What If Brock Purdy Were Black?

Brock Purdy has been the NFL’s feel-good story since he took over for Jimmy Garrapolo in week 12, went 5-0 to finish the regular season and led San Francisco to the NFC Conference Championship game before an injury ended his Super Bowl hopes.

Since then, Purdy has been one of the most talked about quarterbacks in the league outside of Aaron Rodgers and his injury and Pat McAfee Show appearances.

But after starting this season 5-0, the 49ers have lost three straight, including a 31-17 home loss to the Bengals on Sunday.

During this losing streak, Purdy’s magic has evaporated and it appears that the aura surrounding the 2022 seventh-round pick out of Iowa State has dimmed significantly thanks to the five interceptions he’s thrown during this time.

Just three weeks ago, it was all good for Purdy.

An interception was quickly dismissed by the media by focusing on his 5-1 record and the fact that a seventh-round pick was leading a Super Bowl contender. Even last week, despite throwing two INTs in a 17-22 loss to the Vikings on Monday Night Football, no national cable sports talk programs outside of Shannon Sharpe on “First Take” sincerely took Purdy to task for consecutive losses and mounting INTs.

“Lost confidence?” replied Sharpe to Molly Querim when asked if he had lost confidence in the young QB. “I knew what he was to begin with.

“I noticed when we had the conversation about three weeks ago Stephen A., I was trending because I said Brock Purdy wasn’t elite. Now all of a sudden, I ain’t get nothing. Nobody was on my timeline. Shannon doesn’t know what he’s talking about. Shannon is a hater. I didn’t get any of that last night.”

The media’s coddling of Purdy contrasts the treatment Black quarterbacks like Lamar Jackson, Dak Prescott, Jalen Hurts, Justin Fields and Russell Wilson receive weekly.

Lamar’s teammates dropped eight passes in Baltimore’s Week 5 loss to Pittsburgh. But his one mistake, a late-game interception in the end zone, was emphasized more than the dropped passes.

After the Cowboys were obliterated by the 49ers in Week 5, FS1’s Undisputed spent almost 30 minutes dissecting and dismantling Dak Prescott’s entire being as an NFL quarterback.

Despite starting 5-0, Jalen Hurts was criticized. After his horrendous performance against the Jets, Hurts’ standing as an NFL QB was fervently questioned simply because he had that one super ugly game all superstar QBs have in their careers.

Yet Sunday, after Hurts threw for 319 yards and 4 TDs in a win over the Commanders, his critics went cricket.

After Purdy had another disappointing day on Sunday, the media finally began questioning his abilities and decision-making skills.

And it only took them three weeks to do it.

Now imagine if Brock Purdy was Black.

He would most likely have been benched and trashed by the media and fans in ways white Purdy would never be.

Now, before some of you pounce, this isn’t a personal attack on Brock Purdy or what he’s accomplished.

This is about bringing attention to the unfair treatment many Black quarterbacks receive that many of their white counterparts escape.

We are all familiar with the historical mistreatment Black quarterbacks received and the doubt they faced over their intelligence and ability to lead teams from under center.

Lamar Jackson’s story involving Jim Irsay’s comments during the NFL Draft about Lamar switching to wide receiver is well documented.

As a senior at Oklahoma, Jalen Hurts had better stats than every other quarterback not named Joe Burrow, yet he wasn’t drafted until the second round.

On Sunday, USA Today’s Jarrett Bell wrote a great story exposing the foolishness Texans’ rookie QB C.J. Stroud had to face when an executive spread nonsense about Stroud performing poorly on a cognitive pre-draft test while also claiming that Ohio State QBs couldn’t make it in the NFL.

All Lamar, Jalen and C.J. have done are become NFL MVP, reach the Super Bowl and have the Texans in second place in the AFC South as a rookie, respectively.

Brock Purdy is the NFL’s current underdog QB whose narrative the media is milking for all its worth, and I completely understand it. Everyone loves an underdog story regardless of skin tone.

But not critiquing Purdy continues a traditional practice of giving white QBs the doubt.

The same was done with quarterbacks like Tim Tebow, Johnny Manziel and Baker Mayfield, players whose NFL careers failed to mirror that of their college tenures despite being given chance after chance. This is why many Black quarterbacks don’t get a chance because owners want the look and attention generated by those of a much lighter shade.

Compare the celebration of Purdy to Giants QB Tyrod Taylor, who last week became the first Black quarterback ever to win a game for the NY Giants. Think about that. Taylor is the first Black QB to win a game for the Giants, which was founded in 1925, and only the second Black QB to start for the team (Geno Smith was the first).

The disrespect Black QBs have endured is amplified by the promotion of white QBs who carve out a space for themselves through a few games and an underdog story.

Research Scott Mitchell if you need more proof.

Yet when the story starts to unravel, what comes next reveals the most about team ownership.

Brock Purdy’s future is starting to become clouded with doubt, yet we’re sure the team still has faith in him, especially after getting rid of Garoppolo and Trey Lance.

But if Purdy were Black, that cloudiness might have quickly become an impregnable, adamantium-laced wall that would have prevented him from returning from his banishment to the bench.

Let’s hope that doesn’t happen to Justin Fields.