Los216
Hall-of-Famer
- Joined
- Nov 9, 2012
- Messages
- 34,726
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That is a shitty thing to say about your fellow fans without a shred of evidence.
Hillis became hugely popular here when he had a fantastic game against the hated Ravens who went 12-4 that year, and had a stifling run defense. He then had even better one against Belichek's Patriots, who were 6-1 at the time and went on to a 14-2 record. HIllis had over 200 yards from scrimmage, we won by 20, and that was a huge story everywhere. Not because he was white, but because the lowly Browns had just taken down the mighty Pats by riding on the back of a 7th round fullback. He was the perfect underdog story for a long-downtrodden franchise,
He was the first Brown to win an offensive player of the week award since 1992, He was 6th in the league in total yards from scrimmage despite not even being the starter until the third game. Browns fans flooded the voting because of his performance, and that would have been true regardless of the color of his skin. Fuck, do fans care that Chubb is black, or that Wyatt Teller is white? We love those guys because of how they play.
But a lot of the popularity surrounding Hillis was because he was a white RB which at the time there was maybe 3 in the whole league. Even now there's only like 4 white RB's. Just like there's a running joke with The Patriots always having those smallish white WR's and keeping a white RB on the roster. Or how there are no white Cornerbacks in the NFL. If there was a CB in the NFL who was white his game would for sure be elevated from a fan perspective due to him being white and playing CB since it's just something that we don't see in the league anymore.
But back to Peyton Hillis, a lot of the intrigue surrounding him had as much to do with him being white as his skills did. Not saying that in a disrespectful way but people remember Peyton Hillis more for being a white RB who was decent.