Evolution of the Black Quarterback (2024) s01e01 Episode Script

1
[commentator 1]
Coast to coast and around the world.
It is Super Bowl LVII.
[commentator 2] The first time,
two African American quarterbacks
against each other in a Super Bowl.
[Vick] History.
Sometimes you don't realize you're
living through it as it's happening.
Other times, it's obvious.
Super Bowl LVII.
For the first time,
two Black quarterbacks faced off
on the biggest stage in sports.
That moment hit me personally.
Some might remember me most as
a quarterback who played in the NFL
who left it all on the field.
Others as a man who made mistakes,
who knows firsthand
that evolution can be hard.
Knowing the road was tough
for those who came before me.
As I watched that game,
I asked myself, how did we get here?
I knew I had to find out.
[reporter 1] The Negro is proud of
the advancement his race is making.
[commentator 1] That colored boy
is sure getting under their skin.
[commentator 2] Kenny Washington's
getting the ball, fakes the pass.
-He's going to run with it.
-[commentator 3] That's still a long run!
[reporter 2] Government was
intended to be for the White man.
[Malcolm X]
We didn't land on Plymouth Rock.
The rock was landed on us.
[reporter 3] Coaches seem to believe
that Blacks are inferior thinkers.
[George Wallace] and segregation forever.
I am a revolutionary.
[commentator 4] Briscoe for the touchdown.
[Jimmy Snyder]
The Black is a better athlete
because he's been bred to be that way.
[reporter 4]
I hope Doug Williams puts to bed
about the Black athlete once and for all
in professional football.
[Al Campanis] How many quarterbacks
do you have that are Black?
They may not have the necessities
[commentator 5]
Falcons select Michael Vick.
[Obama] There is not
a Black America and a White America.
-There's the United States of America.
-[reporter 5] An unarmed African American
[reporter 6] There is an awakening
[reporter 7] The emergence of
the Black quarterback is not a myth.
[commentator 6] And Patrick Mahomes's
revolution continues.
[Vick] This story,
I've experienced it up close.
With the, uh, first selection,
the Atlanta Falcons select Michael Vick.
-[crowd cheers]
-[Tagliabue] Quarterback.
[Vick] But to really
understand where we came from,
I needed to take a journey
across America
across generations
to learn about the ones
who missed their chance.
The ones who kept pushing
and the ones who broke through.
Learning a little
about myself along the way.
Philadelphia is
the perfect place to start.
Home of the Eagles.
Home of so many great Black quarterbacks.
[Vick] Looking good.
Looking good as always.
Jalen, man, here in Philadelphia,
Black quarterbacks like Rodney Peete,
Randall Cunningham,
Donovan McNabb, myself,
you joined the ranks of some great ones.
What's the feeling of responsibility
you feel now continuing to move forward?
You don't understand the-the amount
of times where I could be working out
and I turn on a highlight video
of Randall, yourself, McNabb.
I never get too far ahead of myself,
just focus on getting better every day.
And I truly feel like if I if I continue
to just try to be the best that I can be,
it'll look great in the end.
Turn this up! Let's go!
[reporter 1] History at Super Bowl LVII.
For the first time ever,
two Black quarterbacks
will compete against each other.
I know I was that kid that
that turned on the TV
and I I saw the position
being played a certain way.
You turn that same
TV on now in a new time,
you got the game being
played a totally different way.
And that's a testament to yourself,
the guys that have come before you,
guys that have come before me
and obviously the guys
that are playing right now.
So being able to play in the Super Bowl,
it really just made history obviously
bigger than the game, but for the culture.
Right.
Yeah, that's cool. And it-it
really sets a new precedent
for-for what kids can
look forward to and can expect.
Jalen, when you hear names like
Doug Williams, Warren Moon, Shack Harris,
guys who paved the way,
what comes to mind?
They opened these doors for us to come
through and be able to do what we do.
Yeah. That's a huge legacy.
Those guys went through a lot.
I know you had an issue at the Combine.
[reporter 2] Jalen,
I know you're a career quarterback,
would you be willing to start your career
in a role similar to Taysom Hill?
They would ask if I was open to it.
And I respectfully said,
you know, "I'm a team-first guy.
I always have been and I always will be,
-but I'm a quarterback."
-Yeah. It'd be a mistake.
