I remember growing up and watching Doug Williams winning the Superbowl for the Washington Redskins. I didn’t realize how important it was as the first black quarterback to ever win the Super Bowl. It took me a good 10 years to understand how much the Black quarterbacks had to go through to get to that point.
The First Black quarterback to start in the NFL was James Harris he started 2 games for the Buffalo Bills in 1971, after the Bills entered the NFL. Two years before the merger of the AFL and NFL, Marlin Briscoe started a game for the Denver Broncos in the American Football League (AFL). Marlin Briscoe played for the Denver Broncos as a rookie, he started 14 games with 1498 yards and 14tds. The next season he was converted to wide receiver and was also part of the undefeated 1972 Miami Dolphins. He still holds many of the Broncos’ rookie records.
Briscoe had a great career at wide receiver winning 2 super bowls and becoming an all-pro. His heart was always at quarterback and he wished that he was giving more than 1 year to show his talent at that position. This will be an ongoing theme for the black quarterback for another 2 decades.
Now let’s go back to Doug Williams. Williams was drafted in the first round (17th overall) of the 1978 NFL Draft, chosen by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers out of Grambling State University. The Bucs, who had never been to the playoffs before Williams arrived, went to the playoffs three times in four years and played in the 1979 NFC Championship Game. Williams improved his completion percentage each year with the Bucs and was regarded as the heart and soul of the team.
However, Williams was only paid $120,000 a year—far and away the lowest salary for a starting quarterback in the league, and behind 12 backups. After the 1982 season, Williams asked for a $600,000 contract. Bucs owner Hugh Culverhouse refused to budge from his initial offer of $400,000 despite protests from coach John McKay. While Culverhouse’s offer was still more than triple Williams’ previous salary, he would have still been among the lowest-paid starters in the league. Feeling that Culverhouse wasn’t paying him what a starter should earn, Williams bolted to the upstart United States Football League. The next year the Bucs went 2-14, and they would not make the playoffs again for 14 years until after the 1997 season, and lost ten games in every season but one in that stretch. Many Bucs fans blame Culverhouse’s refusal to bend in the negotiations with Williams as a major factor. Culverhouse’s willingness to let Williams get away over such a relatively small amount of money was seen as particularly insensitive, coming only months after Williams’s wife Janice died of a brain tumor.
Look at Warren Moon it took him 5 years after college to get into the NFL. Once he touched foot in the league he made every team regret not looking at him straight out of college. Moon played in the NFL from 1984-2000 after 5 years in the CFL where he won 4 Grey Cups.
He was elected into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2006, becoming both the first Canadian Football Hall of Famer, first undrafted quarterback and the first African-American quarterback to be so honored. Moon was elected in his first year of eligibility. Many Records in the NFl may have said his name if he was given a chance or drafted straight out of College.
James Harris, Marlin Briscoe, Doug Williams and Warren Moon paved the way for the new breed of Black quarterbacks. The Randall Cunnigham’s, Daunte Culpepper, Steve Mcnair’s and Micheal Vick’s proved that you can have a great career straight out of college as a Black quarterback. Now we have RGIII and Cam Newton tearing up the record books for rookie quarterbacks. Being top 2 picks in back to back drafts making up for the Jamarcus Russell era.
The Black quarterback has evolved into regular commodity. They are not looked at by race, or speed but by wins and loses. The torched has been past every decade since Marlin Briscoe first broke through and the talent at this position has gotten better and better. Who would have thought we would have back to back Heisman quarterbacks that are black quarterbacks. The path has been paved now is up to the future black quarterbacks to build on what was started in 1972!
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