Thursday, March 28, 2024

Cris Carter: White NFL Receivers Don’t Get Enough Credit for Athleticism

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*On ESPN’s “Mike & Mike” Wednesday, regular Cris Carter said white wide receivers in the NFL – like Jordy Nelson, Wes Welker and Julian Edelman – don’t get the same recognition as black receivers.

“To me they are very, very good athletes. And they don’t give them credit for their athleticism,” said Carter. “Kind of like when Serena was always playing tennis and people would always talk about how powerful she was and how her serve was so great. They never talked about her intellect or her strategy, which now has taken her game to another level. But earlier in her career, they never, ever talked about that and I think that had something to do with race.”

Of the 185 wide receivers on active rosters in 2014, 17 were white, according to SportsGrid.com.

The issue of race came up regarding Carolina QB Cam Newton’s extended “Dab On Them Fools” end zone celebration, which has been criticized more harshly than end zone celebrations from white players.

Carter continued:

I believe the celebration with Cam Newton has something to do with race, but I evaluate wide receivers and I evaluate what they can do and what they can’t do, how to utilize within their offense, not what color they are or limiting their athletic ability, in my mind, before I look at the tape. And Jordy Nelson is one of the best route runners, very, very explosive, a deep threat and can run any route in the route tree and is great with the ball in his hands after the catch. Now, Edelman is a tremendous slot receiver, has great short area quickness, has the understandability to read the defense and great chemistry with Tom Brady. I believe he’s just as good as Troy Brown was but people give credit to troy brown for being good, and I think Wes Welker and Edelman and some other guys don’t get credit because they’re white, and when people evaluate them they think that they’re less athletes or products of the system and I just don’t think that’s fair to what they’re doing and what they’re accomplishing.”

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