[Hurts] The-The stigmas that are placed
on us and that one may place on you
-and trying to put you in a box.
-Right.
I always worked to allow
my play to do the talking.
[crowd cheers]
-[commentator 1] Hurts
-[commentator 2] Going deep.
[commentator 1]
Touchdown! Hurts!
-He is in for the touchdown!
-[commentator 2 laughs]
You are part of this next generation,
carrying the torch.
What responsibilities do you feel like
you have for the next generation
who gonna be watching you
and idolizing you as time goes on?
[Hurts] I just want to give
the game everything it deserves.
For anyone that follows me, I just
want them to know that it's-it's not easy,
and it comes with a certain type
of discipline and determination
and ultimately a standard for yourself
and how you want to do it.
And that's all I strive for every day.
[Vick] What's good, baby?
-What's up, Vinny Curry?
-What's up, baby? What's going on?
-Hey, you! Bro, bro, and bro.
-[laughs]
-[Vick] What's up? How you doing?
-How's it going? How are you doing?
[Vick] I'm doing a story on
the evolution of the Black quarterback.
[Goodell] The Super Bowl last year.
Definitely a big moment in our history.
[Vick] Yeah. We go way back
and you stood on the table for me
when you didn't have to.
I thought you earned it.
You said, "I made a mistake."
You paid a heavy price for it.
And more importantly,
you went on another level and said,
"I'm gonna make sure others
don't make a similar mistake."
-What are you playing?
-Quarterback.
[Vick] Hey, Quarterback,
keep holding it down.
-[Goodell] Love you, man.
-Love you too.
[Vick] Philly will always
be a special place to me.
That's where I got a second
chance to show what I could do.
And that's really
the story of the Black quarterback.
Someone gets a chance
and that changes everything.
But to understand how we got here,
we have to take it back to the beginning.
[Dr. Todd Boyd] You know, 1920,
the time at which the NFL begins,
is a very different time
in American history.
We're only 60 years removed from slavery.
That's not that much time.
Segregation is legal
and Black people are marginalized.
This was a long time ago,
very different than the way we live now.
And I think the Black quarterback
is part of that discussion
as we move forward historically and
come to understand how society functioned
and how a position on a football field
would contain so much symbolism
as it connected with issues of race
in our society.
[Wyche] In 1920,
it was all about college football.
It was the Ivy League schools.
It was the military academies.
Notre Dame.
Getting the college football stars
into the NFL, it was hugely important.
Fritz Pollard was an
all-star college football player.
Went to Brown University
at a time when African Americans
didn't go to college as much.
And as the league
was trying to be taken seriously,
they needed players who fans knew
and who could help raise the profile
and the legitimacy of the league.
And Fritz Pollard was
a player who certainly did that.
[Menefee] Fritz Pollard
played quarterback,
tailback in the Wing-T offense.
He was the guy that
the ball was always in his hands,
always made decisions.
The challenges for Fritz Pollard,
as it was for the few Black players that
were in the National Football League,
heard the racial slurs
whenever he would come into stadiums.
He had to have separate places
that he dressed
because he couldn't dress
in the same locker room.
Black people simply weren't seen as equal.
And so it was more than just fighting
for his rights as a football player,
as an athlete.
He was fighting for his rights as a man.
[Jarrett Bell] Fritz Pollard
and the Black players in the '20s
helped lay the foundation because
they helped to establish the sport.
And now we look at the NFL as
the most popular sport in the land.
Well, back then, the NFL was still
trying to prove itself as a viable entity
that went beyond college football,
that could attract people
on a regular basis.
You're broken down and tired ♪
Of living life on a merry-go-round ♪
[Vick] We're here in Washington DC,
spending some time with Coach Dungy,
who was a quarterback himself,
played at the University of Minnesota.
Had some success but didn't
get drafted as a quarterback.
I kinda wanna talk about his journey,
ask him about some of
his favorites growing up.
Talking about those who came
before him and those who came after.
We will rise up
And we'll do it a thousand times again ♪
-Coach! Been a long time.
-Michael Vick. What do you say, my man?
-How are you?
-So good to see you.
-Great, Coach. How about yourself?
-I'm doing well.
-You look amazing.
-Well, thank you. You do too.
Thank you. I'm glad that we, uh we got
the opportunity to spend some time today
-and go through some history.
-Yeah, this is going to be unbelievable.
