{"id":10710,"date":"2022-02-19T04:49:16","date_gmt":"2022-02-19T14:49:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thefilipinochronicle.com\/backup\/?p=10710"},"modified":"2022-02-19T04:49:26","modified_gmt":"2022-02-19T14:49:26","slug":"super-bowl-made-me-wonder-will-there-ever-be-another-roman-gabriel","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thefilipinochronicle.com\/backup\/2022\/02\/19\/super-bowl-made-me-wonder-will-there-ever-be-another-roman-gabriel\/","title":{"rendered":"Super Bowl Made Me Wonder: Will There Ever Be Another Roman Gabriel?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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by Emil Guillermo<\/em>

Last week, during Super Bowl LVI (56), I was thinking about Roman Gabriel, 81.

Gabriel is the first Filipino American quarterback to gain fame in the NFL, playing for 16 seasons, mostly with the Los Angeles Rams from 1962-1972, where he was the NFL\u2019s Most Valuable Player in 1969. That year Gabriel threw 24 touchdowns and led his team to an 11-3 record.

But it was still not good enough to get to Super Bowl III, the year Joe Namath and his Jets beat Johnny Unitas and the Baltimore Colts.

It was a quarterback league then as it is now.  That\u2019s why I was thinking of Gabriel for the big game.  At six-feet-five inches, Gabriel in his prime could have competed in today\u2019s NFL easily, and he would have dominated Sunday\u2019s Super Bowl.

The Cincinnati Bengal\u2019s Joe Burrow looked like he was ready to lead his team to victory.

Despite being sacked 7 times, he out-dueled the Rams quarterback Matt Stafford, who threw two interceptions, and had a measly quarterback rating under 90. With neither team running the ball well, the passing game defined everything. And Burrow was just better.

But after a strong second half start, Burrow\u2019s team lost its nerve in the fourth quarter. The Rams defense kept Burrow at Bay, and then its own offense got untracked when it focused on wide receiver Cooper Kupp.

Kupp caught a late fourth quarter touchdown pass that gave the Rams the win, 23-20. And Kupp the MVP.

I kept thinking how Gabriel throwing to Kupp would have easily put the Bengals away. In his day, Gabriel was that good.

The game also featured the latest class of inductees to the Pro Football Hall of Fame in Canton, Ohio. The Raiders wide receiver Cliff Branch, one of my favorites, was a senior inductee this year.

But it made me wonder why isn\u2019t Roman Gabriel in the PFHOF, senior or otherwise.

Former San Diego Charger linebacker Junior Seau is an AAPI member in the Hall. But a Filipino American playing quarterback, football\u2019s leading man?

There has never been anyone quite like Gabriel. His father, a Filipino immigrant from the \u201cManong Generation,\u201d found his way to North Carolina and intermarried.

Roman was born in 1940, became a star at North Carolina State, and a first round pick in the NFL\/AFL football drafts in 1962.

Think of Gabriel as the Joe Burrow of his day.

This was also the era when Filipino immigration was non-existent until years after the immigration law changed in 1965.

With all the current trouble the NFL has with racism, from the lack of black and minority coaches, to the lack of black and minority owners, the NFL needs to honor Gabriel now.

Roman Gabriel\u2019s is an example of the NFL\u2019s hidden diversity.

Since his heyday both with the Rams and his comeback with the Philadelphia Eagles, there has never been a Filipino American quite like Roman Gabriel in the NFL ever.

The Superbowl for Asian Americans has been the Olympics<\/strong>
You won\u2019t find many of us playing in the Super Bowl or the pro football ranks. There are a handful among the kicker and lineman.

But at the Winter Olympics, we are among the champions.

Nathan Chen. Chloe Kim.

Both Asian Americans, Americans in Asia. Both pure Olympic gold.

But the question remains. Will someone find a way to have it feed a new stereotype, a model minority myth of Olympic proportions?

Tiger Moms are hungry. More on that in a bit.

First, let\u2019s celebrate America\u2019s diversity with a massive dose of the legendary greatness we witnessed.

Nathan Chen on ice this Olympics has been dazzling and graceful. The so-called \u201cQuad King,\u201d for his signature four revolutions in the air, Chen seemed less technical and more joyful in his performances at these games.

From his fist-pump after his short program, to his final move on the last note of the \u201cfree skate\u201d\u2013his arm extending a pointed fist, his face in a kind of friendly scowl. It was a relentless show of passion and grace. And confidence.

Chen was rewarded with a score that made him so dominant in the standings, there was no question of his excellence over the field. Considering he\u2019s already three-time-world champion, the Olympic Gold medal makes Chen one of the greatest, if not the greatest of all time, in a legacy event of winter games, men\u2019s figure skating.

