Clark Ca-Ca: Cooper Kupp Is Underrated Because He’s White

Cooper Kupp is the Los Angeles Rams’ wide receiver. He had an amazing season in 2021. His league records for receiving yards (1.947) and receptions (145), as well as touchdowns (16) made him the fourth most successful receiver in NFL history.

Kupp is a world-class route-runner, creating matchup headaches for opponents secondaries. But some wonder if he receives enough praise and recognition for what he does. However, ESPN’s Ryan Clark thinks that the reason why the wideout’s accomplishments go largely unnoticed is that Kupp is white.

Clark spoke on The Dan Patrick Show and stated that many people don’t put Clark in conversation with the NFL’s best wide receivers today, because of his skin color.

“If Cooper Kupp were black, we’d all talk about him in a different way,” Clark said. “A lot of times we look at the (skin) color of a wide receiver and we want to compare them to people who they look like, more so than people who they play like.”

He said that Kupp should be in the conversation with receivers like Green Bay’s Davante Adams and Arizona’s DeAndre Hopkins, who are widely considered to be the premier receivers of the league.

To be fair, Kupp’s style of play has earned him comparisons to retired – and ironically, white – NFL stars Wes Welker and Julian Edleman because both are “slot-receivers” (players who are good at operating in tight spaces over the middle of the field). But Kupp is compared with these wideouts because their roles and style of play are similar, not merely because they have the same skin color.

Hopkins and Adams both are outstanding receivers, but Kupp plays a completely different style of football. This group of receivers is known for making spectacular plays in one on one situations. Kupp, however, does most of the work at the center of the field running smaller routes and in tighter spaces. He does not produce as many highlights-worthy plays, despite putting up impressive numbers.

This not only makes the comparisons between receivers illogical, it minimizes both the achievements of each breed. By Clark saying Kupp would get more hyped up if he were black, he is insinuating that being black is the only way to get lots of media attention as a wide receiver, which in turn minimizes anything wideouts – black or white – accomplish on the gridiron.

Instead of getting engulfed in meaningless variables like media time and skin color, we should be thankful and impressed by the incredible athleticism we witness on a weekly basis and reject idiotic takes like this.