Clemson quarterback Deshaun Watson says the term "dual threat" when describing a quarterback is a code word for "black."
Watson enjoyed a historic season last year, leading the Tigers to the national championship game against Alabama. He's penciled in as the presumptive No. 1 overall pick in next year's NFL draft and may be the most complete quarterback to come out of college since Andrew Luck.
He admits his "dual threat" opinion was shaped when he was growing up in Gainesville, Ga. He took it as an insult, which is certainly his right.
But in today's quarterback-driven world and with scheme after scheme demanding more from the position than ever, it seems the phrase "dual threat" is more compliment than racial commentary.
Watson's position, though, is worth discussing, and that starts with the simple question of is he right that "dual threat" is a code word for black?
Not so much anymore, considering Johnny Manziel was assuredly a dual-threat guy, as were Tim Tebow and Cam Newton and Marcus Mariota, all players with different backgrounds and varying skin colors.
Watson's point, though, still offers a talking point considering that Luck and Newton had the same 40-yard-dash times at the NFL combine and you almost never heard Luck described as a dual-threat guy.
Sure, system has something to do with it, and there's no denying the duality of the numbers Watson posted last year with more than 4,000 passing yards and 1,000 rushing yards. (Wow, how great was last year's Heisman class considering the first-ever 4,000-1,000 guy in FBS history did not win the award and the guy who passed Barry Sanders' single-season all-purpose-yards record did not win the award, either?)
Besides, isn't being called a dual threat a compliment in the grand scheme of things?
But Watson's vernacular is the latest round of catch words to describe players, especially in football, that often became racially divisive.
Yes, a lot of those terms - possession receiver vs. deep threat; pocket passer vs. athletic quarterback, etc. - were stereotypical.
But here's the thing about stereotypes: Often, they become stereotypes - flattering or not - because they have been proven true over time. It is never fair to pigeonhole someone, and we all know what happens when we assume things, but we also forget that a stereotype does not immediately mean one of the awful "ism" words that stir the internet morality mob into a frenzy.
Yes, Calvin Johnson was a freakish athlete, so calling him a freak fit. Almost all of the athletic "freaks" we reference - guys with a surreal combination of tangible measurements, be it size and speed or reach and strength or what have you - are black, but that doesn't mean it's a racial thing, does it?
It doesn't change the fact J.J. Watt is a freak and Johnson may be the game's best-ever possession receiver, or at least since some other black dude named Jerry Rice.
Yes, there are far more black "dual-threat" quarterbacks, but is that any more stereotypical - and isn't that far more complimentary - than the large number of "game managers" at quarterback who are white dudes?
And in a lot of ways, the younger generations - generations far more tolerant and understanding of other races - are viewing those stereotypes with a new and almost color-blind prism when it comes to sports. It happens as they play the games - most high school quarterbacks are asked to be dual threats because of the influx of systems calling for a running quarterback - and the games we watch.
For example, "gym rat" - a long-used term for the gritty white basketball player who overcomes a perceived lack of talent by working hard - applies to Steph Curry as much as it does to J.J. Reddick.
Maybe stereotypes could be linked to racial views, but it sure feels like those descriptions - and the commonalities among those fitting them - are more compliments than compartmentalization than ever before.
And if we know one thing about sports - and this, in an ever-changing clash of opinions and viewpoints, makes sports more of a glorious and needed release than ever before - it's that if you can play, you can play.
Regardless of color or dual threat or game manager or how anyone describes you.
Contact Jay Greeson at jgreeson@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6343. Follow him on Twitter @jgreesontfp.