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Poor white kid.
PALO ALTO, Calif. – If you’ve seen Toby Gerhart carry the football, you’re well aware that the former Stanford halfback and Heisman Trophy runner-up is about as subtle as Iron Man. It’s no surprise, then, that as the NFL draft approaches, the player one AFC front-office executive described as “a bowling ball with butter knives” is -bent on obliterating the perception that he lacks the athleticism to succeed in the pros.
Gerhart during Stanford's pro day last month.
“I’m just a running back who tries to do what he can to win games and score touchdowns, but people have their opinions, and it’s kind of frustrating,” Gerhart said earlier this month between bites of pizza. “People say, ‘He’s slow,’ or ‘He’s not going to be able to break tackles at the next level.’ In college I went up against players like [USC’s] Brian Cushing(notes) and Clay Matthews(notes) – guys who ended up making the Pro Bowl [as NFL rookies] – and I ran through their tackles. It’s too bad people look at you all weird because of a stereotype.”
When NFL scouts look at Gerhart, they see a 6-foot, 231-pound power back who ran for 1,871 yards and 27 touchdowns last season, getting edged out by Alabama’s Mark Ingram in the closest Heisman vote in history. When they look at Gerhart’s numbers from the NFL scouting combine, they see that he ran a 4.50-second 40-yard dash and registered a 38-inch vertical leap, both impressive numbers for a player his size.
Yet they also see a white guy trying to make it in the league as a feature back, something that has become increasingly rare in this era. Peyton Hillis(notes), now with the Cleveland Browns, led the Denver Broncos in rushing yards in 2008, but was limited to just 54 last season in part because of 2009 draft pick Knowshon Moreno’s(notes) addition.
Race shouldn’t be an issue, of course, but Gerhart can’t help but believe that it has colored the opinions of at least some potential employers.
“One team I interviewed with asked me about being a white running back,” Gerhart says. “They asked if it made me feel en led, or like I felt I was a poster child for white running backs. I said, ‘No, I’m just out there playing ball. I don’t think about that.’ I didn’t really know what to say.”
One longtime NFL scout insisted that Gerhart’s skin color will likely prevent the Pac-10’s offensive player of the year from being drafted in Thursday’s first round.
“He’ll be a great second-round pickup for somebody, but I guarantee you if he was the exact same guy – but he was black – he’d go in the first round for sure,” the scout said. “You could make a case that he’s a Steven Jackson-type – doesn’t have blazing speed but he’s strong and powerful and versatile.”
Gerhart isn’t used to such comparisons. He’s typically cast as the next John Riggins or Mike Alstott(notes) or, less flatteringly, as an updated version of another former Stanford star, Tommy Vardell, who had an unremarkable NFL career after being picked ninth overall in the 1992 draft.
“You hear that I’m like those guys, or like [current Cincinnati Bengals back] Brian Leonard(notes),” Gerhart says. “I see myself more like Deuce McAllister(notes) or Michael Turner(notes).”
It’s possible, of course, that Gerhart is overestimating his own abilities – if so, he certainly wouldn’t be the first player to do so publicly in the weeks leading up to the draft.
I’ve spoken with numerous NFL talent evaluators about Gerhart over the past few months, and there are plenty of skeptics who don’t seem to be locked into mindless stereotypes.
“I don’t like him,” one NFC general manager told me at the combine. “If he’s your No. 1 back, he’s going to get killed by the end of the season, because he takes too many hits. And he has no special teams value. To me, what you see is what you get. He’s pretty good at everything, but he doesn’t do anything that’s special at our level.”
Said an AFC front-office executive: “This guy runs exactly the way the hole is blocked and gets exactly what you think he’s going to get – maybe a little more because he runs so hard, but nothing more explosive than that. He runs so upright, he’s going to get lit up.”’
“There’s no reason I shouldn’t really like him, but I just don’t,” added another AFC personnel executive. “He’s not really shifty, but he gets yards. He’s fast, but it’s a long speed, and not really a quick speed. You want me to compare him to a black guy? How about T.J. Duckett(notes)? There’s a big, fast guy who hasn’t been productive in the NFL.”
Yet others believe Gerhart’s exceptional production at Stanford, a program that was struggling mightily upon his arrival, is indicative of his immense pro potential.
“I love the guy,” says former Cardinals, Rams and 49ers scout David Razzano, who is based on the West Coast and attended several of Gerhart’s games over the past two seasons. “You’ve got to see him live to appreciate him. He’s not just a plodder. He’s deceptively fast, elusive, has quick feet and has great vision at the line of scrimmage. And he’s great in the red zone.
“He’s a bell-cow back. If there’s nothing there, he’ll get four yards. He was productive in high school and in college, and guys like that don’t change – he’ll be productive in the NFL.”
Gerhart ran for 178 yards and 3 TDs against USC last season.
