Sunday, February 5, 2012

Who are those "Vanilla Midgets" on the Patriots Offense? Moneyball, White Athletes, and the New England Patriots Chase a Dynasty

Tonight's Super Bowl between the New York Giants and white America's team, the New England Patriots, is beautiful racial theater. Tom Brady and a team of - what the media would derisively call - 'vanilla midgets' (the very white Wes Welker, Julian Edelman, and Danny Woodhead - will face the Giants in a rematch of the Super Bowl where Eli Manning out-dueled the Patriots back in 2008. Not to mention the incredibly talented white tight end Rob Gronkowski, the 2011 Patriots were an offensive unit largely paced by white athletes.
Wes Welker (middle) and Rob Gronkowski, both had 1,000 yards receiving in 2012. Tom Brady is far left.

Here's the latest column at Vdare.com that I did, on the game:



The 2011 National Football League season ends Sunday February 5, when the New England Patriots play the New York Giants for the Lombardi Trophy in Super Bowl XLVI. Last year, the Superbowl game broke television rating records, with more than 111 million people watching the Green Bay Packers beat the Pittsburgh Steelers on Fox. Football has unmistakably supplanted baseball as America’s new “national pastime”.

The popularity of the NFL is due to various factors. The regular season consists of only 16 games, meaning it’s not impossibly time-consuming to follow your favorite team or player. And the NFL has instituted revenue-sharing from the awe-inspiring television contracts it has signed with networks like Fox, NBC, CBS, and ESPN, imposing a variant of socialism to ensure all teams have the same salary cap—the amount of money available to attract players. This creates a level financial field for every team—and means the NFL is more of a horse race (so to speak).

In contrast, professional baseball doesn’t have a salary cap. That’s why a team like the New York Yankees has a payroll of more than $202 million in 2012, compared to the Kansas City Royals’ $36 million. And when you can buy the best players and sign quality depth, a baseball team can basically mortgage the future of the franchise for a World Series victory. Indeed, the Florida Marlins have done this twice, in 1997 and 2003.

Still, Moneyball (book by Michael Lewis book, movie with Brad Pitt) is the definitive account of how Billy Beane, the Oakland A’s idiosyncratic but imaginative general manager, was able to turn a franchise with one of the smallest payrolls into one of the most competitive teams in baseball by finding what economists would call market inefficiencies in how talent was evaluated by scouts.

Beane’s idea, according to Lewis:



What he believed was what Paul Volcker seemed to suspect, that the market for baseball players was so inefficient, and the general grasp of sound baseball strategy so weak, that superior management could still run circles around taller piles of cash.

Beane sought more effective metrics for evaluating talent, assembled a team of supposed nobodies, and turned them into a ruthlessly efficient machine for winning games.

It worked. The A’s competed successfully with big-market teams flush with huge piles of cash, like the New York Yankees and the Boston Red Sox, repeatedly making it to the playoffs and winning 20 games in a row in 2002, breaking an American League record.

Beane had proved that market inefficiencies existed and revolutionized how baseball players are evaluated.

Of course, the situation is more complex in the NFL. Managers don’t have quite as free a hand, because the concept of a level-playing field is the unofficial mantra of the league—the team that finishes with worst record automatically gets the best positions in the NFL draft that year.

But the amazing success of the New England Patriots under head coach Bill Belichick, now competing in their fifth Super Bowl (they’ve won three), shows that market inefficiencies also exist in NFL scouting.  

And significantly, under Belichick, the Patriots have consistently fielded one of the whitest rosters in the sport. When you consider that the NFL has been 67 -70 percent Black over the past 15 years, it becomes increasingly clear that something strange is happening in New England. Why?

My view, as I argued in a prior column on Tim Tebow here at VDARE.com is that the NFL has a systematic anti-white bias.

Only one MSM sportswriter, the remarkable Jason Whitlock of Fox, has had the audacity to broach this subject. As a black guy, he can get away with writing about race.

Back in 2007, Whitlock argued bluntly that the abhorrent culture predominant in black America would eventually turn off white American football fans from black athletes (it happened in professional basketball) and, worse, damage the Black role in the game:



You get one NFL Truth today. Watching Chad Johnson and Larry Johnson undermine their respective head coaches, Marvin Lewis and Herm Edwards, on Sunday gave me a singular focus, forced me to contemplate an uncomfortable truth. 

