Black Quarterbacks Are Underpaid

On October 8, 1953, the appropriately named Willie Thrower became the first black quarterback in the National Football League, completing three of eight passes for 27 yards for the Chicago Bears. It would be the only game he ever played as quarterback.

It took 15 years for the next black man to line up behind the center and almost half-a-century after Willie Thrower before black QBs became a fixture in the league. Prior to the 1980's only four black quarterbacks had seasons in which they attempted 100 or more passes. That number ticked higher to five in the 80's and surged to 13 in the 90's.

Now, as that figure stands at 22 through the end of the 2006 -- representing about 28 percent of the QB population -- we can get a better sense of performance differences between white and black QBs.

It turns out that black QBs stack up pretty well against their white peers, say Rob Simmons of Lancaster University and David Berri of California State University and author of The Wages of Wins.

The authors contend that the often-cited, much criticized QB Rating metric, which gives a slight edge to white QBs, is biased against blacks QBs because it doesn't take into account contributions made by a QB's legs.

As this table shows, black and white QBs between 1994 and 2006 where nearly identical in all categories except rushing yards per game:

To correct for the QB Rating's shortcomings, Berri and Simmons turn to a relatively new measure called QB Score which includes the impact of rushing. (Go here for QB Scores for this past season, and here for a comparison between QB Scores and QB Ratings for 2007.)

Collecting stats on 309 black and white QBs between 1971-2006, they find that between 1971-93 the difference in QB Score per game heavily favored black QBs (57.2 versus 39.7). That difference has largely vanished in the following period, but black QBs still have an edge. (60.3 versus 56.4)

Unfortunately, the higher performance doesn't translate into better, or even commensurate, pay. While average pay is similar among the two ethnicities, Berri and Simmons find that at the top of the food chain elite black quarterbacks aren't compensated as well as their white counterparts (even when excluding Peyton Manning's record contract.)

Among QBs who were paid more than 75 percent of their counterparts, whites earned $4.1 million while blacks earned $3.9 million. The difference becomes much greater among QBs who are paid better than 90 percent of their peers. Among this group, whites were paid $6.0 million while blacks earned $5.5 million, or about 9 percent more.

The reason for the apparent discrimination boils down to the fact that teams don't compensate QBs for their rushing ability, regardless of skin color. (The authors also find some evidence that black QBs are paid worse than white QBs with comparable passing abilities, though this result is not as strong.)

"It's not the case that running by quarterbacks has a phenomenal impact on outcomes, but you still have a labor market where to gain entry, black quarterbacks are being asked to do something they're not compensated for," Berri told me.

Investigations into the intersection of race and sports are in vogue of late in economics.

Last May, Wharton's Justin Wolfers and Cornell's Joseph Price showed that white referees in the N.B.A. called more fouls against black players than white players.

Then in August, a group of economists including University of Texas at Austin's Daniel Hamermesh found that when umpires and pitchers share ethnicities, there is a slightly higher chance of strike being called.

So, are black QBs as good as white QBs? Yes, perhaps even a little bit better since they have a running game -- but just don't ask Rush Limbaugh.

(Photo credit: Associated Press)