As he watched the drama unfold during the final minute of the AFC championship game on the big screen, alone in the basement of his home in Chantilly, Virginia, Doug Williams might have been as moved as the most passionate fans in the Chiefs Kingdom.
After the Philadelphia Eagles and Jalen Hurts punched a ticket to Super Bowl 57 earlier in the day, Patrick Mahomes was on the doorstep of history.
“When Patrick got hit out of bounds and they immediately brought in the kicker and he knocked it through, cold chills went through my body,” Williams told USA TODAY Sports, alluding to the 45-yard field goal by Harrison Butker with three seconds remaining in the fourth quarter that lifted the Kansas City Chiefs to victory.
“I got emotional. I didn’t cry, but my eyes got full of water. It was just one of those feelings.”
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Thirty-five years ago, Williams made history as the first Black quarterback to start in a Super Bowl – he won MVP honors, too, passing for a then-record 340 yards with four TDs to ignite Washington to a blowout of the Denver Broncos in Super Bowl 22.
Now, for the first time, two Black quarterbacks will start in the Super Bowl – another significant mark of progress that has been a long time coming. That’s why Williams got so choked up as the Mahomes-Hurts quarterback matchup became a reality. For generations in the NFL, Blacks were systematically denied the opportunity to play the game’s most important position.
“It’s unfortunate, too, man, because a lot of people don’t look at it that way,” Williams said. “And that’s the crazy part about it. I’ve seen some things on social media where they say, ‘Why do they always bring race into it?’ Some people just don’t get it. They don’t understand.”
Williams, asked during a press conference a few days before Super Bowl 22 to explain when it began to matter that he was a Black quarterback, surely recognizes the context and the timeline. While Mahomes will play in his third Super Bowl, Hurts will become the eighth Black quarterback to start in a Super Bowl. It is not lost on Williams that the milestone comes a few months after 11 Black quarterbacks opened the season as starters – most in NFL history, surpassing the 10 opening-day starters in 2020.
“That’s amazing right there,” Williams said. “It’s amazing from where we’ve come. It’s kind of like if you were running a marathon, and you didn’t get into it until it was halfway over.
“These boys are young, 27, 24 years old, playing in the Super Bowl,” Williams added of Mahomes and Hurts, respectively. “I’m looking at what’s to come. Two guys are probably going to come out this year (Alabama’s Bryce Young and Ohio State’s C.J. Stroud, projected as top-5 picks), and I’m thinking that in the next 5-to-10 years, half of this league will have Black quarterbacks. Hopefully, we won’t have to celebrate this anymore.”
It was nearly 44 years ago when Williams, then a member of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, was part of another milestone as he faced the Chicago Bears, quarterbacked by Vince Evans. It was the first NFL matchup that pitted two Black quarterbacks in a regular-season game. He’s thought about that recently, in addition to the historical coaching matchup in Super Bowl 41 in 2007, when Tony Dungy led the Indianapolis Colts to victory against the Bears, coached by Lovie Smith – the only time two Black coaches met in a Super Bowl.
“There’s just so many things that I’ve had a chance to reminisce on and think about where we are today,” Williams said.
When it comes to Black quarterbacks, Williams likens it to a fraternity, with retired players linked to current players. They are connected by history that includes the late Marlin Briscoe, who in 1968 became the first Black quarterback to start for a pro football team, with the Broncos in the AFL.
Mahomes and Hurts have both routinely expressed appreciation for the history, although Williams adds, “You don’t play this game for history purposes. You play the game to win. These guys in the Super Bowl, they’re not thinking about history.”
Still, Williams said it has been typical over the years for Black quarterbacks – and white players, too – to acknowledge what he achieved on Jan. 31, 1988, in San Diego.
“It’s the ultimate respect,” Williams said. “Unbelievable. When they walk up to me they say, ‘Legend.’ And there’s some older white quarterbacks, when they’ve seen me on the sideline, they’ll nod. When I saw Aaron Rodgers, the first thing he said was, ‘I admired your career, man.’ “
Of course, the impact of Williams’ feat extends far beyond the realm of inspiring quarterbacks and breaking down a barrier in the nation’s most popular sports league. He has been aptly described “Black Royalty,” revered by many Black people from all walks of life.
Often, Williams will meet Black people who swell with pride as they share the details of exactly where they were and who they were with as they watched Super Bowl 22. Last week, as he sat in a Waffle House in Mobile, Alabama. (where his son, D.J., coached quarterbacks in the Senior Bowl), Williams overheard an older Black man seated nearby talking to his wife about the milestone game.
“I heard all of that,” Williams said. “I guess I’ve got rabbit ears. When I was about to leave, he said, ‘I remember you when you were at Grambling, but I was a Marine when you played in that Super Bowl.’
“I get that all the time. I’ve even run across people who have said, ‘I was born on that day,’ and their parents talk about it. That’s gratifying.”
Williams surely left his huge footprint on history but sounds just as eager to spin it forward. He will be in Arizona for Super Bowl 57, paying special attention to the quarterbacks he has closely followed for years.
On Hurts: “I think about where he was at Alabama his first two years. You had some people out there saying that he shouldn’t be playing quarterback. I’m saying to myself, ‘Jalen’s got to work on his mechanics in the pocket.’ And that’s exactly what he did. The kid, and whoever helped him with it, did a heck of a job. He can stay in the pocket, he can read defenses and he can deliver the football. And when he has to run, when he decides to run, he’s such a threat.”
On Mahomes: “If you’ve watched football the last five years, you can’t find anything not to like about Patrick. What is it that he doesn’t do well? You can’t write a report on it. You can’t say, ‘Force him to his left.’ Or, ‘Force him to stay in the pocket.’ There’s nothing you can say about Patrick that would be true if you say what he can’t do.”
Mahomes and Hurts have excelled during an era where race is no longer a factor when it comes to the opportunity to play quarterback. That their talent has allowed them to thrive is how it always should have been. Yet they’ll forever be connected to guys like Williams, who paved the way by knocking down barriers when opportunity was hardly automatic.
“I’ve got great appreciation for that,” Williams said of his Super Bowl moment. “But at the same time, when I think about that day … I think about all the guys that didn’t have an opportunity. I was fortunate because of what guys like ‘Shack’ (James Harris), Marlin (Briscoe) and Joe Gilliam went through. And I think about Warren Moon, who had to go to Canada first.”
In recent days, Williams’ phone has been ringing off the hook, so to speak, with people seeking his insight on the historical Super Bowl 57 quarterback matchup.
“It’s been a whirlwind,” he said.
That’s fitting. Williams is the ultimate authority on the significance of this looming history.
Story Credit: usatoday.com