I am not a lawyer. Nor am I a journalist. Yet, the words I write here do more justice for those two professions than anything Paul Campos, a professor of law at the University of Colorado in Boulder, and a paid columnist at the Rocky Mountain News, has ever done.
Mr. Campos wrote a column the other day in which he accused the scout at NFLDraftCountDown.com of racism. Mr. Campos implied that attributes such as being a hard worker, a good leader, being smart, and possessing good intangibles were code words for white athletes that were not publicly assigned to black athletes.
To prove his point, he compared two scouting reports: one of a black player (K. Phillips), the other of a white player (T. Zbikowski) at the same position.
He notes that the white player had an identical timed speed in the 40 yard dash as the black player. Yet, the black player was listed as having great speed while the white player was listed as not having great speed. He also noted the white player was labeled as being a “hard worker”, a “team leader”, and possessing “excellent intangibles”. The black player that Mr. Campos chose for this comparison did not receive those same compliments. Well, except for one; Mr. Campos conveniently chose not to tell his readers that the black player was also described as a “team leader”.
And, for this discrepancy, Mr. Campos inferred that Scott Wright, founder, President and scout at NFLDraftCountDown.com, was exhibiting a racist, albeit “ingrained”, tendency. In other words, Mr. Campos was saying that Scott Wright let racial stereotypes interfere with his analysis of football players.
Now, for my part in this column, I will first describe my amateur journalistic instinct, the very instinct that apparently eluded Mr. Campos: I contacted the founder, President, and scout of NFLDraftCountDown.com, Scott Wright, to get his thoughts on the matter. Mr. Wright informed me that Paul Campos had not even contacted him before blatantly accusing him of racism.
So, what did Scott Wright have to say about the timed runs of K. Phillips and T. Zbikowski?
“I do many of my scouting reports in January and February and those two [Phillips and Zbikowski] were finished prior to the Scouting Combine so I probably should have amended the report on Phillips to say that he had good speed and left the word “timed” out of the equation. With that said I am still very comfortable with my assessment and I think most would agree that Phillips plays a lot faster than Zbikowski does.”
In other words, the timed results were posted after the scouting reports were written. This was no case of “ingrained racism” as Mr. Campos suggested. It was purely a matter of the timing of the report and the posted race times. Paul Campos would have realized this, and spared a good man’s name, had he simply asked Mr. Wright before writing that slanderous column.
Finally, as to my lawyerly contribution to this essay, I must admit the labor was easy. I simply examined the rest of Scott Wright’s scouting reports for all the black players at the safety position. Remember, Paul Campos implied that labels such as hard worker, team leader, excellent intangibles, and intelligence were code words for white players. I now submit exhibit B.
The following black athletes, ignored by Mr. Campos for some reason yet finally recognized here, were described by Scott Wright of NFLDraftCountDown.com:
Tyrell Johnson – “Smart with a high football IQ…A hard worker and team leader…”
Reggie Smith – “Smart with terrific instincts and awareness…”
Josh Barrett – “Good football IQ…Hard worker…Team leader”
Quintin Demps – “A team leader with top intangibles…”
Jamar Adams – “Smart with nice awareness…Hard worker…Leader.”
Dominique Barber – “Smart with a great football IQ…Hard worker and leader with top intangibles…”
Marcus Griffin – “Very smart…Hard worker…”
D.J. Parker – “Hard worker with excellent intangibles…”
Caleb Cambell – “A hard worker…Team leader with elite intangibles…”
Chris Horton – “Smart with nice instincts and awareness…Hard worker with top intangibles.”
Pig Brown – “A team leader and captain…Hard worker…”
Husain Abdullah – “Team leader and hard worker with solid intangibles…”
Kareem Moore – “Smart with nice instincts and awareness… Hard worker and leader with good intangibles.”
Tony Joiner – “A team leader and captain… Smart with nice awareness and instincts…”
Eric Wicks – “Great instincts and football IQ…”
I rest my case.
