The Fall of Black Quarterbacks

Cam Newton in another loss

There are 5 Black Starting Quarterbacks, but 0 with a winning record

The collective record for Black Starting Quarterbacks in the NFL this year is 13-23. That is a mere 36% winning percentage, and none of them have a winning record. Maybe "fall" is a bit dramatic, but this is definitely a step in the wrong direction.

This is a step that they can not afford to take in a league where they are already a minority. 

In 2011, 65% of Starting Quarterbacks on the college level were African American. In that same year only 12.5% of NFL quarterbacks were black.

Those statistics could be because many black quarterbacks are dual threat and that is perceived to be "high risk" by many NFL coaches. No matter the cause, the stats don't lie and black quarterbacks are the minority.

This leaves little room for error for players that made it such as Michael Vick, Cam Newton, and Robert Griffin III, who are all currently under .500 this year. 

The Black QB with the best record is Russell Wilson. This is a rookie who didn't find out he was going to be starting until the end of the Pre-season, and now he's the pride of Black QBs in the NFL.

But it is also not always to the fault of the quarterbacks. In the cases of Josh Freeman and RGIII, they are having exceptional seasons statistically, but their teams are somewhat letting them down. 

Last week Griffin made a great drive to put the Redskins ahead of the Giants with under 2 minutes to go, but his defense failed him by allowing the Giants to score on a bomb to Victor Cruz.

That being said, not all of the blame is on these African-American Starting Quarterbacks, but playing quarterback in the NFL, you get most of the glory or most of the criticism. And as of late, they have been receiving much of the latter. 

This is not an attack on such quarterbacks, but a challenge for them to step up their recently sub-par play.