Rob Parker did not just say "something bad" about RGIII. He essentially called him an Uncle Tom because he didnt adhere to black "thug" stereotypes and implied that this alienated him from his "people"'. He was deservedly fired for implying that if a successful black person is not a jewelry wearing partyboy with a posse, as opposed to a well-spoken man from a military family who had a master's degree at age 22.
@WaterBomb - Newton actually raised his QB rating over last year, threw significantly fewer INTs on the same number of attempts, and had a better trecord than last year. All on a team that was collapsing at OL and WR and had leadership and playcalling issues. He did indeed start slowly, but all in all, the whole "Cam Newton regression myth" is just that, a myth. I'd be a tad disappointed if RGIII only repeated his performance from last year, though I'd like to see if he could keep up his passing efficiency keeps up at a 450 or 500 attempt volume.
As for racism, a lot of NFL fans are racist middle-aged whites. Certain narratives are pushed in sports, just as in politics, to appeal to those sensibilties (it's the same principle that keeps Fox News in business). Thus you get a Cam Newton Regression Myth or a Robert Griffin Cant Pass Myth so they can say "See, I knew those flashy (BAN ME PLEASE) apes were just flash in the pan one year wonders!" The unstated premise of those myths is that blacks are not smart enough to master the fundamentals of "pocket passing" and any success they have is the product of "gimmicks". It doesn't help in RGIII's case in that regard that he is compared to someone who has been billed as a "perfect" QB prospe
The fact that you are making this a race argument AGAIN is outrageous. The statistics speak for themselves when it comes to RGIII's pure passing ability. His passer stats get a ridiculously high boost due to his tremendous running ability. Like I've said before, I'm not saying he's a bad 'player' but he isn't a top 10 passer outside of the play-action [which is so easy for him because of defenses tendencies to over-compensate for his running ability]. As far as how history speaks, there have been plenty of great black quarterbacks. Warren Moon, Steve McNair, Daunte Culpepper, to name a few have all been tremendous pure passing quarterbacks in their time. Maybe RGIII can get there in his career, I don't see why he can't, but as of right now he's rather pedestrian when defenses know he's going to passing. I don't think we'll ever see him dissect a defense methodically like Peyton Manning or Tom Brady, only because he'll never have too because of his running ability.
However, I'm on board with you that Cam didn't have a sophmore slump, but I also think his rookie season was much more impressive than RGIII's especially based on the talent level surrounding him on his roster compared to RGIII.
@ Wikey.
1.) Alfred Morris lead the #1 Rushing Team in the league. Cam Newton's Panthers were top 3 (if not #1 im too lazy to look it up) in rushing last year as well. Guys like Griffin, Kaep and Cam won't change anything. Cam was scouted similarly to McNabb[Although he was touted as better] , Griffin was compared to Michael Vick and Kaep hasn't really lit many fires yet tbh. I think Russel Wilson might change how people evaluate the height of a quarterback and it's importance to their success however. As far as top 10 Quarterbacks this year [for posterity of ranking RGIII @DM], I'd say: Peyton, Rodgers, Brady, Matt Ryan, Russell Wilson, Drew Brees and then RGIII probably (Ben was hurt too much and Eli was way too inconsistent even though both are probably top 5-6 QB's over the last 3 seasons).
