Reggie Rivers has this to say in today's Denver Post. I have to say that before I read this I didn't think that Air Force Academy Coach DeBerry had done anything wrong.
While discussing the Academy's 48-10 loss to Texas Christian University last weekend, he said: "It's very obvious that they had a lot more Afro-American players than we did and they ran a lot faster than we did. It just seems to me to be that way, that Afro-American players can run very, very well. That doesn't mean that Caucasian kids and other descents can't run, but it's very obvious to me that they run extremely well."
I remember an in-depth article from Sports Illustrated some 30 years ago that scientifically analyzed the genetic traits that made West Africans (they were the bulk of the slaves transported to colonial America) the Olympic sprinters and star football players and that made East Africans to be predominantly long distance runners. It was genetic. Can't argue with that. What you can argue with is pigeonholing African-Americans into a narrow category where they are expected to be either entertainers or athletes. DeBerry's statement tends toward this.
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