and the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition point out that black Africans also generally have thinner hips than Caucasians Wholesale Cassius Marsh Jersey , making their chassis better for accelerating, stopping, changing direction, leaping.鈥?#8230;

Playing cornerback.

All of this is up for interpretation—if you dare go there. “Even raising the issue of racial differences is considered racist in some circles,” Entine points out in Taboo, “an odd stance considering the lip service given to cultural diversity.” He’s right. Most Americans—let’s hope this is still the case—love to celebrate our melting鈥憄ot鈥憂ess, but we still get our dander up anytime the specifics of this biodiversity are discussed.

As for the 14-year Sehorn gap, Entine explains, “Two things have happened. First, the pool of elite white defensive backs has gotten smaller Authentic Brian McCann Jersey , even though whites still make up the majority of the U.S. population. Second—and this is probably related to the first—the white kids who could make it as cornerbacks, most of them self-select out of that position and find something where they don’t look and feel out of place.”

Entine calls African ancestry “the single biggest factor in succeeding at cornerback.” Flipping through photos of current cornerbacks in the NFL, it’s a difficult claim to dispute.

But Dr. Harry Edwards gives it a try. “What is Entine talking about?!” asks the revered Berkeley sociologist and activist. “Africans have been here for 360 years. Today, 80% of African Americans are people born of some level of interracial and intercultural mixing. [Entine’s claims are] pure insanity. … It raises the question: Exactly how black do you have to be to be good at corner?” Loosing a belly laugh of incredulity, Edwards continues: “If blacks are superior, why is the league wasting all of this money on scouting? Just go to the black community and scoop up all your players and win every game.”

“If you’re a young kid,” says Terence Newman, one of the few active players who didn’t request anonymity on this topic, “you try to emulate somebody, right? For me it was Deion Sanders Wholesale Ryan Switzer Jersey , Emmitt Smith. Today, white kids might want to be Peyton Manning. Maybe J.J. Watt. It’s not as likely that a white teenager is out there saying, I wanna be Richard Sherman.”

“The solitary nature of the position is more appealing to young African-American players,” says Dr. Edwards. “For some young people, they believe if they don’t make it in athletics they’re not gonna make it in any endeavor, so they take it upon themselves in every possible way. That’s part of the appeal of basketball: You can do it yourself, you can make it by yourself. Or so kids think. …

“This imagery of the elite cornerback, the aesthetic of it—Deion with the towel hanging from his waist, out there alone, no safety help—that’s powerful imagery. It says http://www.pittsburghsteelersteamstore.com/chukwuma-okorafor-jersey , ‘It’s all on me.’”


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

“I loved Donny as a player and a teammate,” Sherman, now a four-time Pro Bowler, says of Lisowski’s short stint with Seattle. “But in the end I think it was just a matter of [the Seahawks] preferring taller corners.”

Sherman played with a white cornerback at Stanford for whom height wasn’t an issue. Mark Mueller’s wispy, vascular appendages looked like Usain Bolt’s dipped in milk; he was the type of guy who could roll out of bed, throw himself a lob off the blacktop, rock it between his knees and reverse dunk it. “Mark was a better athlete than I was, no question,” says Sherman. “All his measurables were better than mine.”

Although Mueller played running back and linebacker at his suburban Denver high school, Jim Harbaugh and his Stanford staff projected the teenager as a cornerback http://www.dallascowboysteamonline.com/dalton-schultz-jersey , the spot where Mueller would one day be replaced, in a manner, by a converted receiver named Richard Sherman. Competing against each other in practice from 2007 through ’10, the two young men—Mueller the corner and Sherman the wideout—were identical beneath their epidermises. Wide wingspan, thin legs, narrow hips, long strides. Mueller ran sprints for the Cardinal track team at 6'鈥?″ and 200 pounds. His best 60-meter time was 6.96—a hair slower than Lisowski’s PR of 6.89 but faster than the 7.06 Sherman ran for Stanford.

“Sherm was a lot hungrier to get to the NFL than I was,” says Mueller, now an assistant track coach at Duke, “but the main difference was injuries. I tore my labrum in both shoulders Authentic Sam Darnold Jersey , broke my toe, had six concussions, two herniated disks.鈥?#8230; My college career is borderline embarrassing because I was always in the training room. The coaches began to see me as this fragile track guy, which I guess I kind of am.”

But what if Mueller’s finicky physique had held up, and what if he’d been afforded the chance to make the mistakes that Sherman made in his first year at corner? (Even Sherman concedes that his 2009 season at Stanford was not exactly a lesson in lockdown.) Might Mueller be doing what Sherman is doing now? Asked another way: What if a clone of the game’s best cornerback—except this clone is more athletic—were whipped into shape, gotten up to speed and dropped into an NFL lineup? “Sure, I think about it,” Mueller says. “I could make those plays. But I’m not a big fan of what鈥慽fs.”


Injuries. Position preferences. Social mores. “There isn’t one single reason it is the way it is,” S. Womens Trent Murphy Jersey , Authentic Womens DaeSean Hamilton Jersey , Cheap Seth Curry Jersey , Womens P.J. Hall Jersey ,