The trials and tribulations of the black quarterback

Back in the 1980s, if a black professional football player wanted to play quarterback, his best chance was in the Canadian Football League. Above are Warren Moon, at left, and J.C. Watts, who faced off against each other in the 1981 Grey Cup. It was the first professional football championship that saw black starting quarterbacks face each other. It did not happen in the NFL until this year, 42 years after Watts and Moon.
Source: https://ninetynineyards.com/2021/11/15/grey-cup-history-the-1981-game/
(May be subject to copyright)

It’s hard to believe when Jalen Hurts and his Philadelphia Eagles took on Patrick Mahomes Junior and his Kanasas City Chiefs in the Super Bowl, it was the first time in NFL history two black quarterbacks played each other in the championship game.

It is just as hard to believe we are still talking about it, because black quarterbacks such as Lamar Jackson, Dak Prescott, Russell Wilson, Justin Fields, Jameis Winston, Jacoby Brissett, Geno Smith, Josh Johnson, Kyler Murray, and the aforementioned Hurts and Mahomes, are all over the league.

Yet, as the 1980s dawned, NFL teams still believed black quarterbacks were incapable of playing quarterback.

If you wanted to play quarterback, you had to go to Canada, where the league was much more colour blind.

Such was the plight of the black quarterback in the 1980s.

But why?
The reasons were all racist – “they” weren’t smart enough; “they” could not read defences; and “they” would just tuck and run with the ball. Oh, “they” were good athletes though, good enough to play runningback, receiver, or defensive back, but just not quarterback.

What made the situation even more unbelievable was, how in college, black quarterbacks could put up good numbers, win games, and show all the skills a good quarterback needs. But when pro teams looked at them, they were invariably drafted as receivers or defensive backs, or just completely ignored. Meanwhile, white quarterbacks with half the accomplishments were not only welcomed to the NFL, but given chance after chance after chance.

There really is nothing that can credibly explain it.

As the 1980s opened, there were few black quarterbacks, and fewer starters. As the decade closed in 1989, the situation was not much better in the NFL. In the CFL, it was groundbreaking, but no one even really noticed.

In 1987, Doug Williams became the
first black quarterback
to start and win the Super Bowl.
Source: AP Photo/Elise Amendola, File
https://www.twincities.com/2018/01/26/
redskins-doug-williams-looks-at-
progress-made-30-years-after-being
-first-super-bowl-winning-back-qb/
(May be subject to copyright)

Doug Williams
The most prominent black quarterback at the dawn of the 1980s was Doug Williams of the upstart and until recently, doormat of the NFL, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Along with a domineering defence, Williams led the Buccaneers to the 1979 NFC Championship Game where he got knocked out of the game and the Los Angeles Rams won 9-0 on three field goals by Frank Corrall. In fact, Williams led the Buccaneers to the playoffs three times in the five seasons he played in Tampa Bay. He also was part of history in a game in 1979 when the Buccaneers played Chicago who had Vince Evans as their starting quarterback. It was the first time in history when teams with black starting quarterbacks played each other.

Williams would eventually leave Tampa Bay over a contract dispute after the 1982 season and sat out 1983. He was the lowest paid starter in the NFL, and paid less than 12 backups. He would go to the rival USFL for 1984 and 1985. When the USFL folded, Williams returned to the NFL in 1986 with Washington, staying until 1989.

In the 1987 Super Bowl, he had one of the greatest performances in Super Bowl history. Not only did he again make history as the first black quarterback to start the Super Bowl, but he broke Super Bowl records for most passing yards in a Super Bowl with 340, and most touchdown passes in a quarter with four. He was the first black quarterback to win the Super Bowl, and the Super Bowl most valuable player.

Vince Evans played for Chicago and Oaklnd/LA.
Source: RONALD C. MODRA/
SPORTS IMAGERY/GETTY IMAGES
https://andscape.com/features/
usc-bears-nfl-vince-evans-black-quarterback/
(May be subject to copyright)

The others
After his stint with the Chicago Bears, Vince Evans also went to the USFL for two years and back again, playing 16 years in the NFL, for a total of 18 seasons. He had a serviceable career, much of it as a backup with the Los Angeles and Oakland Raiders after his return to the NFL from the USFL.

Randall Cunningham, who had starred at UNLV, entered the NFL with the Philadelphia Eagles in 1985, backing up long-time starter Ron Jaworski. He would supplant him as starter in 1986, and be named the full-time starter in 1987. That was where I first saw him. He, along with a stingy defence, would lead the Eagles to the NFC East championship in 1988. By the end of the decade, Cunningham was one of the best quarterbacks in the NFL, and the premiere rushing quarterback.