For you ♪
Ah ♪
[music ends]
Coach, I wanted to come here
and explore this museum with you,
but at the same time,
dive into your journey
and, uh, also the history of
the quarterback position,
the Black quarterback,
and how far we've come to date.
And you being a former quarterback.
-It makes sense to want to
-[Dungy] Did you know that, or did you
-No, I didn't know that.
-[laughs]
I did not know that, Coach.
-And I felt so bad, so
-[sighs]
[Dungy] My kids see
my old college film now
-and they're like, "Damn, we didn't know."
-[Vick] Yeah.
I know when you talking about sports,
racial prejudice played a part.
I would like to know from you
how you guys persevered.
We had some guys
that paved the way for us.
Guys who had to fight
through some barriers and, uh
Who was some of those guys, Coach?
I tell you, I When I grew up,
my dad was going
to school at Michigan State
and Jimmy Raye was the quarterback.
[commentator] The Spartan offense is
marshaled by junior quarterback, Jim Raye.
[Dungy] They won
a national championship, 1966.
[Vick] Okay.
[Dungy] He was a leader
and that's who I emulated.
Eldridge Dickey might have been one of
the best athletes to ever play football,
-played at Tennessee State.
-Wow.
[Dungy] The Oakland Raiders
draft him in the first round.
[Vick] Okay.
In the second round,
they draft another quarterback,
-Ken Stabler
-S-Stabler?
who ends up going on to the Hall of Fame.
But they drafted Eldridge Dickey first.
-So that tells you about that ability.
-Okay.
[Dungy] Stabler goes on
to the Hall of Fame.
Eldridge Dickey never gets a chance
-to play quarterback in the NFL.
-[Vick] Right.
This museum, Mike, has a-a special place
in my heart because my dad came here
-and taught school, uh
-Here?
-[Dungy] Here in the DC area.
-Okay.
[Dungy] Not too many miles from
right where we're standing.
My dad had fought in World War II
as a Tuskegee airman
and came here to DC
to teach his first teaching job
[Vick] Wow.
[Dungy] and he couldn't teach
in an integrated school.
-[Vick] Wow.
-He had to teach in an all-Black school.
And he said the first time
he went to school,
-he went to get on the bus
-Mm-hmm.
and they said, "No,
you can't sit in this section of the bus."
And so he said, "Well, if I can't sit
anywhere I want to, I'll walk."
He said he walked to school every day to
make sure his kids in the all-Black school
knew as much science as
-the kids in the all-White school.
-Yeah. [chuckles]
And I said, "Dad,
didn't that make you upset?
You fought for the country
and you can't even teach."
-Right.
-And he said,
"I could be upset,
but that wasn't gonna help things.
I had to figure out
a way to make things better."
-Wow.
-"So the way I could make it better
was make sure I was
the best teacher I could be."
-[Vick] Yeah.
-And that always stuck with me.
I think what it put in me is
"Don't let anything stop you."
And you know,
50 years later, we come back,
-we win the Super Bowl
-Mm-hmm.
[Dungy] and President Bush
invites us to the White House.
-Okay.
-I landed at this airport
and I'm on the bus going
to the White House,
where my dad couldn't ride the bus.
I'm in the first seat in the first bus
going to meet the president.
-And
-50 years later.
-Yeah, but it falls back on those guys
-Change.
-[Dungy] who changed things for us.
-Oh, man.
-Okay.
I'm quarterbacking
the University of Minnesota
-Mm-hmm.
-playing the University of Washington.
Warren Moon's quarterbacking them.
[Vick] Okay.
[Dungy] I'm leading
the Big Ten in passing.
Warren's leading the Pac-10 in passing.
[commentator 1] Moon goes deep.
There's Gaines. Got it! Touchdown!
Come draft time,
neither one of us gets drafted.
They say, "Hey, you gotta change positions
-or go to Canada."
-Right.
[Dungy] So I wanted to play in the NFL,
I changed positions
and became a defensive back.
Warren said, "I'm not changing positions.
-I'm a quarterback."
-Yeah. Yeah.
[Dungy] He goes to Canada,
comes back and goes to
the Hall of Fame as a quarterback.
That's how it was back then.
-Yeah, you had to choose your fate.
-It wasn't the same.
A couple of years before me,
there was a guy named Chuck Ealey.
