ESPN has declared 2011, “The Year of the Quarterback”. Quarterbacks are the most popular athletes in the country, so it is a smart move to pre-emptively frame an entire football season to drive as much as interest as possible. You can both cater to hard core fans (see: new QBR stat) and the larger number of casual fans at the same time (see Brady and Tebow hagiographies), all in the name of reporting the news.
While ESPN has used this as a way to drive ratings (as they do with all decisions), they have also affected the perception of how we watch football and over-inflated the importance of this position relative to reality. But ESPN is used to deciding what is news and how we should look at it.
ESPN has recently come under deserved attack for their decision to not pursue a story of much greater significance than a guy who sticks his hand under another guys’ bum. In this case it is important to remember the key fallacy underpinning whatever defense ESPN puts forth – ESPN doesn’t just report the news it shapes what becomes news.
When you develop a de facto monopoly on being the sports news source for millions of people, you shape the news. If you lead with a story, it is NEWS. If you ignore it is, just a crazy conspiracy theory on par with aliens and Elvis sightings.
I don’t mean this to be an attack on ESPN’s questionable journalistic ethics – when you run a business that tries to market a product while at the same time act as independent journalists reporting on the same product your ethics are always going to be about as clear as tax laws.
Rather it is an attack on a foundation underpinning their entire ‘Year of the Quarterback’ marketing push. In the NFL, there is no doubt the quarterback is the key to a team’s success (see: Colts, Indianapolis). However in the college game it just isn’t the case.
College quarterback may be the most overrated position in sports.
Look at the national champions of the last decade. Every team that has won a title over the last decade has done so with only one of two quarterback types under center: Superman or Jimmy Olsen. The teams that have Clark Kent inevitably fail.
To clarify.
The Supermen are the rare individual that can put a team on its back and single-handedly, through sheer physical attributes, leadership and desire win the national title for their teams. Tim Tebow, Vince Young and Cam Newton exemplify Supermen. You can point to games that were won by Superman almost wholly by himself; either the national title game itself or a pivotal game on the way to the title game. While being the most exhilarating, decorated players, and the ones that are most likely go on to be legends, Supermen are also the most rare.
The Jimmy Olsen is the care-taker who is simply in place to not make mistakes and let the players around him win games for him. His goal is to not lose the game. Make the right decisions. No interceptions. No fumbles. Get the ball to better players and let them win it. Greg McElroy, Matt Flynn, Matt Mauck, Craig Krenzel. All have national titles on their resumes yet none would have been considered one of the 5 best quarterbacks in the country in their title winning year.
The most dangerous quarterback to have on your team and the one that nearly guarantees disappointment is the Clark Kent. This is a talented player, who shows flashes of being a Superman but in the end can’t do it by themselves. Fanbases laud these players in the pre-season and NFL teams drool over their talent; yet as talented as they may be they don’t have a cape on underneath that uniform. They are the perennial tease. Their team’s fans and their own teammates want them to become Supermen but they can’t quite do it. Sam Bradford, Mark Sanchez, Troy Smith, Colt McCoy even Andrew Luck and Landry Jones are all seen as nearly Supermen by their boosters and fellow teammates. Yet none have or will win a national title. Their team is too reliant on them but alas they are mere mortals.
Arguably there are 2 players that could be called Clark Kents that did win national titles since Y2k: Ken Dorsey and Matt Leinart, but I would say that hindsight (and their subsequent pro-careers) have defined them as talented Jimmy Olsens with other-worldly talent around them.
It should be no surprise then this year that the BCS title game will (apparently) feature quarterbacks on both offenses that are simply asked to not screw it up. Jarrett Lee was the quintessential Jimmy Olsen; continuing a long line of Jimmy Olsens at LSU (with his only differentiating factor that he didn’t have the first name Matt) until he made the cardinal sin of making mistakes. 2 interceptions against Alabama and Lee was sent to the bench and in stepped Jordan Jefferson, who may make mistakes at bars but not on the football field. For Alabama, Greg McElroy has given way to AJ MaCarron, whose turnover against LSU may have cost his team the game.
(Though, in the nonsensical world of the BCS had no impact on Bama playing for the national title).
All of the teams with better known and higher profile QBs have slipped up this season. There is no shame in being a mere mortal – most of us are – but when you carry the burden of a team’s expectations it is hard to stay perfect for an entire season.
The Supermen of college football become legends who will be discussed for decades. But the pursuit and false pre-emptive deification of Clark Kents is the fastest route to disappointment.
For a team in search of a national title, it is a much safer route to find a smart quarterback that doesn’t make mistakes and instead focus on putting playmakers around him and a stout defense opposite him.
Yes, I fell for ESPN’s marketing hype as much as anyone in my pre-season prognostications. But it is never too late to learn.
Next year, I am picking the team with the best defensive tackle.
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