By Perry Green, AFRO Sports Editor
Isn’t it fitting that Ozzie Newsome would use his last ever first-round draft pick on Lamar Jackson?
Just think about it: The very first African-American general manager in NFL history used the very last first-round draft pick of his 22-year executive career on a super talented, yet sidelined Black quarterback. That’s exactly what happened when the Ravens traded up with the Philadelphia Eagles to pick Jackson with the 32nd overall pick in the 2018 Draft on April 26.
The Baltimore Ravens’ very last first round draft pick, quarterback Lamar Jackson (left) and Ravens general manager Ozzie Newsome during an NFL football news conference at the team’s headquarters in Owings Mills, Md., Friday, April 27, 2018. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky)
There is no person more discriminated against in the league than a Black man attempting to climb his way up the ranks of an NFL team’s front office. The NFL has been around for nearly a century, yet there has been just a handful of Black GMs, and Ozzie was the first of them.
The next most discriminated person in the NFL would be a Black man attempting to play quarterback. Lamar Jackson experienced that first hand throughout his entire draft process, from the scouting combine right down to draft night. Here was the 2016 Heisman Trophy winning quarterback, who had amassed more than 9,000 passing yards with 69 touchdown passes and 4,132 rushing yards with 50 touchdown runs in his college career, forced to sit and wait hours, sweating out his brand new suit, wondering if he’ll hear his name called on Day One of the draft.
Four other quarterbacks went drafted before Jackson last Thursday, and they all were picked within the first 10 selections. Of those four quarterbacks, the only one with a fairly comparable college résumé to Jackson was 2017 Heisman Trophy winner Baker Mayfield. Mayfield was drafted No. 1 overall, of course, regardless of numerous controversial off-the-field issues associated with the young White Man (https://www.foxsports.com/college-football/story/oklahoma-sooners-baker-mayfield-qb-arrest-charges-apology-heisman-trophy-030117).
Jackson, on the other hand, had no off-the-field baggage. You won’t find a criminal record when you case search his name. There are no failed drug tests, DUIs or nightlife scandals that’ll pop up when you Google him. It seems the only thing that forced Jackson to wait until the very last pick of the first round to be drafted was the color of his skin. And if it wasn’t for another Black man, Newsome, trading back into the first round after he had already used the Ravens’ 25th overall pick on a tight end, Jackson would have had to wait even longer, perhaps into the second or third round, if not further.
From the moment Jackson declared he was entering the draft, he was met with unnecessary criticism from White football pundits in the media. Bill Polian, a former NFL GM and current football analyst for ESPN, was the first to suggest Jackson should switch receiver, a position the 21-year quarterback had never played in his entire life.
“Exceptional athlete, exceptional ability to make you miss, exceptional acceleration, exceptional instinct with the ball in his hands, and that’s rare for wide receivers. That’s Brown and who else? Name me another one. Julio is not even like that.”
Fox Sports 1 anchor Colin Cowherd called Jackson a “really, really mediocre pocket passer,” (https://allvideos.me/index.php?a=watch/_V1PsCbjTWE/colin-cowherd-on-saquon-barkley-and-lamar-jacksons-draft-stock-after-2018-nfl-combine-the-herd) and compared him to former NFL flameout Tim Tebow, despite Tebow never being able to throw as deep or as accurate as Jackson has proven.
Longtime ESPN draft expert Mel Kiper Jr. even joined in on the Jackson bash wagon, criticizing the quarterback for his career completion percentage.
“It’s the accuracy throwing the football. Finished career around 57 percent,” said Kiper, completely contradicting himself as he would praise another quarterback prospect Josh Allen as the potential No. 1 overall pick, despite Allen having an even lower career completion percentage at 56.2 percent. Of course, Allen is White.
Jackson shared with ESPN his frustrations with the discrimination he’s had to face, simply because he has the ability to not only throw, but make plays running ball, too.
“It is annoying because quarterback is all I played all my life,” Jackson said. “People look at my legs and they see I can make big plays, but they don’t really see my arm, and I make big plays with my arm. I scored more touchdowns with my arm than my legs, so… .”
Jackson was wrong. Ozzie saw his arm and chose him as the future face of the Ravens franchise. It’s the last draft for Newsome, who will retire following the 2018 season, and he used it to make Jackson the first Black quarterback to be drafted in the first round in the Ravens’ 23-year history.