African-American football players caught up in the rebellion and buffoonery of hip hop culture have given NFL owners and coaches a justifiable reason to whiten their rosters. That will be the legacy left by Chad, Larry and Tank Johnson, Pacman Jones, Terrell Owens, Michael Vick and all the other football bojanglers. 

In terms of opportunity for American-born black athletes, they're going to leave the game in far worse shape than they found it. 

It's already starting to happen. A little-publicized fact is that the Colts and the Patriots are the league's model franchises and are two of the whitest teams in the NFL. If you count rookie receiver Anthony Gonzalez, the Colts opened the season with an NFL-high 24 white players on their 53-man roster. Toss in linebacker Naivote Taulawakeiaho "Freddie" Keiaho and 47 percent of Tony Dungy's defending Super Bowl-champion roster is non-African-American. Bill Belichick's Patriots are nearly as white, boasting a 23-man non-African-American roster, counting linebacker Tiaina "Junior" Seau and backup quarterback Matt Gutierrez. 

For some reason, these facts are being ignored by the mainstream media. Could you imagine what would be written and discussed by the media if the Yankees and the Red Sox were chasing World Series titles with 11 African-Americans on their 25-man rosters (45 percent)? 

We would be inundated with information and analysis on the social significance. Well, trust me, what is happening with the roster of the Patriots and the Colts and with Roger Goodell's disciplinary crackdown are all socially significant. 

 [NFL truth: Hip-hop culture hurting NFL  by Jason Whitlock, October 25, 2007]

Whitlock wrote about the racial dynamics of the Indianapolis Colts again in 2010, pointing out that the Peyton Manning-led offensive unit played 10 whites (out of 11 available positions). The lone black player on the field was a running back. As he said:



“The unwritten rule in sports writing/journalism is we’re only supposed to mention racial progress when it involves dark-skin minorities. Obviously, I don’t care about rules.”[NFL Truths: Colts offense has white stuff, Foxsports.com, Sept. 30, 2010]

And a recent Whitlock column on the Patriots’ game with the Baltimore Ravens—the winner was to go on to the Super Bowl—was perhaps the most racially combustible of his career:



Ravens-PatriotsTom Brady vs. Ray Lewis — is a cultural war of the highest order.

Look, we can tip-toe around it, ignore the big beautiful elephant in the room, or we can embrace the fact that Sunday’s AFC Championship contest is soaked in the white-black racial component that has driven American sports passion at least since Jack Johnson whipped James J. Jeffries.

The stakes are high this Sunday.

Brady leads an offense built in his image. In a league that is predominantly black, Brady directs a high-flying offense that is predominantly white and relies on a deep cast of white playmakers.

Lewis leads a defense built in his brash image. Nine of the 11 Ravens defenders are African-American. To compensate for Baltimore’s inconsistent offense, Lewis’ defense not only takes risks to create turnovers, they take even more risks trying to convert those turnovers into instant points.

[Ravens-Patriots is ultimate cultural clash, by Jason Whitlock, Fox Sports, January 20, 2012]

Obviously, the Patriots won.

The Patriots’ All-Pro quarterback Tom Brady has consistently had five white offensive lineman protecting him (take a look at this famous 2005 Visa commercial with Brady’s lineman) during the team’s unbelievable run in the 2000s, where they set the NFL record for wins in a decade.

But of course, we can’t talk about this (outside of VDARE.com). Michael Holley recently published an excellent book, War Room: The Legacy of Bill Belichick and the Art of Building the Perfect Team,,  on the machine that Belichick has built in New England. But, typically, he didn’t mention the racial aspect of the team even once.

However, recently-retired former Patriots white fullback Heath Evans, whose career was rejuvenated by New England after he was waived by the Miami Dolphins, was devastatingly frank in an interview with the New Orleans Times-Picayune’s  Jeff Duncan



"You have some teams that are racially divided. You have some teams that are positionally divided. Some teams divided between offense and defense. Everyone has to buy in and be on the same page."

Nurturing such an environment in the "me generation" can be difficult. If not managed properly, the wealth and fame associated with the NFL can be hazardous to a locker room's cultural health.

