

snarling wolverine

March 6th, 2018 at 12:09 PM ^

Having said that, I wouldn't doubt that white athletes in certain sports have to deal with some prejudice that may hurt their careers, or perhaps cause them to be steered away into other sports altogether.  

It's interesting that there are a number of Europeans who have made it big in the NBA, while white American players are mostly role players.  For our white guys, it seems there are two options: the Just a Shooter guy on the perimeter, and the Big Statue in the paint.  That silly inside-outside Mo Wagner stuff?  Leave it to the Euros.

We are back

March 6th, 2018 at 12:26 PM ^

A friend of the family played 2 years at Central, during the first few weeks all the DBs raced and he won, the next day The Corners coach came over to him and said son we don’t think you are athletic enough for corner we are moving you to safety, he wasn’t physical enough for safety and decided to transfer to GVSU were he started every game at Corner and was all conference, even was invited to the local combine at ford field. I have no doubt the move came because he is white,

WestQuad

March 6th, 2018 at 1:24 PM ^

I had a friend who played at Western.  He said he didn't get a fair look on the D-line  even though he thought he was better/stronger/faster because the coaches were prejudiced against the white athletes.  My friend is super racist and was a walk-on who probably wasn't as good despite all of the steroids.    

There are definitely biases, but other than issues with weed, attitude or grades the coaches are going to start the better player 99 times out of 100 regardless of color.   Coaches want to win.

snarling wolverine

March 6th, 2018 at 2:14 PM ^

I think the prejudice would kick in earlier, actually - at the point where kids are earlier in their skill development. It wouldn’t surprise me that white/black kids are steered toward different positions, not to mention sports. By the time you get to the NCAA/pro level, it’s probably lower simply because the pressure to win is too great.

gmoney41

March 6th, 2018 at 3:15 PM ^

I am a 5’8 white guy that could dunk and was really fast when I played in college. Most of my fellow teammates were shocked that I was schooling them. I loved how all the black players would underestimate me, but they quickly saw that I could play and we were great teammates. Stereotypes exist, and I never had an issue with subtle jabs at my race or how I was perceived to play, The truth is, I had to show them I belonged out there playing, and that’s kind of the way it was growing up and playing in various leagues. I would always get called John paxon or Steve Kerr. I always laughed and didn’t have an issue.

MeanJoe07

March 6th, 2018 at 12:05 PM ^

WAIT.  Do you mean to say that the variation of characteristics within racial groups can be greater than the variation between racial groups and assuming the "on average" attributes at the individual level is going to be inaccurate much of the time and is thus why being racist is an uninformed and unitllegent thing to be?  Horly steneard derviartions and berll curvres bertmern!

Carpetbagger

March 6th, 2018 at 12:20 PM ^

Yep, lost in all the "The Bell Curve" book controversy back in the day was the spread on most of the bell curves for humans. We are a truly amazingly adaptable and variagated race.

Some statistics wank could tell us about the standard deviation being such that the difference in the medians was statistically insignificant. I probably got that wrong.

AMazinBlue

March 6th, 2018 at 12:23 PM ^

And because it's about a white male, it's chuckled at and said to be 'okay'.  I'm not offended by it, but IF the definition of racism is judging someone by the color of his/her skin, well then  . .  it's racist. But it's not called that because it's a white male.

There was something written or stated somewhere in the last several months that racism only exists against minorites or people of lesser means or opportunity (paraphrased).  Basically that white people can't be victims of racism. (Not political, just relating the statement)