Toby Gerhart Stanford White Running Back Discriminated Against

Toby Gerhart is a white boy who has no business trying to play pro ball as a running back. After all, he's...white...

Toby Gerhart

One team I interviewed with asked me about being a white running back," Gerhart says. "they asked if it made me feel entitled, or like I felt I was a poster child for white running backs. I said, 'No, I'm just out there playing ball. I don't think about that.' I didn't really know what to day."

Here's the real story:

One longtime NFL scout insisted that Gerhart's skin color will likely prevent the Pac-10's offensive player of the year from being drafted in Thursday's first round.

"He'll be a great second-round pickup for somebody, but I guarantee you if he was the exact same guy -- but he was black -- he'd go in the first round for sure," the scout said...."doesn't have blazing speed but he's strong and powerful and versatile."

Gerhart lost the Heisman to Alabama's Mark Ingram in the closest Heisman vote in history.

When they look at Gerhart's numbers from the NFL scouting combine, they see that he ran a 4.50-second 40-yard dash and registered a 38-inch vertical leap, both impressive numbers for a player his size.

Yet they also see a white guy trying to make it in the league as a feature back, something that has become increasingly rare in this era.