A football team has 22 players in addition to punters and kickers. Of those 22 players, one player, the quarterback, gets 60 percent of the attention and credit (and blame) for a team’s performance. The other five players (guards and ends) get 35% (in other words, 7% each) of the attention. The remaining 5% goes to the 11 members of the defending team (i.e. each gets less than half of 1%). Five members of the offensive line (excluding tight ends) receive 0%. why is that? The performance of the defensive line can be measured by the number of tackles, sacks and receptions for a loss. But all the offensive line did was block. How do you measure this?
All the blame for the Patriots’ poor performance is on Derek Meyer. But this game was really about Seattle’s defensive line, which gave Meyer no time to throw the ball and sacked him a Super Bowl record number of times. Seattle owes much of their victory to them. The team’s head coach acknowledged their performance on stage when the Vince Lombardi Trophy was presented. But who are the two players on stage speaking for the team? Seattle quarterback Sam Darnold and running back Kenneth Walker. Walker received the trophy.
Today’s controversy is: “Walker doesn’t deserve the trophy after kicker Jason Myers broke the NFL Super Bowl record with six field goals.” This controversy may be a sign of racism. The kickers are probably all white without exception. But what about Seattle’s defensive linemen? Those criticizing Walker’s selection didn’t even consider that maybe the defensive lineman should get the trophy. Maybe 5 of them together.
All the blame for the Patriots’ defeat lies on poor Meyer. But shouldn’t most of the blame fall on the offensive linemen? I guess if the quarterbacks get most of the credit for the wins, it’s only logical that they bear the brunt of the blame for the losses. This all illustrates how unequal and unfair football is.