African American athletes can be everything: grand slam champions, Olympic medalists, explosive, magic. Everything, that is, except benign
What’s a brother gotta do to catch a break in sports? Asking not for myself, a black sportswriter, but for a friend. OK, not for a friend. For DeShone Kizer, the beleaguered rookie quarterback of the terrible Cleveland Browns.
Early one Saturday morning last month Kizer ducked into a downtown bar for a break, a bit of release. The pressure on him at the time surely pinched, what with the Browns being 0-6 and his passer rating at a league-worst 27.3. He is of legal drinking age, didn’t break any laws and didn’t violate any sacrosanct policies held by the team. But a Zapruder-grade Snapchat video emerged of Kizer at the bar – although he looks less like a starting NFL quarterback than a rebel prep-schoolboy as he attempts conversation on the fringe of a loud and crowded dance floor.
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