[commentator 2] Twenty-two-year-old
Chuck Ealey is a cool, young man
-on the field under any kind of pressure.
-[Vick] Okay.
[Dungy] Chuck Ealey was a
quarterback at University of Toledo.
-[Vick] Right.
-He was one of my heroes.
-Never lost a game in high school.
-Yeah.
[Dungy] Never lost a game in college
-in the University of Toledo.
-Okay.
[Dungy] Didn't get drafted
because didn't fit the mold.
But Chuck Ealey, he had to go to Canada.
Won the Grey Cup as a rookie.
But you'd think
quarterback isn't about winning,
and this man was undefeated
in seven years and didn't get drafted?
That's how we had to battle.
And it wasn't the-the type of thing
where people said,
"We don't want Black quarterbacks,"
but it was always,
"If your arm was a little stronger."
"If you stayed in
the pocket a little more."
"You don't fit our-our style."
[Vick] Coach, and there you go.
One of the greatest moments
in sports history.
[commentator 3]
The Colts are world champions!
World champions for the first time!
[Dungy] Proud moment for me, Michael,
because when I got my
first head coaching job in Tampa,
one of my real goals, I said,
"I've got to give
some more guys opportunities."
[Vick] Okay.
[Dungy] My first staff
was Lovie Smith and Herm Edwards
and then Herm got the job
in New York and I hired Mike Tomlin.
And those guys took it
-and they showed what they could do.
-Yes, they did.
[Dungy] And so to-to be able to play in
a Super Bowl against Lovie,
that was an unbelievable thrill.
Coach, I-I will say this,
I love Lovie but I was rooting for you.
[Dungy laughs] It's so hard to believe.
I remember that Super Bowl game
and-and the clock was running down.
There's like a minute left
and I know we're gonna win.
And I was on the sideline thinking,
"How in the world did I get here?
How did this happen?"
I thought about my dad.
I thought about Fritz Pollard.
I thought about guys who sacrificed
and just kept fighting
to give us an opportunity.
And it was one of those great
feelings like, "Man, we did it."
Thank you so much
for taking me on this tour
and enlightening me on so many things
that I didn't know about.
And I wanna take the time to thank you
for being such an inspiration in my life
and always holding me accountable.
So there's a lot of people
that I try to make proud.
Parents, my wife, yourself, Andy.
And thanks for always
holding me to a higher standard.
Thank you so much.
It's been awesome to go through
the museum with you, Mike.
[Vick] It's great to celebrate history,
but it's not just about the triumphs.
There's a story in the pain too.
[reporter] The great big spree,
the Jazz Age is over.
All over.
In the 1920s,
the great American word was prosperity.
Now the '30s have begun
and there is a new word.
Depression.
During the Great Depression,
fans didn't want to see,
or at least owners didn't believe that
fans wanted to see Black men working
and getting paid while
White men were out of a job.
[Wyche] You have George Preston Marshall
and other owners collude to say,
"Black players, uh-uh, we're not
having them, we're not paying them."
So for roughly 12 years,
there were no Black players in the NFL.
The NFL reintegrated in 1946
when Cleveland moved to Los Angeles.
And they wanted to play in the Coliseum.
But the Coliseum forbade them
from practicing segregation,
so they had to have
African American players.
And so they turned to a star player,
Kenny Washington,
who had been a-an All-American at UCLA.
[commentator] Kenny Washington
steps back to pass,
throws a looper to Jackie Robinson
and it's complete for a first down.
[Bell] And then they signed
his former UCLA teammate Woody Strode
a few weeks later and there you had
the integration of the NFL.
Even as football integrated,
and it's a major moment of progress,
we also still have this
racial hierarchy in place.
Blacks were not allowed
to play quarterback,
center, middle linebacker, safety.
The positions down the middle of the field
that were deemed by football people
as the thinking positions.
1953, Willie Thrower,
the first Black quarterback that played
in the NFL, it lasted one game.
Choo Choo Brackins
played for the Green Bay Packers.
He got into a game, he threw two passes,
two incompletions,
and the next week he was cut.
[Bell] It wasn't until 1968,
when Marlin Briscoe got the opportunity
to start multiple games as
a rookie for the Broncos.
[teammate] Let's go, Marlin!
Marlin Briscoe is
a significant figure in NFL history
because he's officially the first Black
starting quarterback of the modern era.
