Sports Media Casts Josh Allen As The Big Bad White Quarterback | Bobby Burack

Earlier this season, we told you how the sports media had cast Josh Allen as the Big Bad White QB who gets a pass compared to his less privileged black counterparts.

The media turned to that narrative again on Tuesday, following the Bills' last-second loss to the Broncos on Monday.

ESPN analyst Robert Griffin III applied the most used talking point available, tweeting "The industry talks about Dak’s ints the way they should talk about Josh Allen’s."

Several ESPN analysts made the same argument.

Yet the comparison between Allen and Prescott is not nearly as clever as the pundits seem to think.

Prescott is not criticized more than Allen. Josh Allen's turnovers have been a lead topic on sports debate shows for over two seasons.

By contrast, sponges like RGIII are defending -- not criticizing -- Prescott for his turnovers as a means to slight Josh Allen.

And that's with the media covering the Cowboys far more than the Bills. Or any other team in sports, for that matter.

Elsewhere, former ESPN host Bomani Jones paraded on Allen's loss by tweeting out videos of his blunders over the years and mocking those who argued "dumbass" Josh Allen was better than "the Jordan of football" Patrick Mahomes.

Consider the argument Jones tried to make.

Last year, ESPN promoted a clip of Bomani suggesting the media only pushes Allen and Joe Burrow over Mahomes because they prefer a white QB as the face of the NFL.

He based his hypothesis on the notion that no one ever argued that "Colin Kaepernick was better than Aaron Rodgers when he was beating Aaron Rodgers.”

We will let that one sit for a moment...

Bomani Jones is right in that the Allen vs. Mahomes debate was premature. Mahomes is clearly a better player. But the root of the discussion was not racial.

How do we know?

Because those manufactured debates can be found all throughout sports. And race is not the common denominator.

Mahomes has been the best QB in the NFL since his first season as a starter in 2018. And he's been involved in a "who's better" debate ever since, with multiple different opponents -- some of whom are black and some of whom are white.

OutKick first documented the never-ending "Mahomes vs." debates in 2020. The media first anointed Lamar Jackson as Mahomes' greatest challenger. Then Deshaun Watson. Then Josh Allen. Then Joe Burrow.

We are about two weeks away from someone on "Get Up" declaring CJ Stroud better than Mahomes. It's coming.

See, the sports-talk industry thrives on generating individual rivalries. The industry is determined to re-create the Peyton Manning-Tom Brady phenomenon that behooved the sports media for over a decade.

The playbook is simple: pretend as if the second-best QB in the NFL, whomever it may be at the time, is better than Mahomes.

Rinse and repeat.

We sent Bomani Jones an email about the previous comparisons to Mahomes, featuring both black and white QBs.

We also pointed out how the same conversations are happening in the NBA, with pundits prematurely arguing that Anthony Edwards, who is black, is better than Nikola Jokic, who is white.

Jones did not respond.

Now, Josh Allen certainly deserves criticism for his play. He leads the NFL in interceptions, 11, after 10 games (granted Mahome and Jalen Hurts after 8 interceptions in nine games). His team is 5-5 and may miss the playoffs entirely.

However, perpetually comparing him to black QBs is both forced and unnecessary.

Yet Jones and Griffin do so knowing it's an effective way to drum up racial animosity. The media has used Allen as a tool to drum up racial animosity since the start of his career.

The racially charged crusade against Allen originated on draft night in 2018 when a group of journalists dug up and saved old tweets from his teenage years in which he used the n-word.

They have never forgiven him.

Deadspin recently printed that Allen must show remorse because he owes his career to black people:

"No matter your take on Josh Allen’s style of play, what can’t be denied is that his on-field success is due almost entirely to his Black teammates."

All in all, Josh Allen is now the most scrutinized QB in the NFL.

A decent-sized portion of the sports media openly roots for him to fail. ESPN analyst Domonique Foxworth admitted he wanted Allen to fail on the air a few years back.

All of that is fine. I guess?

Despite his flaws, there are only about 5 QBs on the planet whom a team would seriously consider taking over Josh Allen.

Yet Allen overcoming his casting as the Big Bad White QB could prove to be a more daunting task than mitigating his turnovers on the field.