A historic breakthrough by African-American quarterbacks in the playoffs puts a different face on the 2000 NFL season. It’s as if pro football had been waiting for a new century to discard abruptly old ways and lame stereotypes.
The change didn’t happen overnight, but the results are sudden. Five black quarterbacks have guided their teams into the playoffs. Two more remain in the running entering the final weekend. There are eight African-American quarterbacks currently starting on the 31 teams, including Dallas Cowboys backup Anthony Wright, who got his first start Sunday in relief of injured Troy Aikman on a 5-10 team.
Last season there were two black quarterbacks in the playoffs–Steve McNair of the Tennessee Titans and Shaun King of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers–and seven starting. McNair joined Doug Williams of the 1987 Washington Redskins as the only African-American quarterbacks to start a Super Bowl.
Two years ago there was only one black quarterback in the playoffs–Minnesota’s Randall Cunningham–and six starting.
McNair and King return to the playoffs this season and are joined by Daunte Culpepper of the Minnesota Vikings, Donovan McNabb of the Philadelphia Eagles and Aaron Brooks of the New Orleans Saints. Charlie Batch of the Detroit Lions and Kordell Stewart of the Pittsburgh Steelers–the only black playoff quarterback in 1997–still have playoff hopes.
King, Culpepper, McNabb and Brooks are in their second seasons, part of the celebrated quarterback class of 1999 in which an unprecedented three African-Americans were chosen in the first round: McNabb, Culpepper and Cincinnati’s Akili Smith.
One of the most insidious racial hurdles in American sports appears to have been cleared.
“It’s great to see because 20 years ago, for sure, these guys weren’t getting a chance to play,” Tampa Bay coach Tony Dungy said. “All we’re seeing is guys getting a chance to play.”
Dungy is one who didn’t get a chance. An outstanding quarterback at the University of Minnesota, Dungy went undrafted and signed with the Pittsburgh Steelers in 1977 as a free-agent defensive back. He got into one game as a quarterback in three years before turning to coaching. Dungy was considered too short to fit the prototype, much like his own quarterback now, the 6-foot King, who is backed up in Tampa by an even shorter African-American, rookie Joe Hamilton from Georgia Tech.
“I thought I could have played after looking at some of the quarterbacks who played when I played defense,” Dungy said. “I think I could have been one of the guys who played when I’d walk around and look Bob Griese right in the eye, or Fran Tarkenton.”
According to pro football archives kept by the Hall of Fame, Michigan State’s Willie Thrower was the first African-American quarterback to play in the NFL. He got into one game with the 1953 Bears. In 1949, the Bears made George Taliaferro of Indiana the first black drafted at any position. He was listed as a halfback-quarterback, but chose to play for the Los Angeles Dons in the All-America Conference.
By the time of the AFL-NFL merger in 1970, James Harris of Grambling and the Buffalo Bills was the only African-American quarterback in the league. The Oakland Raiders of the AFL had drafted Eldridge Dickey in the first round in 1968, but switched him to receiver. The Denver Broncos had drafted Marlin Briscoe the same year, but Briscoe joined Harris in Buffalo in 1969–as a receiver.
Position switches haunted African-American quarterbacks then and threaten them to this day. Because of an injury to Eagles running back Duce Staley, McNabb leads his team in rushing. After singlehandedly wrecking the Washington Redskins with 125 yards rushing Nov. 26, McNabb cringed at being labeled a running quarterback.
“We’re all quarterbacks first,” McNabb said. “We’re quarterbacks who have the mobility and the awareness to get out of tough situations. When I hear `running quarterback,’ that sort of upsets me. That takes away from my drop-back abilities.”
As if he were auditioning for a more conventional role, McNabb threw four touchdown passes two weeks after the Washington game. When McNabb was in high school at Mt. Carmel, Illinois recruited him as a defensive back. Syracuse was the only school that wanted him to play quarterback in a passing offense.
“He’s gone out intentionally the last couple of weeks to show he can pass,” said Fletcher Smith, McNabb’s agent. “He doesn’t want to be referred to as `the athletic quarterback.’ What this group wants to overcome is the myth that they’re not bright enough to play the position, that defenses are too difficult to read and terminology is too difficult–the theories that have been told over and over from one group to the next. These are issues this wave of quarterbacks really wants to knock down.”
Coaches rationalized that switching positions was a compliment to a player’s athletic skill. Lots of players want to play quarterback. Mike Ditka started as a quarterback and was switched. But for African-Americans, a switch often was tacit criticism of intangible qualities.