And he was able to do it in 1968
with all the turmoil that was
going on around the country.
And I think a lot of people
kind of looked at him
and thought he was going to open the door
and provide an avenue for
a lot of guys who'd come up
through the college ranks at HBCUs
or at, you know, other major universities
to try and get an opportunity
to play quarterback in
the National Football League.
And that didn't really happen.
Rodney Peete!
My brother. How are you, man?
Where we at, Rodney?
We are at Illusion Magic.
-You know why?
-[Vick] Why?
[Peete] We're gonna talk
a little Marlin Briscoe, right?
-What's his nickname?
-The Magician.
Plus, I got a little
something special for you in there, man.
-I love surprises, baby.
-Yeah.
[both] Let's do it.
-Hey. What's going on, Rod?
-What's up, Larry?
-What's going on?
-Good to see you.
-Mike Vick.
-How you doing?
-Good to see you.
-What's going on?
-Good to have you fellas here.
-Yeah, got my-my buddy with me.
Came here to talk about Marlin Briscoe.
Before we talk about him,
I thought I would do a trick in honor
of him since he was called The Magician.
This is an ordinary deck of cards.
Michael, just pull any card out.
Any card that you want.
Make sure that's the one you want.
-That's fair. Right?
-That's fair.
Show it to the camera.
Place it right there.
-[Vick] All right.
-[Wilmore] Don't forget it.
We're gonna leave it right where it is.
Do you know why Marlin Briscoe
was called The Magician?
-He was an escape artist.
-No way.
He could escape from any situation.
So what we're gonna do
is rather than find your card,
your card is gonna
escape from the deck, right?
I'm just gonna tie the deck up to my hand.
That way I can't manipulate it in any way.
And on the count of three, when we say
I'm gonna say, "One, two, three,"
we'll say, "Marlin Briscoe,"
the card is gonna escape from the deck in
the amount of time it takes to say that.
-Ready? One, two, three.
-[Vick, Peete] Marlin Briscoe.
-[Wilmore] Is that your card?
-[laughs]
-[Vick] That was.
-[Wilmore] Ace of hearts?
-That was the card.
-That was the card, everybody!
-[Vick] That was the card. That was good.
-Marlin Briscoe, the Magician. Come on.
Oh, man. That was big time right there.
-We did it.
-I-I was watching close.
-You got me with that one.
-[Wilmore] I got you, right?
-I got you.
-[Peete] You got me too.
Marlin was like that, man.
He could get out of situations.
-We owe so much to him.
-Yeah.
[Peete] He was the first Black
quarterback to start a game in the NFL.
[reporter] Marlin Briscoe, number 15,
was introduced into the quarterback slot.
[Peete] Of that era,
people would've probably said,
"Oh, he's Michael Vick."
-Because he could move around
-[laughs] That says a lot.
he could escape,
he can get out of trouble.
[Wilmore]
Quarterbacks then were pocket passers,
but he was unpredictable for his time.
People didn't know what he was gonna do.
They haven't seen this kind of
excitement with a quarterback.
He really started a whole new thing,
but then it just stopped after that season
when he didn't get
a chance to quarterback.
[crowd cheering]
Let's just stop right there.
You said it stopped?
Times were just different, you know.
In 1968, Dr. King
was assassinated early in the year.
There were riots.
There was so much unrest.
So for a Black man to lead
a group of White men in 1968,
that was not an easy proposition.
[crowd cheering]
[Wilmore] The racial
dynamic was the biggest thing.
The way people judged Black quarterbacks.
They didn't think they were as
smart as the White quarterbacks.
A lot of quarterbacks called
their own plays back in those days.
You know, can he be a real play caller?
[Vick] Okay,
so it was just one year for-for Marlin.
One year and done and then he
was on to playing wide receiver.
They didn't wanna make him
quarterback again for the second season.
So he said, "Fine,
I'll go somewhere else."
Didn't get a chance to do it again, but he
reinvented himself as a wide receiver.
He wasn't just a wide receiver,
he was a Pro Bowler.
He won two rings for the Dolphins.
He was on that undefeated team.
Certain people would say, "See, we always
knew you were a wide receiver." [laughs]
Yes, exactly! Right. [groans]
So Marlin Briscoe in 2023 is a
full-fledged starter
-in the National Football League.
-Exactly.
-Thousand percent.
-Without question.
He's on the cover of Madden. Easy.
