There's truth in both statements -- black quarterbacks were indeed held back for decades because of racism -- but they miss the real story. The real story is that race still plays a major role in football, and racial prejudice has not gone away, it's just taken new and subtle forms. Forget the blather about crumbling race barriers; there is a color line in pro football, and it's getting bolder every year.

The NFL is dominated by African-Americans, who make up 75 percent of the league's players (and most of its stars), though only about 13 percent of the American population is black. On one playoff team, the Philadelphia Eagles, 20 of the 22 starters, including all 11 on defense, are black.

The underlying assumptions of racism's new form are reflected in almost every article about black quarterbacks. According to the common wisdom, black domination of football (and indeed other major sports, such as basketball and running) can be explained away by two factors: 1) Blacks succeed in sports because it is their only vehicle out of the ghetto; 2) whites don't work as hard or are intimidated by the "racist myth" that blacks are naturally faster. Thus, rather than finding careers as, say, businessmen, lawyers or teachers, African-Americans are channeled into sports, which is further encouraged by the images, and earnings power, of superstars such as Randy Moss and Ray Lewis.

The noxious cultural stereotypes of desperate poor blacks and athletically lazy whites are new racial myths created as an overreaction to old, equally pernicious, ones: Blacks do not have the intelligence and leadership finesse to guide a team.