The Myth of "Southern Speed"

With the "National Championship" game seeing a team from the midwest facing a team from the south, we've been hearing more and more about the SEC/ACC "Southern Speed". I'd like to look at this a bit...

Other sites have done a great job dispelling the idea that one area of the country or conference has faster athletes than another, based both on recent trends, history, and just pure speculation. So, with that covered, I'd much rather look at this from another angle.

See, I think that the "southern speed" idea may be rooted in racism.

Personal story- I coached D3 ball at a small school in the midwest. During recruiting season, our coach would always talk about the need to find "some athletes". Interestingly enough, whenever we talked about players who were "athletes", they were African American. After two years, when I challenged coach on this, well... let's just say the conversation didn't go well.

I wish this had been an isolated situation, but at coaching clinics (locally and nationally), "athlete" seemed to be synonymous with "African American". This was even reflected in the oft-heard phrase "We need to go down south and find some athletes".

Put it this way- When was the last time you heard about a quarterback being "smart"? What ethnicity was he? When was the last time you heard a quarterback being labeled "athletic"? What ethnicity was he? For perspective, look at Rush Limbaugh's comments about Donovan McNabb or all of the controversy about Vince Young. Were these concerns present with Ryan Leaf? Even this year, as Troy Smith won the Heisman the talk was as much about him not running anymore as it was about his ability to lead the team.

So, with that in mind, all of the discussion of "northern power and strength" and "southern speed" really makes me wonder if this whole thing might be a vestige from our less than glorious national history. Perhaps what people are subconsciously saying is "There are more African Americans in the south, and African Americans are fast and athletic, so teams there must be faster."

Please hear me correctly: I am not saying that people who talk about the speed of student athletes from the south are racists. I am also not saying that there isn't some truth to the fact that some teams have more talent/strength/speed than others. I'm also not saying that Southern teams don't have advantages (as do California teams- great weather for high school football practice year round, the great climate to go to college really helps recruiting).

What I am doing is asking a question- might there be something else to this? Listen closely to the commentary or the play by play; read the fan blogs and sports pages and all, and ask deeper questions; both about the words chosen, the perceptions of those involved, and the presumptions that might be behind these.

Just something to think about as you watch the millions and millions of dollars being made while 17-24 year old young men play a game on Monday.