Marlin Briscoe just recently passed away.
Never really got his just due.
That's why it's important for us.
We gotta keep it going, that legacy going
-Yeah.
-because he paved the way
for so many of us.
Watching guys like me
and Randall and Warren.
-But knowing that he started in the NFL
-Yeah.
[Peete] you know,
he was the first one to do it.
Rodney, I wanna take a moment
to just reflect on your career at USC.
And that was a delicate time
for Black quarterbacks.
Did you have to
deal with any-any stereotypes
-Oh, yeah.
-as you played the position?
[Peete] When I was getting recruited,
half the schools that recruited me
wanted me to play wide receiver.
USC said I could play quarterback.
Plus, they had
Black quarterbacks there before.
You know, they had Jimmy Jones,
Vince Evans.
When you see somebody
in your position that's doing it,
then it gives you a feeling like,
"I can do it too."
[crowd cheering]
[commentator 1]
Rodney Peete turns it inside. Touchdown.
Second of the day.
[Peete] Had a good run at SC.
It was fun, man. We were winning.
I always believed that the best
quarterbacks were the guys
-that could do multiple things.
-Right.
So I would move around,
I would run around.
And then,
if you didn't allow me to do that,
I would also sit in the pocket
-and-and carve you up that way.
-Mmm.
-[Peete] Overall, it was just leadership.
-Exactly. Yeah.
-[Peete] That was what I brought
-Yeah.
[Peete] to the table
more than anything else.
Now, were you cautious about not running
and being more of a pocket passer?
-Or did-did it not matter?
-Man, I was.
I probably missed out on
-a lot of rushing touchdowns
-[Vick] Right.
because I was trying to
make sure I did a passing touchdown.
Because that's what
people were looking at.
-Then get labeled a running quarterback.
-And get labeled a running quarterback.
And all of a sudden,
you know how what happens after that.
Absolutely.
[commentator 2] Peete
down the middle. Touchdown.
Rodney, I was a big fan of you growing up.
And seeing a Black quarterback
on TV was amazing for me.
Because the more I could see,
the more guys that showed up
that looked like me,
the more I could dream my dream.
[Peete] To be able to play
quarterback at USC, all the tradition,
all the history and those rival games
against UCLA and Troy Aikman.
And in fact, my senior year, we were one,
two, or three throughout the whole season.
So everything came together.
Heisman Trophy was on the line, Rose Bowl
on the line, national title on the line.
And we ended up beating 'em in '87.
Then we got 'em again in '88.
[reporter] You are looking live
at the Marriott Marquis Ballroom
here in New York City as
the 1989 NFL draft is about to begin.
[Vick] The 1989 draft,
-you was drafted in the sixth round?
-Sixth round. Sixth round.
-[Vick] Aikman went earlier.
-Yeah.
[Vick] What'd it make you feel like?
Man, it was probably one
of the darkest, hardest days in my life.
You go through college, right?
You're going toe to toe with the guy
who is going to be drafted number one
and you beat him twice.
-Runner-up to the Heisman.
-Yeah.
May not be number-one pick,
but I'm-I'm gonna be close.
-Early. Early.
-I'm gonna be somewhere around there.
First round goes by. Nothing.
Second round.
-Then I'm seeing guys go off the board.
-Yeah.
[Peete] Quarterbacks from different
schools start to go off the board.
[Vick] They probably not even
-as good as you.
-Yeah.
The sixth round comes and Detroit calls
me, and I finally end up getting drafted.
[Vick] You probably looked around the NFL
and didn't see too many
other Black quarterbacks.
You end up having
a long, sustainable career.
You can't be just as good.
-You gotta be twice as good
-Yes.
[Peete] as that White quarterback,
otherwise you're not gonna get a shot.
At that time, 'cause I played baseball,
all family and friends, like,
-"Forget the NFL, go play baseball."
-"Go play baseball."
-"Go play baseball." But I just couldn't.
-Yeah.
I couldn't because there's
gonna be some other kids along the way.
They gonna say,
"Why didn't you play football?"
Like-Like me.
I was one of those kids watching you,
watching Randall, trying to visualize
and trying to dream my dream.
I just had to I had to go show
them that I could play quarterback.
[doorbell chimes]
[Harris] Mike.
-Mr. Shack Harris, how you doing?
-Come on in, man.
