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Why are black people over represented in the NFL?

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I think its part genetics and part performance pressure. I think a lot of black youths who are physically gifted set their ambitions to sports, while many other cultures look towards other fields more often. But hey I'm no expert.
 
I didn't deny that blacks might have already had genetic advantages but if they're purposely breeding faster and stronger workers, why wouldn't that have an affect as well. It's a sensitive subject but they do the same with livestock. Got a bull or horse you know has good genes, he's knocking a significant portion of your livestock up.



Why would you want a faster slave?

Also, there are a lot of Nigerians in the NFL, people who are 2nd or 3rd generation here in the US.

Why are there so many Samoans in the NFL & Rugby leagues, they are very athletic yet there's no slavery to account for producing that.
 
Your argument is fundamentally flawed because if it is solely on a genetic level, you would see the advantage across all American sports. And you do not see that.

You then talked about popularity, and poverty, both of which are undermined by soccer.

I don't think the answer is solely genetics. I think it is unique to the sports in question and the answer will be found in studying the history of the sport.

Different sports require different advantages. Baseball requires a very different set of attributes than football.

With basketball, tall people get pushed towards basketball. Maybe there are more tall black people, maybe not.
 
People with low income have less opportunities to financially succeed in life. The opportunities they have have for true success are much smaller than a person of average income or above. Due to educational, cultural and class inequalities they're far more likely to find big success as an NBA star than the CEO of the next Fortune 500 company.

People with average or high income have more opportunities to succeed in life and don't need the tough competition of sports to have success. I.E. -- Why practice ball 10 hours a day and maybe not make it when you're going to get your CS degree and 6 figure salary doing a 9-5 job anyway?

It has nothing to do with genes or breeding. Even if that somehow was a factor the spectrum of generations, mixed couples and immigrants mixing into our society since slavery was abolished is now far to broad to include slave breeding as having a meaningful impact in today's US-centric sports. Unless people are suggesting that black Americans to this day still continue to only find the strongest people to mate with? But obviously to suggest that is both insane and ludicrous.

Anyway if black people were born athletically superior then you wouldn't have people like Dirk Nowitzki, Steve Nash or Larry Bird to name a few who took MVPs and lead their teams to championships, they should have be dominated by their black contemporaries.

People are people... culture is what dictates differences.
 
You then talked about popularity, and poverty, both of which are undermined by soccer.
.

Soccer isn't the smoking gun. In america, the nfl/nba doesn't include the entire world's population. Its just America and some imports. You can't take a sport that isn't popular where the eugenics program has taken place, which would be the states, and use that as an exception. I'm not sure if you are talking Worldwide Soccer/football or just american football. But those two sports really have little impact for the population of the USA.
 
So it isn't in the top five sports in America? or one of the most participated sports amongst youngsters?

Professional soccer has never been very big in America. Lots of young athletes are attracted to the dream of getting rich off of sports and in American that's the NBA, NFL or MLB.
 
This thread raises a very good question:

why isn't soccer more popular in America?

Poor kids can play it just fine, you just need a ball to kick and a place to kick it. You don't need any more room than a basketball court. Poor people all over the world play it overwhelmingly.
 
My friends and I did a stereotypical D&D game back in the day, which, I feel, shows exactly what everyone is good at.

Asians were the Sharpshooters/Archers - Keen sense of physics coupled with superior hand eye coordination, baby! and math skills.

Hispanics were the Thief Class. Good at stealth and cunning.

Blacks were warrior types. Big and strong.
This was my class, I was a gay (gay didn't really mean anything, just thought it was funny when i was younger plzdntbanme) black man named Shaquan John, ah, to be 15 and an asshole again

Indians (from India) were the Mage class. Big on the spiritual.

Whites were the Jack of all trades. Could do all other classes, but wasn't really good at any of them.

We were bored and I'm sorry in hindsight, but I had fun.

EDIT: I, uh, just wanted to post this because someone asked what are white and others good at. I don't really have anything else to say.
 
This thread raises a very good question:

why isn't soccer more popular in America?

Poor kids can play it just fine, you just need a ball to kick and a place to kick it. You don't need any more room than a basketball court.

We have too many sports already. Though soccer is continually gaining popularity here.
 
One thing I wanted to know is what is the proportion of black players to team captains, quarter backs etc. From the bit I have seen they are under represented there.
 
This thread raises a very good question:

why isn't soccer more popular in America?

