“Don’t hate the game, hate the player”: How performance shapes acceptance into or rejection from the American group for Black quarterbacks in the National Football League (NFL)

Abstract

In this Thesis, I examine how the extension of American-ness to Black quarterbacks in the NFL may be contingent on their performance. I hypothesize that, when Black quarterbacks play well or win their games, they are accepted into the American group—but when they play poorly or lose their games, their status as part of this group is called into question. I use archival research and content analysis of historical newspapers about Black quarterbacks of the past; structural topic modeling (STM) in R on Reddit comments about quarterbacks during the 2023-2024 NFL playoffs; and analysis of a poll conducted in 2017 about former 49ers quarterback and current activist Colin Kaepernick to test my hypothesis. Though many of the results of this Thesis were not statistically significant and therefore do not seem to provide conclusive evidence for my hypothesis, I leave open the possibility of quarterbacks’ gameplay and their actions outside of the sport impacting how American-ness is ascribed to them. I also provide direction for future research that can build upon this Thesis.