All right. Welcome.
-Thank you. Good to see you.
-Good to see you again.
Shack, I told you
I was gonna come find you.
Now, I'm here to see you
and talk some history.
Well, let's get to it.
Before we get started,
I want you to try this lemonade
and tell me it's not some of the best.
-Awesome. I thought you would never ask.
-[laughs]
That's amazing. Miss Harris made that?
That-That wasn't you.
-Help yourself. She's the best. [laughs]
-I'm taking that pitcher with me.
Thanks for the visit.
Good to talk a little football.
Absolutely. If you can give a scouting
report on yourself, what would it be?
Well, simply put,
I would say I wanted to win.
-[commentator 1] Tucks it in. Runs away.
-[commentator 2] Throws to the end zone.
[commentator 3]
Going deep down the sideline.
Played on some great teams
with some great players,
but my role was always
to get the ball to the playmaker
and make plays to win the game.
Coming out of high school, I was player
of the year in the state of Louisiana
and I fell in love
with Coach Eddie Robinson,
who had been to New York
and talked with Howard Cosell.
And Howard Cosell asked him,
"You produce so many professional players,
why you can't produce a quarterback?"
And that night, he came by my house
and he said,
"James, Howard Cosell said
right now, America is not ready
for a Black quarterback.
But if you come to Grambling,
in four years, you will be able to play."
What was it like growing up
in the Jim Crow South?
[Harris] Well,
I drank out the colored water fountain.
I rode on the back of the bus.
We used hand-me-down books,
but we did get a good education.
But our community was built
on hard work, credit and prayer.
Tell me a little bit about, you know,
just going through
the four years at Grambling
and then getting ready for, you know,
what Eddie Robinson said
the world would be ready for
in terms of a Black quarterback.
[Harris] Coach said
that I would get drafted high,
but they called me
and asked me to switch positions.
I told them that I wanted to be
a quarterback and I kept my word.
I was not switching.
But as we proceeded in
the draft process and I got to Buffalo,
I understood the reason why
we wasn't playing quarterback.
They said we weren't smart enough.
They said we couldn't lead
and they questioned our character.
But when I got to Buffalo,
I put all that behind me.
[crowd cheering]
[Vick] Shack, you became the
first Black quarterback to start a season,
but why do you think it took so long?
I think it's all about opportunity.
National Football League wasn't ready
for a Black quarterback
but it pales in our society.
It wasn't much I wasn't prepared for,
except for fan mail.
-I never thought about fan mail.
-How was that?
How was that, getting hate mail?
It was a challenge because fan hate mail,
where they would draw a stick,
put a noose around my neck,
put me on a tree,
different kinds of pictures.
There were death threats.
There'd be times at night
and you wanna kinda look around to make
sure and be very cautious at where you go.
I mean, that was the kind of conditions
that you had to kind of play through.
The worst experience that
I had was in LA when I got a death threat.
I've gotten them before,
but this was the first time
that the security met me at the hotel.
[Harris] And as I went to my room,
my roommate was Ron Jaworski.
He came in and I told Ron
what was going on
-because they had
-Yeah.
security outside the door.
And getting to the game that day
looking around while you warming up.
That takes a little out of you.
[crowd cheers]
[Vick] How did that make you feel?
Knowing that you had to go through that?
Because you're just trying to, like, be
the best football player that you can be
but you dealing with
all these things outside of football.
The most challenging thing
was trying to play perfect.
-You can't make a mistake
-[mutters] Yeah.
[Harris] playing quarterback.
You need to be relaxed.
I know Marlin Briscoe came
and joined you guys for a while.
Just talk about the ups and downs.
How did you lean on Marlin,
his experience, to-to help you?
[Harris] I had a lot of respect for Marlin
because when I was a junior
in high school,
he, Eldridge Dickey
and Jimmy Raye were seniors.
I used to go every Monday
and look up their stats and follow them.
It frustrated me
when he didn't get a chance to play,
but Marlin understood
exactly what I was going through
-and we were able to have
-Mm-hmm.
some good conversations.
I want to know
what you gonna do about having
more Black brothers as quarterbacks
in the National Football Honky League.
-Right on.
-Yes.
I plan not only to have
lots of Black quarterbacks,
but we're gonna have Black coaches
and Black owners of teams.
As long as there's gonna be football,
gonna be some Black in it somewhere.