Poor kids can play it just fine, you just need a ball to kick and a place to kick it. You don't need any more room than a basketball court. Poor people all over the world play it overwhelmingly.

every answer ive seen is: slow/low-scoring game (baseball slides on this), amuricans like to work out their upper body more than their lower, we're a nation of fatties so fewer people can say GOAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAL long enough to abide the rules, etc.
 
People with low income have less opportunities to financially succeed in life. The opportunities they have have for true success are much smaller than a person of average income or above. Due to educational, cultural and class inequalities they're far more likely to find big success as an NBA star than the CEO of the next Fortune 500 company.

People with average or high income have more opportunities to succeed in life and don't need the tough competition of sports to have success. I.E. -- Why practice ball 10 hours a day and maybe not make it when you're going to get your CS degree and 6 figure salary doing a 9-5 job anyway?

It has nothing to do with genes or breeding. Even if that somehow was a factor the spectrum of generations, mixed couples and immigrants mixing into our society since slavery was abolished is now far to broad to include slave breeding as having a meaningful impact in today's US-centric sports. Unless people are suggesting that black Americans to this day still continue to only find the strongest people to mate with? But obviously to suggest that is both insane and ludicrous.

Anyway if black people were born athletically superior then you wouldn't have people like Dirk Nowitzki, Steve Nash or Larry Bird to name a few who took MVPs and lead their teams to championships, they should have be dominated by their black contemporaries.

People are people... culture is what dictates differences.
It is almost laughable how sure you seem to be of this when you present no evidence.
 
Bail in!

200-300 years of slavery isn't enough for the "eugenics" aspect to shape the population. Many African-Africans are amazing athletes too. Basically IF more Africans are predisposed to being athletes, it's due to a longer selection of genetic traits in Africa, because slavery was a blip on the genetic radar.
 
This thread raises a very good question:

why isn't soccer more popular in America?

Poor kids can play it just fine, you just need a ball to kick and a place to kick it. You don't need any more room than a basketball court. Poor people all over the world play it overwhelmingly.

It's becoming more popular. There's been a big media push for soccer for awhile now.
 
This thread raises a very good question:

why isn't soccer more popular in America?

Poor kids can play it just fine, you just need a ball to kick and a place to kick it. You don't need any more room than a basketball court. Poor people all over the world play it overwhelmingly.



It would be a lot more popular here if people found out how much money the best players in the world make. The most athletic and physically gifted kids in the US are almost always steered towards football or basketball at really young ages.
 
One thing I wanted to know is what is the proportion of black players to team captains, quarter backs etc. From the bit I have seen they are under represented there.

There used to be an issue with this, some thought black players weren't good in leadership roles, and there was a shortage of black QBs when I was younger. And also coaches, this has changed over time, though. Black QBs are almost a normal thing now.
 
Why would you want a faster slave?

Also, there are a lot of Nigerians in the NFL, people who are 2nd or 3rd generation here in the US.

Why are there so many Samoans in the NFL & Rugby leagues, they are very athletic yet there's no slavery to account for producing that.

Faster would just come with being more athletic.

Samoans were bred(not selectively like slaves, just through their culture) To be huge muscular dudes.




People with low income have less opportunities to financially succeed in life. The opportunities they have have for true success are much smaller than a person of average income or above. Due to educational, cultural and class inequalities they're far more likely to find big success as an NBA star than the CEO of the next Fortune 500 company.

People with average or high income have more opportunities to succeed in life and don't need the tough competition of sports to have success. I.E. -- Why practice ball 10 hours a day and maybe not make it when you're going to get your CS degree and 6 figure salary doing a 9-5 job anyway?

It has nothing to do with genes or breeding. Even if that somehow was a factor the spectrum of generations, mixed couples and immigrants mixing into our society since slavery was abolished is now far to broad to include slave breeding as having a meaningful impact in today's US-centric sports. Unless people are suggesting that black Americans to this day still continue to only find the strongest people to mate with? But obviously to suggest that is both insane and ludicrous.

Anyway if black people were born athletically superior then you wouldn't have people like Dirk Nowitzki, Steve Nash or Larry Bird to name a few who took MVPs and lead their teams to championships, they should have be dominated by their black contemporaries.

People are people... culture is what dictates differences.

No one is saying white people cant be good at the sports, but compare the amount of Black Allstar level players to white.
 
It would be a lot more popular here if people found out how much money the best players in the world make. The most athletic and physically gifted kids in the US are almost always steered towards football or basketball.

You'd have to make the game more popular to American audiences, that's what drives the other sports salaries.
 