"I believe the difference between winning and losing, between first and last place, is this much," Evans said, holding his thumb and index finger an inch apart. "Not every team has great leadership."[Saints make effort to limit culture shock, August 02, 2009]

Evans got his chance to start at running back for Belichick’s Patriots —something he was denied at Auburn University, which he attributed it to his whiteness. And he ran for 84 yards on 17 carries, and caught three passes for 18 yards, in a game against the same team that had just cut him.

Similarly, the key contributors to the 2011 Patriots offense have primarily been white players overlooked and undervalued by the other 31 franchises—until they were all signed by the Patriots and allowed to mature as a team together.
Read the rest at Vdare. Comment on it here, but please use social media (Facebook and Twitter) to share it.

Michael Oriard, writing in Brand NFL: Making and Selling America's Sport, included a chapter titled 'Football in Black and White' where he wrote this paragraph in regards to the conspicuous whiteness of the Patriots:
Here I cannot document my claims, because no one would have been foolish enough to write such things, but I am certain that in 2004 [Tom] Brady (and Peyton Manning) appeared whiter to football fans than any white quareterbacks before them, because of the many black quarterbacks jockeying with them for NFL supremacy. I am also sure that the Patrios were coded white, the Eagles black, in the racial theater of the 2005 Super Bowl, and not just because of Brady. 


As the media constantly reminded us over the course of the season and through the playoffs, under Bill Belichick the Patriot players did  not celebrate, they put the team ahead of themselves, and several of them signed for less money to remain with the club. Their most notable off-season acquisition, running back Corey Dillon, had arrived with the reputation of a selfish troublemaker only to be reborn as another Patriot team player. Dillon was black, as were key Patriots such as Willie McGinest, Richard Seymour, Rodney Harrison, and Deion Branch. The Patriots were black and white, like every other team in the NFL. But they seemed the whitest team in professional football because what they stood for had been coded "white" in a racial mythology that began in white bigotry, persisted less openly with the end of segregation, and had been fed in recent years by black showmanship.

Black showmanship. Let's be honest, most Black players in the NFL actively engage in strange celebrations that appear to be scripted from a Jim Crow-era Minstrel Show. One such player Chad "Ochocinco" Johnson, made a career based on his extracurricular activities and showmanship. After signing this season with the Patriots this season (he has only 15 receptions all year), Ochocinco has embraced the Patriots overt-white style of play.

He called the Patriots offensive-style of play "a machine"-- it should be noted that that offense is the whitest in the NFL:

Reacting to quarterback Tom Brady throwing for 517 yards and four touchdowns in a 38-24 win over Miami, Ochocinco tweeted: "Just waking up after a late arrival, I've never seen a machine operate like that n person, to see video game numbers put up n person was WOW."

Despite the Patriots marching up and down the field, Ochocinco had only one catch for 14 yards. Five New England receivers had more yards and three of the five had touchdown receptions.
ESPN analyst Tedy Bruschi, appearing on sports radio WEEI, said Ochocinco better "drop the awe factor" and "stop tweeting and get in your playbook." 

Bruschi added that Ochocinco shouldn't be looking at the Patriots' performance from a fan's perspective, but instead should assume this is the team's expectation.

"You're not someone who's on another team or watching TV," Bruschi said. "You're not an analyst. You're a part of it. They want you to be a part of it. So get with the program because obviously you're not getting it and you're tweeting because you're saying, 'It's amazing to see'? It's amazing to see because you don't understand it. You still don't understand it and it's amazing to you because you can't get it.
Fifteen catches. That's all. Most of the NFL is just one Minstrel Show in between actual football. The Patriots?

They've turned the concept of Moneyball on its head; they find undervalued white players (as of late) and turn them - as a unit, a team - into winners. Don't be shocked if a bunch of white guys beat the Giants by a few touchdowns tonight. Don't be shocked if other teams realize the obvious racial aspects of the Patriots team unity.

37 comments:

YIH said...

Guess this the official SB thread.
Pats to cover.

Anonymous said...

"the Florida Marlins have done this twice, in 1997 and 2003."

For the record, the 2003 Marlins had a low payroll, I think it was around $55 million. Other than Pudge Rodriguez, they were a bunch of rookies and unknowns. The NY Yankees (who they defeated in the World Series) payroll was about $160 million.

Zenster said...