Rodney Peete would lead his USC Trojans to two straight Rose Bowl appearances, and enter the NFL with the Detroit Lions in 1989. He would also have a solid career as a starter, running the Lions’ Silver Streak offence, and playing with various teams until 2004.

Randall Cunningham played
for Philadelphia in the 1980s.
Source: https://www.profootballhistory.com
/randall-cunningham/
(May be subject to copyright)

Don McPherson starred at Syracuse, including finishing second in Heisman Trophy balloting, then joined the Eagles in 1988. He had a decent career with seven seasons in the NFL and later the CFL.

Andre Ware was another quarterback who had a decent career in the NFL then CFL, but he made his mark in he 1980s by becoming the first black quarterback to win the Heisman Trophy in 1989. He would join Detroit in 1990, and later play for Ottawa, B.C. and Toronto where he won a Grey Cup in 1997.

That is it for black quarterbacks in the 1980s. The only others were replacement players during the 1987 strike, or players who occupied roster spots but never played. This is the complete list of black quarterbacks

Rodney Peete played
for Detroit in the 1980s.
Source: https://www.profootballhistory.com/
rodney-peete/
(May be subject to copyright)

in the 1980s.

Except for one – who I saved for last because of his unique place in this story.

Go north young man
Warren Moon led his Washington Huskies to an upset win in the 1978 Rose Bowl, but the only interest he had from NFL clubs was to play at another position.

Consequently, he forwent the NFL draft and joined the Edmonton Eskimos of the CFL in 1978. He played with Edmonton for six seasons, helping the Eskimos win five straight Grey Cups, from 1978 to 1982.

He announced 1983 would be his last season in Edmonton. He was a free agent at the end of the season. He garnered so much interest from NFL clubs, teams in need of a quarterback were referred to by broadcasters as in the running for the Warren Moon sweepstakes.

Interesting how he had to prove himself in another league before the NFL showed any interest.

The Houston Oilers won the Warren Moon sweepstakes. He joined the club in 1984 and would lead the club to seven straight playoff appearances starting in 1987. Moon showed his gratitude to the CFL in that 1987 playoff game, by having “Canada” stenciled over his face mask on his helmet.

He would go on to play until the 2000 season, and was inducted in both the CFL and NFL Halls of Fame.

Interestingly, he was part of history in 1981 that largely went unnoticed, because no one in the States was paying attention and no one in Canada thought it was a big deal.

1981 was the first Grey Cup, and the first professional football championship in history, that saw black quarterbacks starting for both teams. Warren Moon led his Eskimos against J.C. Watts and his Ottawa Rough Riders. In fact, it happened again the next year when Moon played Condredge Holloway of the Toronto Argonauts. And the year after that, Holloway started against Roy Dewalt of the B.C. Lions.

Colour blind
I am not going to go through the black quarterbacks who played in the CFL in the 1980s, because there are just so many. A partial list includes Roy Dewalt, Warren Moon, Damon Allen, Tracy Ham, Bernard Quarles, Terrence Jones, Danny Barrett, Homer Jordan, J.C. Watts, Chris Isaac, Peter Gales, Turner Gill, Joe Adams, Condredge Holloway, Reggie Collier, Walter Lewis and Brian Ransom.

Many of these men were all-stars, rookies of the year, and Grey Cup champions.

The CFL really was colour blind.

Study
Beyond the plight of the black quarterback, the subject of racism has always fascinated me. In the summer of 1989, at the University of Alberta, I enrolled in Anthropology 250 – Race and Racism. I had to do a presentation with a classmate named Rob Bourbonnais, and chose the black quarterback as my subject.

What was very telling was the reaction of my class of about 15. None were football fans, so all of them just could not believe the level of discrimination and racism this whole issue embodies.

That just further proved how systemic the problem was in the NFL.

Parting thoughts
While doing research for this, I found a list on Wikipedia entitled, “List of black starting NFL quarterbacks”. That is so telling of this whole issue, because there would never be a list of white starting NFL quarterbacks. I further discovered how many black quarterbacks came to Canada because the NFL teams that selected them wanted them to play other positions.

It shows we are still talking about this.

We have come a long way from the 1980s, when there were a few rare black quarterbacks in the NFL. When, if they wanted to play quarterback, their best chance was in the CFL.

It is also illustrates the difference between Canada and the United States. Two black starting quarterbacks faced each other in the Grey Cup championship in Canada in 1981. It took another 42 years, for Patrick Mahomes Junior to face Jalen Hurts in the 2023 Super Bowl.