This thread might shatter my fragile mind by suggesting that different ethnic groups may have different allele frequencies leading to higher levels of mean performance for specific tasks. It should be closed immediately, and everybody involved should be banned.

That said, diversity within a group is greater than diversity between groups.
 
I feel like some people in this, and the "can people only go so far" thread do not understand evolution.
 
... And African-Americans are completely absent from it.
I brought that up because I don't believe the idea that some type of "gene-selecting" process happened that made black americans what they are today. The body stature of black people which are athletes shouldn't rare to a lot of peoples in Africa.

There are great cross-country athletes coming from East Africa (mostly from Kenya, Ethiopia and as well from Somalia when given the opportunity). Can't use "eugenics" to explain their relative success over the rest of the world.

Also, Ethiopian and Kenyan aren't as related as you seem to think.
How so?
 
This thread raises a very good question:

why isn't soccer more popular in America?

Poor kids can play it just fine, you just need a ball to kick and a place to kick it. You don't need any more room than a basketball court. Poor people all over the world play it overwhelmingly.

Poor kids here are mostly in urban areas, not as much room for soccer fields. Also, the amount of NBA, NFL, even MLB celeberties in amarica vastly over shadows the amount of soccer players with household names.( Landon Donoven, Jose Altadore, ...thats all the american soccer players I know)
 
Bail in!

200-300 years of slavery isn't enough for the "eugenics" aspect to shape the population. Many African-Africans are amazing athletes too. Basically IF more Africans are predisposed to being athletes, it's due to a longer selection of genetic traits in Africa, because slavery was a blip on the genetic radar.

Is 500 years slightly better?
 
Bail in!

200-300 years of slavery isn't enough for the "eugenics" aspect to shape the population. Many African-Africans are amazing athletes too. Basically IF more Africans are predisposed to being athletes, it's due to a longer selection of genetic traits in Africa, because slavery was a blip on the genetic radar.

But then like people said African soccer teams would dominate the world, which they don't and never have... Because it has nothing to do with genes... because people are people.
 
There used to be an issue with this, some thought black players weren't good in leadership roles, and there was a shortage of black QBs when I was younger. And also coaches, this has changed over time, though. Black QBs are almost a normal thing now.

There are four starting black QBs IIRC.

Ah that's good. Has been getting steadily better in NRL and the like as well in Aus.
 
One thing I wanted to know is what is the proportion of black players to team captains, quarter backs etc. From the bit I have seen they are under represented there.



It takes money now to become a good to great QB, kids are getting private lessons from QB coaches, and going to camps to work on their mechanics.
 
Being black, I find this thread interesting.

And LOL at the soccer dude. We call it SOCCER for crying out loud. (Everywhere they care about the sport its called football fyi).
 
Has this ever been proven? I seriously doubt it...

It pretty much has been. Coaches in the NBA and NFL take who they think are the best at each position and well, outside of some linemen spots, a few TEs and most QBs it's mostly black people. Though I'm glad there's been some really solid white receivers lately, welker and nelson from green bay immediately come to mind.

Same with the NBA, where's all the white american players? We like basketball too, it's just we're not as quick on defense. It's not racist either, it's just how it is. NBA coaches would say the same thing. Usually white players are classified as being "hard workers" because they have to be, they're usually outclassed athletically so they have to make up in other ways.

There's always exceptions to the rule but there's a reason why these leagues are like 70% black.
 
No one is saying white people cant be good at the sports, but compare the amount of Black Allstar level players to white.



White American kids are discouraged from playing basketball, they are told they can never compete even though that's not true. I think with the influx of European players not only being able to play, but dominate in some cases, you'll start seeing an influx of American born white players in the future.
 
west africans have on average a higher ratio of fast twitch: low twitch muscle fibres than any other groups around the world. nations that had many west african slaves - the us, jamaica, haiti, etc. - are overrepresented at the olympic games in sprint events. it doesn't mean that the average black person with west african heritage is significantly more athletic. we're talking about very small differences that only become important at the highest levels of competition.

and it is innacurate to simplify and say that all black people are fast runners when in fact (obviously) tons are not athletic and most are average athletes AND there are subsets of the black population from ethiopia, kenya, etc. that are on the other end of the spectrum and excel in long distance running.

so what it comes down to are social factors combined with a slight genetic advantage due to a west african heritage.

I've heard this slavery = eugenics a lot and I don't buy it. How does being quick and explosive relate to surviving squallid conditions, doing back breaking labour, etc.? Is there any evidence that breeding occured? And did the breeding occur for a long enough period for a significant change to occur? sounds like a lot of crack pottery to me.
 
and for that matter, why are they under represented in snowboarding?!