African-American football players caught up in the rebellion and buffoonery of hip hop culture have given NFL owners and coaches a justifiable reason to whiten their rosters. That will be the legacy left by Chad, Larry and Tank Johnson, Pacman Jones, Terrell Owens, Michael Vick and all the other football bojanglers.

In terms of opportunity for American-born black athletes, they're going to leave the game in far worse shape than they found it.
[emphasis added]

Yet another indication that wherever Blacks go, they have an unavoidable urge to foul the nest.

Charles Martel said...

Do your job, stop dancing, act like you've been there before. A simple focus on hard work seems alien to a mind like Chad Johnson. This is of course no real surprise to those of us who have been subjected to the ever increasing Soul Train like celebrations of even the most mundane completed plays.

I still remember the embarrassing Ickie shuffle and crying on the inside as McMahon embarrassed all of us real human beings with his Super-bowl Shuffle rap.

The joke will finally be on BRA if their wildest dreams are made real and all large cities become copies of Detroit. Having an entire country devoted to lying about its' accomplishments, being unaccountable for its' crimes and being unappreciative of any real opportunities it has been given has a very very very low chance of survival.

Okay let's be honest NO CHANCE. Liberia, Haiti, Detroit and Niger are some great examples of what will happen to the whole world if BRA isn't stopped and indeed driven back into the Sub-Saharan from whence it came.

A good article might be to chart the rise of petroleum based products, free medical care and the surging populations of blacks.

Zenster said...

Anonymous (February 5, 2012 2:42 PM): For the record, the 2003 Marlins had a low payroll, I think it was around $55 million. Other than Pudge Rodriguez, they were a bunch of rookies and unknowns. The NY Yankees (who they defeated in the World Series) payroll was about $160 million.

I would compare this sort of capitalization upon "market inefficiencies" with the strategy used last year by the San Fransisco Giants which led to their long-awaited World Series win.

By hoovering up a bunch of players that were cut in mid-season, not only did the SF Giants get some real basement bargains, they also got a bunch of guys who, quite literally, had everything to win and everything to lose.

Had these newcomers not accepted the Giants' offer, they might have seen their careers stall or fail entirely. Instead, they had a chance to play Major League ball and managed to help secure their team a victory that would forever boost their own overall career earning power.

Rarely does one see this sort of win-win in today's professional sports. Most certainly not in the NFL's moneyball minstrel show (hat tip: Jason Whitlock).

Anonymous said...

Is it smart to back a particular team based on race? The Giants don't look particularly blacker or whiter than the Pats.

My issue with it all is the constant stoppage of play. If play were more or less continous, like Rugby, your black players wouldn't be able to cope. They need coaching continuously and plenty of breathers.

Van said...

"racial mythology that began in white bigotry, persisted less openly with the end of segregation, and had been fed in recent years by black showmanship."

Let's see if I follow: "stereotype" exists about how blacks behave. Said "stereotype" is deemed "racist." When given the opportunity to behave as they please, without external pressure from an outside culture, blacks behave in a way that confirms previous "stereotype." Conclusion: whites are racist.

I would've gone the other way, and concluded that the behavior of blacks, when they are allowed to create their own culture, if congruent with previous expectations, would in fact validate those expectations, and remove the "racist" accusations. But what do I know? My MS, including coursework in research and methodology, and decade of related work experience, have nothing to do with such things.

Anonymous said...

Old-line SEC fan here. Despite not clicking until the last drive of the half, the Patriots lead 10-9 at halftime.

Van said...

So Hank Williams,Jr gets fired for making an analogy between Obama/Boehner and Hitler/Netanyaho, comparing the relationships (but never actually calling Obama Hitler) and gets fired.

But Madonna, who in fact DID call GWB Hitler, is OK to perform at the Super Bowl. With a guy who attempted to assault Mitt Romney on a plane a few years ago.

What the fuck is wrong with this country?

Anonymous said...

White America's team? What is this, a joke? The team is 60% black. They're white America's team because they are only 60% black rather than 88%? Look at this:

http://i.cdn.turner.com/sivault/multimedia/photo_gallery/0902/history.feb6/images/corey-dillon.jpg

Lew said...

I haven't followed the Patriots this year. This White RB Woodhead looks pretty good.

Has anyone ever openly criticized the Patriots for being too White? If so, I've never seen it.

Van said...

"ever increasing Soul Train like celebrations of even the most mundane completed plays."

