This past weekend, I had the chance to sit down with my father in order to conduct the interview. The moment I told my father that I would be asking questions about Eli Manning and Vince Young, he knew exactly the purpose of my interview. I found this quite shocking because I had never previously discussed the topic with him in the past. Before I could as any questions the first words out of his mouth was, “Hmm interesting…they lie at complete opposite ends of the spectrum”. I asked for him to expand on that thought and he told me that, “First off there exists the color difference and they both have completely different styles of play”. With that statement in mind, I began going down the line of interview questions. My father began to discuss Eli’s style of play which he described as, “more traditional” through his use of the passing game as opposed to Young’s style of play as “aggressive, rough, and unorthodox” which is highlighted through his running game. We then moved on to the question of who is the overall better quarterback.
As we proceeded with the interview, my father argued that Eli was the better overall quarterback due to his “dependability and predictability”. He stated that, “Eli used instinct to read offenses whereas Young was more of a playmaker on the go”. Therefore he viewed Young as unpredictable, which scares NFL teams because they look for dependability rather than a wild card. The next question was about the racial differences, which he agreed played a role in the style of play. He stated that, “Black quarterbacks are viewed as aggressive “athletes/runner”, whereas white quarterbacks are more thinkers who rely on the passing game”. Moving forward, we discussed the qualities of a traditional and unconventional quarterback. My father first assigned Eli as the traditional quarterback and Young as the unconventional quarterback. He views a traditional quarterback as “ a player capable of reading defenses, following through with plays, uses a combination of intellect/instinct and exhibits dependability”. On the flip side, a unconventional player is “more of a wild card with a style of play that is hit or miss on game day…and considered less dependable than a traditional quarterback”. We wrapped up the interview after about 10 minutes and proceeded to conduct my next interview.
On Sunday, I decided to pay a visit to my old high school in order to interview the football coach. I sat down with in his office and began the interview by discussing the topic. Before the interview started, he told me, “Young is a wild card, who is in many way similar to Tim Tebow”. This statement was based off the fact that just like Vince Young, Tim Tebow was unsuccessful in the NFL due to his ”unconventional” stye of play (Ex: Aggressive, running game). However he argued that Tebow proved successful in marketing himself in order to land a spot as a sports commentator. My coach began to describe the two quarterbacks style of play, with Eli being “the bullet passer, playmaker, who relied on instinct/intellect to formulate plays and wins” On the flip side, he views Vince as the “aggressive athlete who relies on brute strength, rather than wits”. Interestingly enough, he believed that Young’s style of play was a “recipe for catastrophe”, which contributes to his belief that Eli is by far the better overall quarterback. He further comments that Eli’s style of play is “typical” to that of other NFL quarterbacks, whereas Young lies in the category of unconventional quarterbacks.
The interview proceeded as planned to the next question which involved the differences between white and black quarterbacks. He found this question interesting because it is something he often sees in his own experience. He states “black athletes frequently exhibit a higher level of athleticism in contrast to whose that are white”. Vic goes on to argue that in the NFL, black quarterbacks such as Young exhibit a more aggressive style of play as opposed to majority of white quarterback who are more conservative. He defines conservative players as those who rely predominately on the reading of defense and passing game. I then asked what he though of traditional and unconventional quarterbacks, to which he found quite interesting. He believed that “Eli was the epitome of the traditional quarterback whereas Young was the perfect match for the category of unconventionality.” He associates the ‘traditional quarterback with a conservative player who’s a dependable winner whereas unconventionality equaled risk”. We wrapped up the interview with that last question and I decided to give a call to one last person.
The interviews certainly have proved the structuralist view that society has on these two quarterbacks. The universal labeling that exists in the NFL in regards to “traditional” and “unconventional” is pertinent as highlighted in these interviews. Therefore it shows that race, intellect and athleticism are factors that contribute to the labeling of professional NFL players.