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Melissa Harris-Perry: The 2022 NFL season is kicking off tonight, and we're starting off the season with the look back at some NFL history.
Jason Reid: My name is Jason Reid. I'm a senior NFL writer at ESPN, and author of the new book Rise of the Black Quarterback: What It Means for America.
Melissa Harris-Perry: Jason started writing about the emergence of Black quarterbacks in 2019, a record year for Black play-callers in the NFL's history.
Jason Reid: When you talk about the ascent of the Black quarterback in the NFL, you're talking about in large part a situation which mirrors the ascent of Black people in this country in the previous century in this one. What it shows is that when the playing field is not completely leveled but even somewhat leveled, and we're all allowed to compete based upon our merit and our intellect and our skills, that any among us can rise up and contribute to the fabric of the greatest country in this world. The importance of what these superstar Black quarterbacks are now doing, they have shown that, hey, look, Black people are capable of rising to the highest heights, and because the NFL is the 800-pound gorilla in the room and it dominates American popular culture, we see these images on our screen, and it reinforces it, and it shows that, yes, this is actually occurring.
Melissa Harris-Perry: In this new book, Jason documents the history of Black quarterbacks, and the hate those early team leaders faced.
Jason Reid: The thing that was just so overwhelming is when you hear the anecdotes, even though you know racism existed, but the anecdotes about the hate mail that these players received, the anecdotes about the chance at games, the way the N-word was just thrown around. What these men had to endure, what the pioneers had to endure, it really is a testament to their inner strength that they were able to persevere and have all these young men today who stand on their shoulders, because they were not wanted. They were treated horribly. Again, even when you think you know about the level or the extent to which the racism existed, when you hear the anecdotes, the specific anecdotes about what these men went through, it's really difficult to take.
Melissa Harris-Perry: I asked Jason about some of the pioneering men who played this position.
[sportscaster commentating]
Jason Reid: Doug Williams is so important in the story of the rise of the Black quarterback. He was a star at Grambling University, a traditional, historically Black college and university. He played for legendary coach Eddie Robinson at Grambling.
Doug Williams was so good, that he made the NFL do something that it had never done previously. The NFL made Doug Williams the first Black quarterback drafted in the first round of the draft. That had never happened before Doug Williams was taken in 1978 by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, but he was simply too good to ignore despite the fact that he was Black.
Then people mostly know Doug Williams because he was the first Black quarterback to both start his Super Bowl and win the game's MVP award. He had that iconic myth-busting performance the Black supposedly couldn't reach a championship-level playing quarterback when he led the non-owners of Washington Commanders to a blowout victory over the Denver Broncos back in 1987. In that seminal performance, Doug Williams really got the ball, finally started within the NFL that, hey, maybe these Black quarterbacks really can do this.
[sportscaster commentating]
Rodney Peete, I was in school when he was leading USC to three straight Pac-10 championships, the Rose Bowl appearances. He finished high in the Heisman Trophy voting. The thing about Rodney is he had a long NFL career. He didn't have a spectacular NFL career, but he's very important in this story as well because Rodney was such an accomplished college quarterback. Then he did have success in the NFL. Matter of fact, in 1995, he led the Philadelphia Eagles to the playoffs.
When we talk about quarterbacks, they're not all superstars at both levels, both college and pro. Some are superstars in college, and they don't have the same type of careers once they get to the NFL. The thing that's important is that they have careers, and they continue to move the process along, and show that, hey, look, we can do this. We can play. We can be, if not superstars, people who can be competent and successful in the job.
[sportscaster commentating]
Jason Reid: Oh, Kordell Stewart (Slash), a guy who could do so many different things. The whole slash thing that he could be a receiver and a kick returner and all these things, but Kordell Stewart was a good quarterback. He was a competent quarterback for an organization. That's really one of the crown jewels of the NFL in terms of the franchises. They are the great Pittsburgh Steelers, and Kordell Stewart had success at quarterback. Oftentimes when people talk about, well, he was Slash, he could do a lot of different things, I prefer to look at him as what I choose to remember him as a successful quarterback for a great organization.
Melissa Harris-Perry: Of course, you can't talk about Black quarterbacks without talking about Colin Kaepernick.
Jason Reid: Kaepernick, because of his peaceful protest, which did not break any NFL rules, but because of his peaceful protests in which he first sat on the bench and then took a knee to shine a light on systemic oppression and police brutality, he lost his career. The team owners were just so angry, that he threatened the golden goose, so to speak, that they looked at him as potentially being an existential threat to the game's exponential growth every year.
Now, the thing about it is, yes he did lose his career, and that will be a black mark on this league for the rest of the leagues's history. Kaepernick, make no mistake, he was a good quarterback. He wasn't the greatest quarterback, but he was a good quarterback. The difference is now that a Patrick Mahomes in Kansas City is a phenomenal future hall of fame quarterback. When he said "Black Lives Matter," well, the NFL could not cast him aside because he's too good.
Dak Prescott in Dallas, when he broke with team owner Jerry Jones about protesting and about some of the things that he thought was important for him to say, Jerry Jones couldn't get rid of them.
We're at a point right now where these superstar Black quarterbacks, they saw what Kaepernick did. Kaepernick definitely soften the ground for them, and now they're doing what they believe is right.
Melissa Harris-Perry: Thanks to Jason Reid, senior NFL writer at ESPN. You can check out his new book Rise of the Black Quarterback: What It Means for America.
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