I noticed a (black) Giants player celebrating after a tackle. After the play went for a first down. I believe it was an end-around to Welker.

Van said...

I seriously can't stand Betty White. Enough.

Anonymous said...

Old-line SEC fan here. Oriard played for Notre Dame and then a few years with the Kanss City Chiefs. He is sort of a Tim Wise of football.

Zenster said...

Anonymous (February 5, 2012 5:12 PM): White America's team? What is this, a joke?

Do you even bother to read the article?

The Patriots were black and white, like every other team in the NFL. But they seemed the whitest team in professional football because what they stood for had been coded "white" in a racial mythology that began in white bigotry, persisted less openly with the end of segregation, and had been fed in recent years by black showmanship. [emphasis added]

Capiche?

Sure, it would be nice if there was an all-White team in the NFL. With today's blind adherence to the myth of Black athletic superiority, that just isn't going to happen. Not anytime soon, if ever. That is, unless Liberia finally realizes its original charter.

Anonymous said...

To waste your life on what black folks are doing.

Anonymous said...

According to the almost-there DWLs at the "STOP Racist Unfair Campaign" facebook page, some of the billboards put up by the "Un-Fair Campaign" have either come down or been painted over with black:

https://www.facebook.com/groups/Stopunfaircampaign/

Quotes:

Tim Phipps: Has anyone seen the unfaircampaign.org billboard on I35 today? I think it's gone.

Megan Cobb: Really?!?

Tim Phipps: I know that the billboard at central ave & I35 was black on both sides about an hour ago

Anonymous said...

BadOwl....maybe have several accounts, and remember the govt thru google and facebook is watching you.

Anonymous said...

As a white guy, I am upset that Welker dropped that wide open pass with 4 minutes left in the game. If he catches that, the Patriots probably win, or at least eat more clock and are in field goal range. They would have had a first down deep in NY territory.

Welker is never going to forget that one.

YIH said...

Good thing I didn't put any money on it.
The Patriots pissed that game away, just like '08.

Anonymous said...

MIA gives the finger at the Super Bowl. Way to go, you just made Janet Jackson look classy. Just another in a long line of talentless performers who are more content to be infamous for their actions than recognized for their ability.

There was a hope in the 1960's that the blacks would become more like middle-class whites. That hope is dead, the sad truth is that they are debasing us.

Anonymous said...

Love the blog and I love the Patriots and what they have been able to do, but damn

18-1 forever.

Whiskey said...

The Giants won because their cover guys were/are excellent, allowing the pass rush to make Brady hurry, and miss throws, or throw it away. Well that and BB is tactically unsound, making poor gambles. The better bet was to try and strip the ball from the Giants runners, who have a habit of fumbling around the goal line late in games when they are tired. Just letting the guy fall in was a bad move, it required Brady to score a touchdown with less than a minute a proven Giants Secondary that could shut down receivers deep in man coverage.

Whiskey said...

The reason the Pats lost both Superbowls I think is that while they are very, very good, and methodical, they can't cope very well with peaking teams built upon defense and with a streaky QB/Offense. That's the Giants, and the Colts who booted them once in the playoffs to win the Superbowl against Chicago IIRC.

BB's team is pretty much just offense. His defense is fairly suspect, just average without shut-down backfields or super-duty linemen or star linebackers. They don't stink up the place, but they rely on Brady putting up lots of points. There was that one throw that Eli made to Manningham, down the sideline, that should have been batted away. But it was man coverage and the guy was out of position.

The Pats have a problem with a team that suddenly gets healthy (not much recent film on their tendencies) defensively and has a streaky offense/QB that can get hot late in the season. That pretty much typifies their losses to the Giants and the Colts in recent years. NE's coaching staff is first-rate, but against a team that suddenly has new people on defense, and performs far above past norms on offense, they have problems. They can't shut down their opponents offense, and give up big plays; while having trouble acting like a "machine" with a rejuvenated defense with guys they can't say, time and come up with a blocking scheme to handle.

The signing of Haynesworth and Chad were troubling -- they didn't work out, predictably, and signal a shift from BB to perhaps the owner running the player personnel. Neither were his kind of players, disciplined and hungry.

Meanwhile the Giants are adopting the same BB-driven Moneyball approach, a couple of guys were picked up after being cut or from other rosters.

