Racism is Still a Broken Record
How the NFL perpetuates a false narrative in their sport pertaining to racism.
Having grown up in Mississippi and stared racism in the face everywhere, school, shopping, and communities, today while much has changed but there is so much more that has not changed and needs to change to live in harmony.
The perpetrators of racism live in constant fear knowing the evil and the thievery of this country of being found out and having to be reckoned with, but worse yet the fear of the same treatment coming back to them haunts them daily.
Eric Dickerson is a living testament in sports that racism in the NFL is alive and thriving and he has to endure it, over and over again. With the ending of his record-breaking 1984 season, the league has issues pertaining to the color of one’s skin.
With an athletic resume comprised of three years of accomplishments and successes, setting the rookie rushing record (1,808 yards in 1983), the single-season rushing mark (2,105 yards in 1984), and helped lead the Rams to the NBC championship game in 1985, all the while had to deal with the underlying dynamics of the NFL regarding racism.
Dickerson lived with the fear of getting hurt playing football and been paralyzed for the rest of his life. This fear derived from a frightening dream he had years earlier. He felt this was inevitable given the nature of the sport. Then he decided moving forward he need to make some serious money for life.
His four-year contract of $2.2 million along with his $600,000 signing bonus was actually a forgivable loan, but after he got traded to the Colts in 1987, the Rams decided not to forgive the loan.
The first two years of Dickerson’s career were his best two years as a running back, couldn’t ask for a better season, statistically, he earned an average of $167,000 during a time when the top-paid running backs got close to a million per.
This discrepancy was an eye-opener as his concept of being a pro-football player was changing, reality stared him in the face as to how the NFL league really functioned.
Confirming this change, was the newspapers posting the salaries of other players compared to his and that was staggering was the difference in salary was large.
Along with this, he noticed how injured players found themselves cut in the middle of the season, team leaders and good players got traded because it was all about the team inside the locker room, and the profit for the people upstairs. The players and the sport were second to preserving the owner’s money.
This could be readily seen in the team’s practice facility. It was a facility in a junior high school in Orange Country, with a shabby field and short showers for taller players. Meeting rooms were cramped schools’ classrooms with fewer chairs, and small desks.
Even in the financial world, The RAMS banking practices were very questionable and at times players’ checks bounced as the NFL shuffled monies around from bank to bank. One bank termed the RAMS as “ Cash poor and moved money around to balance the books.”
Seeing how the Lakers and Dodgers put their players first, and pushed them to win for the team, Dickerson envied how they were treated compared to him and his teammates. The more he learned how other teams treated their players, the more Dickerson realized he was getting the short end of the stick in every way.
Another major issues with the NFL, the players were mostly Black and the owners were white along with the media that supported them. Therefore the media was biased and leaned toward the NFL owners’ interest. Their coverage of racism was slanted in favor of the institution’s ownership.
Even in high school, the media made Dickerson out to be some type of criminal, college was no different. Media writers were vicious toward Blacks and gracious toward whites, even in a situation where players’ performance equaled in every aspect of their careers. Some columnists went so far as to debate that Dickerson’s scholarship should have been taken away. This was a true eye-opener, dehumanizing, and blatant racism. In the face of all this racism, Dickerson was labeled “The Angry Black guy,” as it became a self-fulfilling prophecy.
Being nothing like portrayed in the media, many people and fans questioned that he was different than portrayed in the media. He advised he played hard, worked hard and fairness had left the room for him in the NFL. He felt like he was convicted of a crime he did not commit. The fan mail was horrendous, saying that he should play for free to entertain Whites, he was a monkey and should go back to Africa. These letters were even sent to his mother’s home.
The scary thought to him was these same people were the fans who sought his autograph, many hiding in plain sight, and wearing his jersey number 29. This type of racism frames one’s outlook on the white world and the NFL institution.
Dickerson was the Colin Kaepernick of his time. Just as Kaepernick was ran out of the NFL league for taking a knee in solidarity against racism, is indicative of all the racism embedded in sports, namely the NFL. He proclaimed he knew that Kaepernick would never play football again after taking his stance on racism.
White America wants to silence people of color from being who they are, taking a stand on issues, or just plain speaking out while it is okay for whites to do such without ramifications.
The white institution claimed that Kaepernick was disrespectful to the flag. America has disrespected its flag so many times, one can’t begin to count the number of times on fingers and toes. Such as slavery, wars, crimes against the Indigenous people, committing genocide, the legacy of white supremacy, Jim crowism, and the list goes on. America likes to bury its atrocities and pretend to the world that America is perfect and clean.
Kaepernick took a peaceful knee was banned from the NFL and on January 6 thousands of Trump protestors stormed the Capitol where many Capitol police were beaten, murdered, and maimed but yet white America called them peaceful protestors, everyday citizens, or good people.
Just think about this, if these protestors were Black, many may not have lived to tell about being in the Capitol while others would be recovering from their wounds and the ones left would still be in jail with high bails pending. Furthermore, as soon as they tried to reach the capital, the military would have been waiting to stoop them.
The world saw the truth about America and its systemic racist attitude toward people of color. America has pretended so many years as being a model Country for others to pattern after but on this day of January 6 the truth unfolded. Some white people were shocked on January 6, but Blacks weren’t having lived in this reality for years.
Dickerson felt the very team he gave his all for, his talent and his best were against him solely due to the color of his skin. If he was white, he would have been lifted so high, he’d be right in heaven seated next to God and the same is true for Kaepernick and many other Black athletes. Dickerson’s mother raised him to fear the cops and told him to respect them so that he could remain alive. Sadly, he has to do the same for his young son in years to come.
According to Dickerson, after George Floyd’s murder at the hands of ex-cop Derick Chauvin, the NFL proclaimed they had a revelation about racism and pledged $250 million over 10 years for anti-racism efforts. That is no money for them, a drop in the bucket for appeasement.
Again another band-aid for racism, but a band-aid on last for a period of time. Lip service does nothing to end racism, and an apology does nothing for Kaepernick, he is still out of the league.
The NFL players are 70 percent Black, with only two Black head coaches and one Black general manager, where’s the equality here based on the assumption that NFL finally got racism’s reality. Talk is cheap, but the walk is a different ball game. NFL talks one way and walks another and the two shall never meet to end racism.
In conclusion, the time has come for America to be true and fair toward all people and the NFL is no different. They must stop getting rich on the backs of the very people they hate.
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