Gerhart, who was flown in for pre-draft visits by the Baltimore Ravens, Philadelphia Eagles, Browns and San Diego Chargers, says he’d consider playing fullback in the pros “if that’s what it takes to get on the field.” But he bristles at the notion that it might even be a consideration. “Prior to the combine, all I heard was, ‘He’s gonna run in the 4.7s,’ ” Gerhart says. “I read this blog that said, ‘Why was Toby the only running back who had to run under 4.6 to not be classified as a fullback?’ Fifteen other guys ran in the 4.6s at the combine, and nothing was said about them [playing fullback].”
Plenty of Pac-10 defenders wish Gerhart had been typecast as a fullback during his collegiate career – or that the former Cardinal baseball star had chosen to focus on that sport. Certainly, no one at USC was devastated that Gerhart decided not to return for a fourth college season after his epic performance in Stanford’s stunning, 55-21 victory over the Trojans in Los Angeles last November, the high point of an 8-5 season that ended with a narrow Sun Bowl defeat to Oklahoma.
“That’s by far my favorite victory,” Gerhart says of the USC game. “We were up big at the end and hitting ‘em in the mouth – we ran 15 of the last 18 plays from the exact same formation, where we’d motion the tight end one way or the other and I’d run to that side. At one point one of their linebackers yelled, ‘If you guys run ‘Power’ one more time I’m walking off the field.’ It was classic.”
Oh, and here’s some background information of which NFL teams might want to take note: Pete Carroll, USC’s coach at the time, had tried to recruit Gerhart out of high school – as a fullback.
In other words, underestimate him at your own peril, and brace yourself for maximum impact.
Poor white kid.
poor affluent white boy with a Stanford education. His whole life is ed cuz the NFL is being racist
The whites are so oppressed in this country.
lol @ those GMs putting his Stanford ass on blast.
He shouldn't worry, after he falls out of the NFL he'll have a job he's unqualified for waiting for him.
I wouldn't mind having him as a change of pace back for sure.
Whites benefit from certain stereotypes in sports just as much as they're hurt by stereotypes in sports. When a black NBA player sucks at defense, it's because a he's a no good jungle gorilla who would be a lockdown defender if he wasn't lazy. When a white NBA player sucks at defense, he still tries really hard and hustles, the only reason he sucks at defense is because he lacks physical ability. You often hear, "If (insert white player here) had the physical talents of (insert black player here) he'd be one of the best defenders in the NBA!"
Sports in the USA are racist.
true, tbh.
A really good black football player is a "spectacular athlete with great God-given ability".
A really good white football player is a "scrappy hustler who is smarter than everybody else, he's a real coach on the field"
As if every black player is a moron who gets by on talent alone who couldn't possibly also be an intelligent player, and all white guys are talentless hacks who are just way smarter than those porch monkeys.
but still, this is re ed. For anybody to think the NFL would actually discriminate against a player of any race is ridiculous. If you're good, you're gonna be on the field. If you suck, your ass will be gone. Nobody gives a what color you are.
Yeah exactly. This isn't football related, but I remember how high everyone was on Joe Alexander leading up to the 2008 draft. The whole thing about him was about how he's smart and hard working like most white players, but at the same time has gorilla athleticism! People were drooling at a white guy as athletic as him, regardless of his mediocre college career. It turns out that oober athletic white guys who are disappointing in college are just as lazy and stupid as oober athletic black guys who are disappointing in college.
If the kid can play, he will play, period. If he sucks, it won't be because he is white.
This is true in every professional sport. It not only applies to the players, it also applies to the coaches.
If you can coach, black or white, people will respect you and you will get jobs.
The Rooney Rule is one of the most laughable rules in all of American pro sports.
To add to this, in the 2009 draft, Budinger went from being a potential lottery pick to being a 2nd rounder just because people were worried about him being Joe Alexander part 2. This was completely disregarding how much more polished Budingers' game was, how Budinger didn't rely on athleticism half as much as Alexander, and how his collegiate career was more impressive.
The Rooney rule is some of the most racist I've ever seen that I'm sure hurts a black coach's ability to get a job.
#1, it makes a not-so-subtle implication white people are better coaches than black people and black people need help getting hired
#2, it sends NFL teams the message that you just need to get your token interview over with and make a porch monkey feel like he's being considered for the job (as if black guys in Leslie Frazier's shoes last year are smart enough to coordinate successful defenses and offenses but so stupid they can't tell the obvious token interview they're giving) before moving onto the white people. It's basically saying, "Yeah, god knows black people haven't ever done to earn an interview on their own, if we don't make this rule, black guys would never even be considered." If I were Leslie Frazier last year and Seattle called me to get their Rooney interview over with, I'd say no I don't want to drag my ass to Seattle just so you can get your interview over with and hire Pete Carroll, good luck finding someone dumb enough to be clueless about how much he's being used.
Gerhart can play. I think he'll find success with whatever team he ends up with
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