ESPN writer Jerry Crasnick investigated whether the lack of red-haired players in baseball meant that teams put some store in Eric Cartman's theory of "Ginger-vitis". In the episode of the show Cartman points out in a presentation to his class that gingers "do not have souls," and are similar to vampires in that they must avoid the sun at all costs.
There have been examples of this slightly funny ridiculous discrimination with one respected scout, Bob Fontaine Sr., going to a game to assess a potential prospect and looked at a picture of the player before he got out of the car. Fontaine was not happy with what he saw and told the other scouts 'You didn't tell me this kid has red hair. You go in and do what you need to do. I'm staying in the car.'
This bias can also apparently extend to other American sports. When Cincinnati Bengals quarterback Andy Dalton was being evaluated for the NFL draft an anonymous coach asked a journalist, "Has there ever been a redheaded quarterback in the NFL who's really done well?" the coach said. "It sounds idiotic, but is there any way that could be a factor? We've wondered."
These are only the opinions of two men and only between 2 and 6 percent of the U.S. population is made up of people with red hair so naturally there are less 'red-heads' on US sports. However, this a trend which could threaten very fabric of the supposed 'Land of The Free' and has potential for an 'anti-Irish bias' so we will be monitoring it very closely.
