Who knew that making up the descriptive word “quarterbacky” would get so many people fired up?
Radio host Monse Bolaños is making headlines for some things she said on her Fox Sports radio show that, frankly, do not make a lot of sense. Her main argument was that Baltimore Ravens quarterback Lamar Jackson should not win the NFL MVP because he’s not “quarterbacky” enough, which is a term that she made up herself.
Her full quote on the radio show went like this:
“I want my quarterbacks to be ‘quarterbacky.’ And to me, Lamar Jackson’s just a great athlete, and he’s done a really good job, and he had a great game against the 49ers. Prisoners of the moment…he is not the MVP.
Christian McCaffrey is the MVP. He has been. I’ve been saying this for weeks. It’s not like I just decided after this game. That’s what happened with Lamar. After this game, he jumped up, but he wasn’t even in the conversation. He was an afterthought.”
Saying that San Francisco running back Christian McCaffrey should be the league MVP is justified. No one is arguing with her there. Where people have an issue is what exactly she means by “quarterbacky.”
Many have been quick to call Monse Bolaños racist for what she said, which is a little bit of a stretch. However, I’m not sure what her defense is in this situation, because if she’s trying to say that dual threat QBs can’t or shouldn’t win the MVP, she would be trumped by the recent history of the MVP award.
Going back to 2015, dual threat quarterbacks have won the NFL MVP four of the last eight seasons. Patrick Mahomes, Cam Newton, and even Lamar Jackson himself have been crowned the league’s most valuable player, and they all fall underneath the “great athlete that plays quarterback” category that the radio host deems “not quarterbacky” enough.
I’m guessing the other players on this list were “quarterbacky” enough though?
2015: Cam Newton (QB- Carolina Panthers)
2016: Matt Ryan (QB- Atlanta Falcons)
2017: Tom Brady (QB- New England Patriots)
2018: Patrick Mahomes (QB- Kansas City Chiefs)
2019: Lamar Jackson (QB- Baltimore Ravens)
2020: Aaron Rodgers (QB- Green Bay Packers)
2021: Aaron Rodgers (QB- Green Bay Packers)
2022: Patrick Mahomes (QB- Kansas City Chiefs)
If we’re talking about “quarterbacky” meaning non-mobile quarterbacks, you could argue that only 2 of the last 8 MVPs were “quarterbacky.”
It would be easy to assume that Bolaños prefers for her quarterbacks to be pocket passers rather than dual threat players, which is okay for personal preference, but doesn’t factor into an argument about who should win an NFL MVP award.
Plus, has she watched the NFL in the past decade? Nearly every team in the league is trying to find their own dual threat quarterback as football evolves, and I’d venture to say that any team that has a successful dual threat QB would be happy to categorize them as “quarterbacky.”
