* White men are not really valued at Running Back, due to a perceived lack of explosiveness. With tough defenses, in the upper reaches of minor league (College) football, and in the NFL, all the speed and toughness and strength don’t mean as much as timing and explosiveness/acceleration. In other words, a first down rather than a sack at the goal line is determined by balance, the ability to “sit down” while running to the line and change direction suddenly and then accelerate through a tiny hole in the defensive line.
Accurate or not, White men are believed to lack this ability. And no amount of film, stats, or anything else will convince scouts and GMs to take a White running back for any significant draft picks or money, because you can’t go wrong with a Black pick (i.e. press and fans and owners won’t beat up the decision makers) like you can and will with a White player. Even if the White player dominates, the cry will always be that there were “better” picks who were Black left out there.
The sole exception is the Patriots, who under owner Kraft cares more about winning Superbowls in a small market team than aping Jerry Jones and other owners. Thus moneyballer Belichick is allowed a relatively free hand.
Indeed I’d argue that at least some of the anti-White male agenda stems from the fact that White men are just not competitive in much of the NFL save QB and a few short-yardage Wide Receivers (Edelman, etc.) Given that the NFL due to TV deals (its on over-the-air national broadcast TV on Sundays for decades) is the “national sport” this has negative impacts.
* Alabama gave Henry the ball 90 times in the last two games: that sounds pretty irreplaceable.
By the way, shouldn’t there be a limit in the college game on how many carries per game a player could have? Ricky Bell had a 56 carry 350 yard game for USC in the 1970s. Coach John McKay joked afterward that many carries isn’t bad for the running back because the ball isn’t heavy. Bell was dead within a decade of some weird disease. Unrelated? Probably. But still …
Or Earl Campbell, the single most heroic running back I’ve ever seen. His first 3 years in the pros his coach’s strategy was to have him personally beat up the 11 man defense for 3 quarters so he could run wild in the 4th quarter. Incredibly, it actually worked. But Campbell is pretty much in a wheelchair today.
A thirty carry maximum per game would seem pretty reasonable.