“There were black quarterbacks all the time,” said Frank Gilliam, vice president of player personnel for the Minnesota Vikings. “Coaches just changed their positions, I think because of the concept of the quarterback being your leader and he had to be your brightest guy. That was a big stereotype.”
Gilliam was a quarterback when he started high school in Steubenville, Ohio, in the ’50s. He was switched to end and is on Iowa’s all-time team. Gilliam is the uncle of former Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Joe Gilliam, whose career was cut short by a drug problem. But Gilliam played more games than Terry Bradshaw did in 1974, the first year the Steelers won the Super Bowl.
James Harris, who later played with the Los Angeles Rams as a classic drop-back quarterback, is now director of pro personnel for the Baltimore Ravens. He said position switches began to lessen once colleges started running wishbones and options.
“They began to use the quarterback as an extended running back, so more blacks were playing quarterback,” Harris said. “But they were running quarterbacks and weren’t being trained to play NFL quarterback.
“The next change was when teams started blitzing and forcing quarterbacks to be creative out of the pocket. Then colleges started playing those guys at quarterback, which meant they started getting training.”
Stereotypes die hard. Chuck Ealey went 35-0 at the University of Toledo from 1969-71 and had to play in Canada. Don McPherson was an outstanding Syracuse passer only a decade before McNabb, yet barely got an NFL shot. The list of snubs includes Heisman Trophy winner Charlie Ward of Florida State as late as 1994. Ward, now a point guard for the New York Knicks, was wavering between sports, much as John Elway did in 1983, except Ward went undrafted by the NFL.
“If Charlie Ward were coming out this year, he’d probably be the first or second player picked,” Dungy said.
Ealey, McPherson and Ward couldn’t meet the Elway physical standard. Neither does King, but King beat the St. Louis Rams on Monday night as much with leadership as athletic ability.
“Those are some of the things black quarterbacks never used to get credit for,” Dungy said. “We’d talk about how a guy like Griese or Tarkenton was tough or smart or a leader. Then when you’d get to the black quarterbacks back then, it was he doesn’t have arm strength or he’s too short. Joe Montana didn’t have great size or strength, but everybody could recognize his leadership and coolness under pressure.”
Now the deciding factor seems simpler.
“The guys making the decisions on quarterbacks are saying, `Let’s get somebody who can win,'” Dungy said. “These guys are all going to big schools and they’re proven winners.”
Said Gilliam: “As the emphasis gets more on winning, guys start losing all these biases they had about quarterbacks. Coaches want to win. So they get whoever can win for them.”
As the game gets faster, the need for mobile quarterbacks increases. But that is nothing new. Otto Graham’s mobility helped make him a great quarterback in the ’40s and ’50s. From Tarkenton to Roger Staubach to Steve Young to Rich Gannon, mobility always has been an asset for a quarterback.
Charley Casserly, general manager of the new Houston Texans and former general manager of the Washington Redskins, said in his 23 years in the NFL he has never seen race come up as an issue.
“Honestly, in personnel, there’s nobody in the league who even thinks about it or cares about it,” Casserly said. “We grade players. We never thought about it with the Redskins, and I never looked at it as an issue in the league.” Bill Rees, the Bears’ director of college scouting, echoes Casserly’s sentiment.
“We’re just looking for guys who can play,” he said. “I don’t think race comes into it at all.”
Rees also agrees with Dungy that more opportunity obviously brings results.
“Players have developed and put to rest the stereotype that black quarterbacks are not just option quarterbacks, they are complete quarterbacks,” Rees said.
Mike McCartney, the Eagles’ director of pro scouting, said the current breakthrough proves to him that race was indeed an issue that has been overcome.
“Ignorance is ignorance. I think ignorance is still alive with some people,” McCartney said. “The game has evolved, and we were fortunate to see it on time. There are a lot of athletes who try to play quarterback. I think Donovan is a quarterback who happens to be an athlete.”
By nature and experience, Harris and Gilliam remain cautious about celebrating a milestone.
“Somebody asked me that 10 years ago,” Gilliam said. “I said, `Yeah, unless they’re going to change all the good quarterbacks to other positions.'”
Said Harris: “I think the position is finally to a point where blacks have an opportunity to play quarterback in the NFL and they now can also compete for the backup and third positions, which was a problem a few years ago. When I came into the league, there was no chance.
“If anyone doesn’t recognize it now, it’s because they don’t want it to happen.”
