Op-Ed: This Super Bowl Sunday, The Race-Obsessed Press Is Focused On The Least Important Thing

This article originally appeared in Daily Caller on February 12, 2023

This Sunday will see a Super Bowl for the ages: the Philadelphia Eagles and the Kansas City Chiefs are, together, genuinely the very best of their respective conferences. They are also, arguably, the future of professional football. The Eagles are a well-rounded powerhouse of a team that shows every sign of incipient dynasty, and the Chiefs have been a dominating force in the AFC for years. Furthermore, the central figures in both teams — Philly’s Jalen Hurts, and KC’s Patrick Mahomes — are both extraordinary examples of their craft, rising to the fore and stepping smartly into the Brady-sized space in their profession at just the right moment. That they both have incredible personal stories is just the icing on the cake. Who wouldn’t be excited about this game, which promises great football and great drama in one of the few remaining national gather-‘round-the-television spectacles America has left?

Well, the major media for one, which outside of explicit sports reporting, has focused on exactly the wrong thing. Instead of chronicling Mahomes’s virtuoso skills, or Hurts’s Cinderella story of football redemption, they have mostly focused upon the least important thing about them: both quarterbacks are black. It will be the first time that both Super Bowl quarterbacks are black, it’s true, and that deserves a historical note — but only that. These men did not get to the pinnacle of their work by dint of race. They got there by work, by perseverance, and by excellence. These are, or ought to be, qualities applicable and instructive beyond racial boundaries...

Read full op-ed in Daily Caller