Trayvon, Rue, and Tebow: Missed Connections
Turn on the news in the past few weeks and chances are the discussion has focused on the Trayvon Martin shooting (if a news channel), the success of the Hunger Games movie (if a entertainment segment), or the Tim Tebow to the Jets controversy (if Sports Talk).
The death of the young black man in a hoodie armed and dangerous with a can of sweet tea and a bag of skittles (obesity police alert) continues to slam the web with commentary (good and bad).[1] I cannot help but wonder how the situation would have played out if the situation had been reversed. Say Trayvon grabbed the gun and shot Zimmerman. Perhaps a mirror world would have many whites screaming for justice, and many blacks bemoaning the misunderstanding of the shooter. It seems that where you stand is strongly determined by your skin color. On facebook I had the temerity to post a hooded shot of myself and had a good friend treat me like an idiot who had not read any of the coverage. Meanwhile many friends whom I love and respect have given Zimmerman the benefit of the doubt (that unfortunately they never seem to give African-American men in similar situations). I have remarked that in reactions you see that many whites have a graduated view on race. Many of these same defenders of Zimmerman have spent much of the past year arguing to me that Hispanics (particularly those 1st or 2nd generation immigrants) represent a clear and present danger have dropped their suspicions of this immigrant’s son.[2] Yet when the Hispanic shoots a black kid in a hoodie, black trumps Hispanic, I guess.
For those of you who think my use of the race card is antiquated and proof of my liberal slide into victimized nonsense, I offer the Hunger Games Twitter fiasco. Here is a sample tweet from one excited fan as he viewed the movie (warning bad language: ahead are words I do not use but simply quote here in the context of explaining this person’s worldview fully):
“HOW IN THE WORLD ARE THEY GOING TO MAKE RUE A FREAKIN BLACK BITCH IN THE MOVIE ?!?!?!??!”
Another hyperventiling twit, had this wise counsel on the use of a black actress to play Rue:
“Kk call me racist but when I found out rue was black her death wasn’t as sad” [3]
Since the previous twit did my work for me, let me move on with name-calling. In this incident (occurring in real time right next to the Trayvon madness) I was dismayed. First in the book itself, Rue was explicitly described as black. This is important because both the previous twits show familiarity and love for the book. It seems that as they read they had envisioned Rue as a white character, and been as moved as any of us by the sacrifice of Rue (saving the main White character), and said character’s emotional guesture of respect for her friend’s loss of life. Sadly for some that loss only had meaning if the character was white, and when their eyes could not betray them as their imaginations had, that loss lost its significance. Here again the loss of a black life was considered meaningless and excused as just them liberals trying to mess withAmerica.
Both of these accounts intertwined for me as I read accounts of both (back-to-back) while in the waiting room of my eye doctor. I was struck by the similarities in outrage and the lack of that outrage and what they meant for our supposed “post-racial” culture.[4] As I tried to makes sense of these strange people (some of whom I have long thought well-adjusted to life), I remembered a conversation I had the day before. In the breakroom at work I had discussed the movement of my man, Peyton Manning[5], to the Denver Broncos. I remarked to one friend that I had been deemed bad by many friends who were upset that my boy had supplanted their good friend Tim Tebow. I was arguing forcefully (and cogently I might add) that the signing of Peyton was a good business move for the Broncos as they had added the last piece to a Super Bowl contender. “Peyton is a sure-fireHOF quarterback who has already been there and done that,” I ranted, “Tebow won a playoff game, a game.” I ended with my concern for the football savvy of anyone who would argue for Tebow’s greatness over against one of the best to play the game. My friend calmly took in my rant, and replied, “the problem is that Tebow is a great person, and many of our Christian friends have long confused being a good person with being good at their position.” I was thunderstruck remembering all the times I had asked other Christians for advice on a plumber, a dentist, or so forth. Time after time they gave me the name of some person with only the proviso that “this one was a Christian.” I always thought I don’t care about the orthodoxy of their religious beliefs, just tell me if they can fix my sink, cap my tooth, and not overcharge me in the process.