Let that sink in: An Asian American man, the son of immigrants, following AAPI skating trailblazers Michelle Kwan, Kristi Yamaguchi, and Tiffany Chin, is now at the top of the entire sport.

That\u2019s not just Asian American history. That\u2019s history.

And who knows? If he\u2019s the Tom Brady of ice skating, will we see fans clamor for his jersey, which happens to be a print of the cosmos in red designed by Vera Wang?

Why not? This Winter Olympics is turning out to be the Super Bowl for Asian Americans.

It all makes you appreciate Chen\u2019s achievement. Especially me. I\u2019m the guy at the ice rink holding on to the wall for dear life.

Snowboarding, I\u2019m not much better. I fell once and never got up. That also explains why I marvel at Chloe Kim.

Last week, the snowboarding phenom Kim was fierce and determined on the half-pipe. I know, where is the other half? Maybe they recycled it?

All I know is they left the half that counts for Kim to own. Back for more gold after winning in the PyeongChang Olympics, Kim did not disappoint.

I love watching the performers visualize their moves before they hit it. And Kim went for it hard from the beginning. She did a 1080 to start\u2013 three full revolutions in the air\u2013 then a 900, and finished with another 1080, making her virtually untouchable after just her first run, which she called a \u201csafety run.\u201d

It was a surprise after one of the worst practices she\u2019s ever put her in a bad place mentally, she told NBC.

But here\u2019s how Kim said she pulled through:

\u201cSo I was dealing with all sorts of emotions, self-doubt, but when I was getting ready to drop into my first run, I just reminded myself that it\u2019s a brand new run, and I just have to live in the now. And I was so happy I was able to do that.\u201d

The meditative heart and mind of a champion. That first run left her sitting atop her competitors with a little cushion. She had two more runs. Would she coast to gold? Not Kim.

On the remaining two she was trying the \u201cCat 12,\u201d a 1260 move that she said she had done just once before.

She went for it and fell in both runs. She still left with gold, in an historic back-to-back snowboarding win. It wasn\u2019t all that certain it would happen. After PyeongChang, Kim struggled to get back the feeling. She took time off, went to Princeton.

The support from her family never wavered. She also fell in love. When she came back to her snowboard, she had to find that spark again.

The gold this time shows a Chloe renewed.

\u201cI\u2019m in a much better headspace and I think I have a better idea of what to expect,\u201d she told NBC of the fame she\u2019ll experience now. \u201cI\u2019m just so eager to see my loved ones, my family, my dog, my boyfriend, so I think that\u2019ll keep me happy and I\u2019m just going to feel all the feelings and be proud of myself.\u201d

A little loving self-compassion always works. It helped Chloe Kim make her own American history, the daughter of Korean immigrants.

After her first run, Kim got a hug from a spectator Eileen Gu, whom I\u2019ve dubbed an ABC, but with a T, for \u201cAmerican-Born, Chinese Team.\u201d

Gu, a.k.a. Ailing Eileen Gu could have won the first gold medal for the U.S. earlier in the week, and then three of the first four gold medals won would\u2019ve been Americans.

But the freestyle skier is playing for her mother\u2019s homeland, China.

I\u2019ll have more on Gu as the games continue.

But let\u2019s keep the focus on Chen and Kim for now. Chen especially is atop an Asian American ice-skating boom. And the cream is rising.

Once again in the winter Olympics, four of the six figure skaters on the U.S. team alone are Asian American: Karen Chen, Alysa Liu, Vincent Zhou, and Nathan Chen. Add ice dancer Madison Chock, and the U.S. team alone is chock full of AAPIs.

Could we be seeing an addendum to the negative positive stereotype, the Model Minority Myth, Olympic-style?

Crouching tiger, hidden Salchows? Let\u2019s hope not.

Already there was NBC\u2019s Olympic anchor Mike Tirico after Chen\u2019s victory wondering on prime time:

\u201cWe\u2019ve just seen in the last 24 hours, Eileen Gu who\u2019s going to Stanford, right, and we saw Chloe Kim and we talked about her time in Princeton, and Nathan Chen going to Yale, in addition to being best in the world, gold medal athletes, also very intelligent, but also in some ways, I think it has helped round them out as individuals. And it wasn\u2019t about being obsessive all the time about getting back to a chance to compete for a gold medal\u2026\u201d

Oh yes, no obsession. But he could\u2019ve mentioned Nathan and Eileen are classical pianists. And Eileen\u2019s 1580 SAT, not as good as her 1620 in the Big Air freeski. And Nathan being pre-med.

But that would have been like reinforcing that model minority stereotype. We need to guard against that. Let\u2019s all just appreciate the hard work and unique world class talents of the winners.

