Arkansas Business

This story is from the archives of ArkansasSports360.com.

It was early last month when an ESPN NFL analyst appeared on a national radio show and offered a bizarre critique of former Arkansas quarterback Ryan Mallett.

The criticism had nothing to do with Mallett’s arm. It wasn’t a question about his football IQ. Leadership wasn’t the issue. Nor was his lack of speed.

Instead, John Clayton, perceived to be one of the best at his craft, explained that Mallett might be a liability because of his “white rapper mentality.”

Huh? His what?

While we’re waiting on an answer, can Clayton tell us who he considers to be the Charlie Pride of the 2011 NFL draft class?

It's absurd, really. And that is how it has been in the weeks following Mallett’s decision to leave the Razorbacks for the NFL. Millions of dollars can be lost as unsubstantiated rumors circulate and unfair labels are attached.

Mallett, who is widely known to have had a public intox arrest in 2009, but nothing else of note on his record, has handled the criticism well for the most part. Aside from getting frustrated by repeated questions from reporters at the NFL Draft Combine, Mallett has kept his cool.

As Mallett, who never failed a drug test at Arkansas, has explained to me on a couple of occasions, the important thing is not what the media and the public think of him. It’s how teams perceive him. We’ll get that answer April 28 or 29 when the first two rounds of the draft are held.

In the meantime, we’re seeing Mallett finally starting to get some support from national media. And these aren’t some bloggers in a basement you’ve never heard of before.

Writers at CBS and ESPN have good reads on Mallett this week. The Miami Sun Sentinel recently produced a 17,000-word analysis on the quarterback. It digs all the way back to junior high and is entitled “Lies, damn lies and Ryan Mallett.”

Essentially, no real red flags came up in the Sun Sentinel evaluation of Mallett. Same with ESPN where Mallett is the subject of a glowing profile piece from ESPN. Writer Elizabeth Merrill caught up with Mallett’s parents and others, who describe a much different quarterback than the one taking a beating early in the draft process from the national press.

Merrill gets right to the heart of the matter with this passage: