Media Yawns at Hartline's Historic Receiving Day

Don Wassall

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Media Yawns at Hartline's Historic Receiving Day

Last Sunday, wide receiver Brian Hartline of the Miami Dolphins had the 16th most prolific receiving day in NFL history and the most ever by a Dolphin with 253 yards. He obtained that yardage on 12 receptions, or over 20 yards per catch, including an 80 yard touchdown reception.

For the season, Hartline leads the NFL in receiving yardage through 4 games with 455 yards on 25 receptions. For his pro career he has averaged just under 16 yards per catch, better than all but a few other receivers in the entire league.

Yet Hartline's historic game generated mostly a stifled yawn from the corporate media. On the NFL Network, during Deion Sanders' weekly "top ten players of the day" segment, Hartline not only wasn't number one, he wasn't on the list at all. On other highlight shows on the NFL Network and ESPN, Hartline's great day was politely noted but hardly featured prominently. Yet his 253 yards receiving is comparable in rarity to a quarterback throwing for 500 yards in a game. Now imagine if a black quarterback had thrown for 500 yards last Sunday. It's not a stretch to say that not only would Deion Sanders have been dancing for joy and naming him his top player of the day, every other sports show and media outlet would likewise have been heaping him with praise.

But White receivers don't fit into the Caste System paradigm. Oh, some are tolerated and a few undeniable stars like Wes Welker and Jordy Nelson are given grudging respect, unlike cornerback and running back, which have been artificially engineered to be black only in perpetuity despite the ever shrinking pool of capable black athletes in the U.S, but the league and its media publicists clearly want wide receiver to remain a "black thang" even though if college football recruiting and the NFL were color blind, White receivers would be the norm and blacks the exception.

And many of those media outlets that did recognize Hartline's great game felt obliged to utlize the obligatory racist qualifiers one almost always finds when it comes to the treatment of White football players. In Hartline's case it was "craftiness" and not his obvious speed that accounted for his performance. Michael Lombardi pontificated that, "Dolphins wide receiver Brian Hartline was great against the Cardinals, proving with his 253 receiving yards and 80-yard score that crafty route running is more important than blazing speed." California Sports News wrote after Hartline's big game against the Raiders earlier in the season: "Crafty fourth-year receiver Brian Hartline used his cutbacks to slice up Raiders cornerbacks Pat Lee and Joselio Hanson for career highs of nine catches and 111 yards," while Phinsinsider.com attributed Hartline's 80 yard TD catch and run on Sunday to a defender deciding to jog on the play: "Safety Adrian Wilson begins to move toward Hartline, but seems to be jogging and watching to see if the receiver catches the ball, rather than running full speed to make a play."

In fact, like all other White receivers who overcome the tremendous obstacles that exist to filter out star high school White receivers from first being recruited by a major college program and then getting a fair opportunity in the NFL, Hartline has always been falsely portrayed as a "possession receiver" who lacks speed and play-making ability. In Hartline's case he was a state champion hurdler in the state of Ohio in the 110 meters and 300 meters, and nearly broke the state record in the 300 meters.

But the media and the vast majority of football fans believe that no White players are as fast as even the slowest black players, even though measurables consistently show that there are a large number of White players who are very fast and very quick, and who can also jump like kangaroos. The reality is that there are far more White football players in the United States than there are black ones, and even if blacks on average are slightly faster straight line runners over a short distance, there are still plenty of white players who are also fast, not to mention second to none when it comes to work ethic, hand-eye coordination, intelligence, strength and stamina, ability to sublimate selfishness for the betterment of the team, etc.

Congratulations to Brian Hartline, who has been denigrated non-stop by both the media and many fans ever since being drafted by the Dolphins in 2009. Nothing would be sweeter than for him to finish among the top receivers in the NFL in 2012.

http://www.castefootball.us/archives/media-yawns-at-hartlines-historic-receiving-day/
 

dwid

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the most I saw of it on tv was Eric Mangini breaking down extensively "how Hartline was able to get so open", talking about the play action fake that froze the db for a split second, the crossing route which the safety hesitated for a split second before going full speed at Hartline. I guess their coordinator is a genius and the only one that schemes to get players open. dbs make mistakes all the time, they bite on play fakes all the time. Pretty much everyone is fast, its a game of inches, a split second mistake allows for guys to get an advantage, every team does this. In fact, I remember reading after DeSean Jackson's breakout season, well over 50 percent of his big plays were on broken down coverage which was noted by football outsdiders I think, but I guess that is because he is super fast, not of any type of scheme or play calls, because the NFL hasn't changed since the 70's. I am guessing all receivers must only have big plays on go routes where the receiver is covered the entire way, the db never ever peeking in the backfield, hesitating and getting confused as to if its a fake or run, what his responsibilities are supposed to be in zone coverage etc, except in the 70's players were still biting on fakes, more than now because they ran more.

Hartline is the only one. If only they could use these magical play calls to get the
real athletes open. I am guessing they would gain 300 to 400 yards a game! the play action fake, deep crossing routes, its like they reinvented the game! I mean just imagine coordinators calling plays that exploit the weakness in the scheme the other team is running.... okay sarcasm off now. These types of things occur dozens and dozens of times each game by every team yet only 17 other players have had more yards. His speed is what made those split second mistakes amplified. Slower tight ends take advantage of situations like that but never come close to having games like that, an 80 yard play is turned into a 20 yard play. As far as dwfs saying dont pay him because now teams will be focused on him, well who were they focused on? Bess, the underneath guy? the defense was so concerned with Hartline that Bess was ignored and had the best game of his career, a high of 123 yards (one his 3rd 100 yard game of his career out of 68 games)
 
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Quiet Speed

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This is the kind of article I would like to see creep up to the first results page of a google search for “Brian Hartline.â€￾

I have a catchall pen name for these writers that are baffled by a dominate performance by a White athlete – Ima Klutz. I heard one commentator say the Arizona defense was apathetic on the play.


Week-4-Brian-Hartline-highlights
 
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