And let\u2019s hope that the good will spills over and helps everyone else see them as a real part of all the rest of us non-Olympic Asian Americans.

We don\u2019t need to medal to be seen and heard as human, present and real.

We\u2019re beyond any stereotypes. Not model minorities. Not medal minorities.

EMIL GUILLERMO <\/strong>is a journalist and commentator. Watch his livestream at 2pm Pacific on Facebook @emilguillermo.media; also on YouTube, Twitter @emilamok; See more at  <\/em>www.amok.com<\/em><\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Emil Guillermo Last week, during Super Bowl LVI (56), I was thinking about Roman…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":10650,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[29,20],"tags":[],"featured_image_urls":{"full":["https:\/\/i1.wp.com\/thefilipinochronicle.com\/backup\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/Roman-Gabriel-color-2.jpeg?fit=236%2C340&ssl=1",236,340,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/i1.wp.com\/thefilipinochronicle.com\/backup\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/Roman-Gabriel-color-2.jpeg?resize=150%2C150&ssl=1",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/i1.wp.com\/thefilipinochronicle.com\/backup\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/Roman-Gabriel-color-2.jpeg?fit=208%2C300&ssl=1",208,300,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/i1.wp.com\/thefilipinochronicle.com\/backup\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/Roman-Gabriel-color-2.jpeg?fit=236%2C340&ssl=1",236,340,true],"large":["https:\/\/i1.wp.com\/thefilipinochronicle.com\/backup\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/Roman-Gabriel-color-2.jpeg?fit=236%2C340&ssl=1",236,340,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/i1.wp.com\/thefilipinochronicle.com\/backup\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/Roman-Gabriel-color-2.jpeg?fit=236%2C340&ssl=1",236,340,true],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/i1.wp.com\/thefilipinochronicle.com\/backup\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/Roman-Gabriel-color-2.jpeg?fit=236%2C340&ssl=1",236,340,true],"ultp_layout_landscape_large":["https:\/\/i1.wp.com\/thefilipinochronicle.com\/backup\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/Roman-Gabriel-color-2.jpeg?resize=236%2C340&ssl=1",236,340,true],"ultp_layout_landscape":["https:\/\/i1.wp.com\/thefilipinochronicle.com\/backup\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/Roman-Gabriel-color-2.jpeg?resize=236%2C340&ssl=1",236,340,true],"ultp_layout_portrait":["https:\/\/i1.wp.com\/thefilipinochronicle.com\/backup\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/Roman-Gabriel-color-2.jpeg?resize=236%2C340&ssl=1",236,340,true],"ultp_layout_square":["https:\/\/i1.wp.com\/thefilipinochronicle.com\/backup\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/Roman-Gabriel-color-2.jpeg?resize=236%2C340&ssl=1",236,340,true],"covernews-slider-full":["https:\/\/i1.wp.com\/thefilipinochronicle.com\/backup\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/Roman-Gabriel-color-2.jpeg?resize=236%2C340&ssl=1",236,340,true],"covernews-slider-center":["https:\/\/i1.wp.com\/thefilipinochronicle.com\/backup\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/Roman-Gabriel-color-2.jpeg?resize=236%2C340&ssl=1",236,340,true],"covernews-featured":["https:\/\/i1.wp.com\/thefilipinochronicle.com\/backup\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/Roman-Gabriel-color-2.jpeg?fit=236%2C340&ssl=1",236,340,true],"covernews-medium":["https:\/\/i1.wp.com\/thefilipinochronicle.com\/backup\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/Roman-Gabriel-color-2.jpeg?resize=236%2C340&ssl=1",236,340,true],"covernews-medium-square":["https:\/\/i1.wp.com\/thefilipinochronicle.com\/backup\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/Roman-Gabriel-color-2.jpeg?resize=236%2C250&ssl=1",236,250,true]},"author_info":{"info":["admin"]},"category_info":"Candid Perspectives<\/a> Featured<\/a>","tag_info":"Featured","comment_count":"0","jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i1.wp.com\/thefilipinochronicle.com\/backup\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/Roman-Gabriel-color-2.jpeg?fit=236%2C340&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thefilipinochronicle.com\/backup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10710"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thefilipinochronicle.com\/backup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thefilipinochronicle.com\/backup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thefilipinochronicle.com\/backup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thefilipinochronicle.com\/backup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10710"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/thefilipinochronicle.com\/backup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10710\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10711,"href":"https:\/\/thefilipinochronicle.com\/backup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10710\/revisions\/10711"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thefilipinochronicle.com\/backup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10650"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thefilipinochronicle.com\/backup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10710"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thefilipinochronicle.com\/backup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10710"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thefilipinochronicle.com\/backup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10710"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}