So CAL Snowman said...

Whiskey- The pats lost because Gronkowski was NO WHERE NEAR 100%. Plain and simple. They didnt have to focus on him at all and were able to DOUBLE WELKER and Zone up wherever Hernandez went. The Pats D played pretty damn well holding the Giants to 21 points. Yeah their cover guys were SHIT but they held Victor Cruz in check most of the night. Like someone above mentioned, if Welker catches that 3rd down pass the game is OVER. As for BB taking gambles, well what the hell else is he supposed to do with that defense? He had to try to force turnovers.

Anonymous said...

Whiskey, did you watch the game? If Welker makes that catch late in the 4th quarter the game is over. He dropped it, the clock stopped and the Pats could not convert a 3rd and 11. This gave the ball back to the Giants with too much time. Had Welker caught that pass, the Pats would have eaten the clock and scored either a FG or TD leaving the Giants too little time to do anything.

Well, at least you did not bring white women into your analysis.

eh said...

Welker is never going to forget that one.

Has to be seen as the goat of the game for sure.

Which is not to say the outcome would necessarily have been different had he caught the ball.

Anonymous said...

That Welker "drop" is a badly overthrow of Brady. Welker was wide open, no one within 5yards of him, and Brady just threw it too high and to Welker's left. If Brady hits Welker between the numbers, as he should have done, they win the game.
Bad throw from Brady at a crucial moment.

AM said...

That Welker drop cost them the game big time. Don't forget the two horrible drops on Brady's final drive either.

Anonymous said...

"That Welker "drop" is a badly overthrow of Brady. Welker was wide open, no one within 5yards of him, and Brady just threw it too high and to Welker's left. If Brady hits Welker between the numbers, as he should have done, they win the game.
Bad throw from Brady at a crucial moment."

Lol, if Welker was black he would have caught it!

Anonymous said...

Old-line SEC fan here.

Regarding the comment by Anon 8:19,

I couldn't begin to count the times I have seen black receivers drop a pass in crucial situations far, far easier to catch than the one Welker dropped last night. Furthermore, why was the decision made to allow players to wear gloves? Do you think having so many blacks playing had something to do with it?

Anonymous said...

"Lol, if Welker was black he would have caught it! "

You mean like black Branch did just after Welker's "drop"? Oh wait, Branch's catch was far more easier to make, and he still didnt catch it, not to mention the other huge drop by the black Branch on Patriots final drive.
And why oh why Welker's drop is repeated endlessly, why Branch's drops are never mentioned?

And Branch first drop was entirely his fault, if he stops running in the middle of the field, where Brady threw it, it would hit Branch right between his numbers. Easy catch.
Branch kept running, and his momentum would have carried him behind a safety, who could have battered down the pass, thats why Brady threw it where he threw it. If Branch stops running, he makes easy catch, and the game is won by the Patriots.

Anonymous said...

@"if Welker was black he would have caught it."

LOL! Like Manningham? Who managed to catch a virtually uncatchable ball and keep his feet in bounds?

Look Paul, we appreciate all you do, but this football thing is bit much. The Patriots are NOT America's team. OK?

Also, Welker is a fine football player. He dropped a pass he should have caught. Happens.

Now go dry your tears.

The Fighting Whitey said...

You can't put that drop on Welker. The pass was well off the mark, and it would have been an incredible catch.

You can't count on incredible.

Pats lost because they couldn't run the ball and didn't deal well enough with the Giants pass rush.

Marc B said...

A few blacks were talking Super Bowl while I was picking up my rental car. They mentioned that since Pittsburgh, San Francisco, and especially Baltimore were out, they would be pulling for the Giants. It was predictable for blacks to mention teams with high black representation or identity as their favorites. I told them I'd like to see Brady get his brass-knuckle's worth of Super Bowl rings and be remembered as one of the best who ever played the game and they were stunned. The brotherman has no problem pulling for their own in either the NFL or the eternal fight.

I Bleed Blue said...

@It was predictable for blacks to mention teams with high black representation or identity as their favorites."

Asshole, the Giants to me are Eli Manning and his field hands.

Discard said...

I Bleed Blue: "Field hands", I love it. But I think that Manning's Nigras are a bit too uppity. They need to learn to end the huddle with a shout of "Yassuh, Boss!"