I’m in the middle of a few days of vacation, which has been a long time coming. One of the things I wanted to do was read a book that was a change of pace for me in terms of what I usually read. I had heard about this book several years ago, but I saw Third and a Mile at a dollar store so I threw down a buck and bought it.
This book is the story and journey of African-Americans gaining acceptance and respect in the premier position in sports in American culture – quarterback. It’s told with a little bit of narration, but a significant amount of quotes and anecdotes from the African American quarterback pioneers and those close to them. The firsthand stories and windows into the experience of battling explicit and implicit racism in the 50’s, 60’s, 70’s, and even 80’s is really powerful.
I wanted to read this to learn about this unique struggle to overcome culture and oppression. I was amazed at how racism was still at work even in the 80’s when I remember watching players like Doug Williams, Randall Cunningham and Warren Moon. It’s amazing what people went through to pave the way for people like Donovan McNab and the quarterbacks of today. It really is a great book to look at football history from a different lens. It’s a great lesson in cross-cultural awareness when you can recognize that there can be a totally different perception and experience of the same events because they are laced with meaning and significance depending on your background and context.
The author does not narrate all that much, but the only thing I didn’t really like was that there were conclusions about how some things are done even today that he equates to racism. For example he writes how Vince Young getting drafted ahead of Matt Leinert was “justice” because he proved himself superior in that Rose Bowl even though a lot of people questioned Young’s intelligence – a stereotype of the African American quarterback. Young came out of the gates fast, but has had some setbacks that would affirm some of people’s concerns about him coming out of college – just as Leinert has.
There seems to be a reaction against these types of decisions and quick conclusions that some modern decisions like this are anchored in latent racism. I agree that these scenarios call to mind a very painful history, but there are judgments made about players who history has not had a chance to judge. In 10 years we’ll be able to see some things more clearly. The author uses Michael Vick and Vince Young as the two examples of the modern day ultimate quarterback that proves the skeptics wrong, obviously writing before Vick’s imprisonment and Young’s mental and emotional flame-outs.
Regardless of some of the energy he has in making dogmatic conclusions based on Vince Young and Michael Vick, I applaud his efforts to bring this story to the light and help bring this history of a few pioneers into the broader history of sports and the NFL. It’s heartbreaking to read the fates of some of the early pioneers who were abused and rejected and driven to drugs and other coping mechanisms, while some of those they outperformed at times went on to great stardom like Terry Bradshaw and others.
Many paid a price for those we watch today to be able to thrive and make a living. Maybe the one line that captures the whole book comes from a quote from the late Gene Upshaw who said, “Pioneering is a bitch.” As I work with some of the pioneers of Ethnic minority ministry in a Caucasian world, I can see a lot of parallels actually and Gene Upshaw’s words ring true (no matter how rough or coarse they may be).