Also, most extreme sports.
 
Same with the NBA, where's all the white american players? We like basketball too, it's just we're not as quick on defense. It's not racist either, it's just how it is. NBA coaches would say the same thing. Usually white players are classified as being "hard workers" because they have to be, they're usually outclassed athletically so they have to make up in other ways.

There's always exceptions to the rule but there's a reason why these leagues are like 70% black.



That's a cop out to be honest, and exactly why European players have been succeeding. They aren't told from Middle school on that they can't compete, and they are much better for it. Are there huge physical differences between white Americans and white Europeans? Nope, there's just a difference in how they are coached coming up.
 
and for that matter, why are they under represented in snowboarding?!

Also, most extreme sports.

because white people are the only ones crazy enough to do that shit duh

as for the nba - in addition to the tremendous social factors, black people tend to have longer limbs than white players, which obviously helps in a game like basketball.
 
You cant say it is cultural. Every American with any taste in sports wants to be an NFL star.

Also, statistically, in proportion to the general population there should be 6 white people that can run a 4.3 40 for every black person that can.

Either way the difference is pretty tiny. But the difference between a 4.3 40 and a 4.6 40 in the NFL is gigantic. And it seems to me that in recent years the number of white players at skill positions is increasing.
 
People with low income have less opportunities to financially succeed in life. The opportunities they have have for true success are much smaller than a person of average income or above. Due to educational, cultural and class inequalities they're far more likely to find big success as an NBA star than the CEO of the next Fortune 500 company.

People with average or high income have more opportunities to succeed in life and don't need the tough competition of sports to have success. I.E. -- Why practice ball 10 hours a day and maybe not make it when you're going to get your CS degree and 6 figure salary doing a 9-5 job anyway?

It has nothing to do with genes or breeding. Even if that somehow was a factor the spectrum of generations, mixed couples and immigrants mixing into our society since slavery was abolished is now far to broad to include slave breeding as having a meaningful impact in today's US-centric sports. Unless people are suggesting that black Americans to this day still continue to only find the strongest people to mate with? But obviously to suggest that is both insane and ludicrous.

Anyway if black people were born athletically superior then you wouldn't have people like Dirk Nowitzki, Steve Nash or Larry Bird to name a few who took MVPs and lead their teams to championships, they should have be dominated by their black contemporaries.

People are people... culture is what dictates differences.

Thanks for this. Seriously, this is stuff I picked up from first year college courses. There is no known link between physical and mental ability and skin color. Any true separation by race goes far enough beyond external appearances that culture plays a far bigger role.

You cant say it is cultural. Every American with any taste in sports wants to be an NFL star.

Also, statistically, in proportion to the general population there should be 6 white people that can run a 4.3 40 for every black person that can.

Either way the difference is pretty tiny. But the difference between a 4.3 40 and a 4.6 40 in the NFL is gigantic. And it seems to me that in recent years the number of white players at skill positions is increasing.

Yeah, Americans of all cultural backgrounds want to be an NFL star, but a kid from a family higher on the economic ladder will be less likely to focus solely on football, and thus is more likely to end up doing something else.

Extreme sports are typically for the rich and have a high cost of participation.

Yep - same goes for hockey.
 
Being black, I find this thread interesting.

And LOL at the soccer dude. We call it SOCCER for crying out loud. (Everywhere they care about the sport its called football fyi).

I don't understand the criticism behind this example. Genetics is blind to cultural preference. If your argument is solely genetics, then you would see it applied over the top American sports. Why don't you pick out the top ten American sports your self, and see if black people dominate all the sports listed.

Let's try a different approach. Athletics. 100m. Why are black athletes more prevalent in 100m then say in javelin?

Its a long time since I've actually studied this area but one of the theories put forth, iirc, is the impact of role models. i,e, Jesse Owens.
 
That's a cop out to be honest, and exactly why European players have been succeeding. They aren't told from Middle school on that they can't compete, and they are much better for it. Are there huge physical differences between white Americans and white Europeans? Nope, there's just a difference in how they are coached coming up.

European players are succeeding? What other player from there is a star other than Dirk?
 
NFL scouts the most talented players. Many of the most talented college players are black. The most talented players go to the combine. At the combine most of the top performers out of the top scouted players are black. They get drafted and signed to contracts.

It's pretty straightforward. If you scout well and perform well at the combine you're going to get drafted if you're black, blue, orange, pink, white, or green.
 
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