Yet the mistake made was one of false equivalency. The sad fact is that for some of my otherwise “good” friends being Christian means being good at their job; being white means being a valued citizen whose death is important; and unfortunately being black means being a potential threat to the community at large. Yet in all of these cases the one does not necessarily equate to the other. Yes there are some Christians who are good quarterbacks (see Warner, Kurt). Yes there are many white men and women who lead amazing lives and whose death is a cause for concern (see Tillman, Pat). And yes, unfortunately, there are some African-American men and women who represent a clear and present danger to others. But none of these should be granted the status of an always true statement; in fact, many times these are not the cases. Tebow’s throwing motion is a disaster, and his ability to read a defense is questionable.[6] Rue stands as a great black character whose death mattered regardless of her color. And Trayvon was not the thief who had been plagued that gated community. He was most likely a cold kid lost in the rain as he attempted to bring food and drink back to the kid he was watching while their parents were on a date. Maybe he should not have reacted with frustration and anger when Zimmerman followed him down the street and challenged his right to be there; but seriously can you blame him. If you were walking down the street noticed someone paying too close attention to you, had that same person jump out of his car and chase after you when you freaked and ran. If that person had a gun on their waist while they demanded you prove your right to be there. How would you have handled yourself? If that person was your son how would you feel about his death?
Think about it this: if Tebow was an arrogant jerk with the last name Vick, and a different complexion would you still argue he should be a starter? Or play this out: what fictional characters mean the most to you. In the realm of movies which character deaths have most affected you, and whose deaths have you brushed off as unimportant? When you pick up a book and imagine the characters in your brain, what color are they? If you have to, perhaps, you might imagine Trayvon was white, had a Hilfiger jacket on, and was named Bubba. Playing these games, and mentally visiting these alternate earths where Tebow is a punk, and both Rue and Trayvon are white might just clue you into some important truth about yourself. Maybe it’s time to take stock of the mental framework that undergirds your perspective on the world. Maybe it’s time to carefully consider the social construction of your world view. Maybe its time to admit that Christians can suck at their jobs and African-Americans can be role models. And maybe, just maybe the next time a black youth is gunned down in his prime for the crime of getting lost and wandering too close to your home, you, too, will feel some outrage. Because until we all get in on the outrage and demand better from ourselves and our communities, black boys are going to continue bleeding to death on our manicured lawns.
[2] I would be interested to visit a multi-verse earth in which Martin was white and had been shot by the Hispanic Zimmerman. I can hear alternate Rush and Beck screaming that we need to be saved from the brown scourge of Hispanic immigration (much as our R&B do everytime some white Arizonan is killed within a 100 miles of the border).
[4] I mean we have a black president who got into office without any racial problems popping up- wait, you have a viral picture for me to see waiting in my reader, OK, I multi-task. OMG, is this real. Wait she did say this was a racist statement, maybe we should…
[5] I was at UT for all of Peyton’s college career, and will continue to root for him until he retires, at which point I may drive to his house and root for his choices in beverages.
[6] QB rating is the best predictor of long-term success from your QB. Peyton has a career mark of 94.8. His brother, Eli, who has been oft criticized as a QB, has a lifetime 82.1. Rex Grossman, a QB that long frustrated my Chicago Bears with his schizophrenic play winning big against cream-puffs then exploding into futility once you believed that this was the year he would lead the team to glory, has a mark of 71.4. Tebow’s mark stands around 72. That record says to me that over time Tebow is more likely to resemble Grossman, than either Manning. For clarity that is not good. True, Grossman’s team did make a Super Bowl in 2007 when he posted a scorching 66.4; but the reason for that run was more found in the Bears D.
A Problem Named Tebow: The Modern Failure of Imagination
For the record I am an UT alum and well tend to despise anything from Gainesville (sorry thems the rules); and as a self-loathing evangelical (as one friend recently called me) I tend to get twitchy around “Jesus helps me win football game types.” Also on the record I hope that is the last reference to Tebow’s faith in this column (that story is done in my humble opinion). No what I want to address today is what I see as the essential Tebow problem: a c0llective failure of imagination both among the Football genius’s in Denver and those football savants in the media.
Tebow is not your prototypical QB (thanks Capt. Oblivious); but neither would he be a prototypical RB, FB, TE, or WR. He has a body type and skill set that defies quick categorization. I think that is what irks me the most watching him play, he does not look right out there on the field anywhere. It is annoying then to watch someone who does not look right be successful especially when one considers all the guys who have passed the eye test; yet, been miserable players ( I learned my lesson on this topic my sophomore year of college as I watched a freshman Peyton Manning and Brandon Stewart battle for the starting QB job- one of them looked the part and other turned out to be the part. Many in the league learned that same lesson in the Manning vs Leaf debate before the 98 draft).
That brings us to the problem that Tebow presents. We as fans; and both the Broncos staff and media have a fixed idea of what a QB is (and what a RB is, a FB is, and so on). Yet sometimes individuals come along that defy any such known categorization. So what do we do? Mostly we try to take these special individual and pigeonhole them into one such existing and arbitrary category. In the case of Tebow he has been asked, “what position do you want to play?” He has answered, “QB.” So we have said, “Alright try to do that, but here are our expectations for what a QB does. He does this, this, and this; and occasionally we let him do this, this, or this.” The problem is, though, doing these things is not Tebow at his best, and so he even though he has worked extremely hard and made miles of progress he is still no where near what we expect, want, judge, or deem acceptable. AND WE BLAME TEBOW FOR NOT MEETING THESE EXPECTATIONS! “See!” we say, “I told you he wasn’t that good. He’s all hype and no substance.”
But what if the Denver Broncos were to admit that Tebow is not a normal QB, and what if there were to say rather than pigeonholing him into a position that is an ill-fit (at best), we are going to do something different. He is going to be a starter. He is going to be on the field for every play that our offense runs, but he is not going to be assigned a position that anyone currently recognizes. What if they went out and recruited a good QB, a game manager-type (with a little athleticism and great confidence), a guy that is solid, stable, and can make most of the throws and reads a ‘normal’ QB has to make? And what if you put him out there with Tebow? What if Tebow and said QB wander all over the field? What if some plays Tebow lines up at QB and runs a spread offense and sometimes a little wildcat? What if sometimes he lined up in the backfield at either the FB or RB position and was available as a runner (who is a threat to throw) and as a decoy or extra blocker? What if he lined up as a split-end slot and worked routes like Aaron Hernandez does for the Patriots or Anthony Gonzalez has at times for the Colts? What if he went into motion and was available to take direct snaps, quick handoffs, and pitches for end-arounds and reverses (always a threat to throw)? Would you want to be the DE with backside contain responsibilities who had to take down a Tebow going full-steam after taking a pitch? What he went in motion took a pitch and then had both the fullback and running back go with him for the threat of the option or just on the option? What if he took a screen-pass and then had the ball in space to use his natural running ability? Would you want to be the poor CB with screen responsibilities who had to fight off a block just for the honor of going after a Tebow running in space? Can you imagine the sleepless nights opposing D Coordinators would have trying to scheme for this type of wide open anything can happen offense? And how would opposing defenses be ready for this type of offense (which they guaranteed never to have seen before or again)? Can you imagine the joy Bronco RBs, TEs, and WRs would feel as confused defenses fell over themselves trying to account for Tebow, only to forget to stay solid with Demaryus Thomas on the fly or Eric Decker on the post or as Tebow flys by in motion taking half the defense so that Ball can take a handoff off the tackle side that Tebow just vacated? I can hear the critics now saying, “you can’t do that. It would never work, and beside it would be a lot of work and what if he gets hurt?” The answers in order: watch us, just because it hasn’t been done does not mean it can’t be, and if so we run the same plays we currently run, and play more basic techniques (or perhaps we find some other athletes that don’t fit elsewhere and have them doing some of the same things).
I am currently reading the book, Too Big to Fail (review to come), and someone that has amazed has been the lack of imagination shown by the businesses involved. Yes, they have shown creativity in creating really bizarre investments; but they failed because even then they could not see beyond the categories they had already created. When Lehman failed to see that CDOs are not like the fixed assets their leaders grew up trading; they painted themselves into corners that only a tax-payer funded bailout could fix (and even then not so much). Or take this morning as I watched the brilliant film Moneyball (review pending as well), the problem addressed in the film is the failure of great baseball minds to think outside the box, the inability to see the values in players that did not play the way they were supposed to play. Beyond these three examples we see it day-in and out, at our jobs, at our churches, in our schools, in our governments, in our families, and so on and so on. Everyday we are surrounded by people that we attempt to quickly categorize, sort, and lump into their accepted places. We do this to try and make sense of our lives and ease up on the pressures of life. Yet how often do the people we know easily fall into the categories we have created for them (nor even does God, but that is another essay for another day)? I would argue that this is rare. So why can’t we have the courage to allow the people in our lives to break out of our neat nomenclatures? Why don’t we have the imaginations to see others in new ways, and new shades? Why do we force people into ill-fitting roles which do not suit and then blame them for the failure to not be what we thought they should have been? Why get mad because your husband failed to fill the role you had for him? Why get mad that your boss refuses to be the type boss you expect? Why fire employees for not meeting job descriptions for which they did not match? To break out of our comfortable fantasies and live life outside these imagined boundaries would take all our energy, our strength,our wits, and our patience; but I got to think that once freed from their bounds, these newly liberated beings might just surprise us, and in that surprise bring unimaginable joys and benefits.
Love / Hate Unsanitary