[Reid] Right on.
[Vick] Shack,
you're the first Black quarterback
to make the Pro Bowl, Pro Bowl MVP.
You was paving the way
for guys like myself,
Doug Williams, guys who was to come.
I played on a good team in LA
and the Pro Bowl.
Our staff was coaching it.
And when I got there,
I found out a lot of the players
didn't get serious
till the fourth quarter,
but I went there to win.
I ended up the most valuable player.
[Vick] You had
an immaculate career at Grambling.
Shack, last question.
Can you have the evolution
of the Black quarterback
without yourself, without HBCUs,
without Eddie Robinson?
No.
Walter Payton,
who was one of the top three rushers
in the history of the game,
is from a HBCU.
Yeah.
Jerry Rice, some say the best receiver
-The best. The best.
-that ever played the game.
HBCU.
Michael Strahan, HBCU.
Deacon Jones
-some people say
-Deacon Jones.
[Harris] is the best pass rusher
to ever play the game. HBCU.
Doug Williams, Art Shell,
Bob Hayes, Mel Blount.
HBCU.
You can't have an evolution
of football, period, without HBCUs.
Despite what some people in the country
might tell you,
America has a problematic racial history.
There was this big industry, way back
in the day, and it was called slavery.
I know that some people are gonna tell you
that it never happened
or that it was awesome.
It was actually pretty bad.
And one of the things
that slavery encompassed
was rules against
teaching slaves, uh, how to read
and against educating slaves.
Historically Black colleges
and universities
were founded just after the Civil War
to help educate freed slaves.
[Lathan] We wanted,
as Black people, to be educated.
We wanted to be equal parts
a-and equal participants
in the American dream
and the American experience.
And there was no way to do that
without having high-level education.
We couldn't go to some of
the other schools
that were educating
the rest of the minds in America.
They weren't gonna let you in there.
[Boyd] Schools in the South were
segregated and didn't sign Black athletes.
For this reason,
many of the great Black athletes
of a particular era went to HBCUs
because that was, perhaps,
the only option they had.
Shortly thereafter the-the foundation
of these institutions came athletics.
With the HBCU, the Black athlete
had a chance to not just play football,
but to play whatever position
they were skilled and prepared to play.
And that included quarterback.
["Watch Out Now" playing]
Common, what's up, baby?
-What's up, brother? How are you, man?
-I'm good, man. How about you?
I'm excellent.
-You look good. Thanks for joining me.
-Great to see you, man.
Man, it's an honor, bro. For real, man.
You mean a lot to me, to our culture.
[Vick] And that's what
we're gonna talk about
from an entertainment standpoint,
sports standpoint.
-And get your take on it.
-All right. Let's do it.
Watch out now ♪
[Vick] I know you attended a HBCU, FAMU.
Yes, sir. FAMU was everything
because the Black college experience
is just something
that gives you self-empowerment.
Yeah. I was gonna ask you about that.
[Common] It gives you a sense
of who you are on another level.
My mother went to a HBCU.
She went to Central State University
and my father went to Wilberforce.
How was the sports there?
How was football and the culture
ingrained into the student body?
You know, coming from Chicago,
I-I love hooping.
But when I went down South, the culture
at Black colleges was football.
-Saturdays meant something.
-[Vick] Yeah.
[Common] The whole culture of the bands,
the food.
[Vick] Crazy.
I really got, uh,
immersed in-in-into football too.
And learned more about Black colleges,
culture and-and
-the connection of football with that.
-Yeah.
[Vick] HBCUs had some amazing quarterbacks
from Steve McNair
to Shack Harris to Doug Williams.
When I say Doug Williams, like,
what-what comes to your mind?
[Common] I hope this don't sound too much,
but I almost look at it like
the first Black president.
Doug Williams felt like
the first Black quarterback.
When I hear the term Black quarterback,
I think of revolution.
I think of progress.
And I think of-of change
like it's Black power in a way
from a representation of Black leadership.
And I say progress
because the NFL, much like America,
didn't see Black men as being the leaders
that it takes to be a quarterback
and-and America never saw Black men
as being leaders
in society and just in communities.
That's been the change.
That's been the-the example,
that we've been able to see
change in society,
to set an example for people to understand
that Black men
can be leaders and great leaders.
-Yeah.
-Like [chuckles]
because some of the greatest quarterbacks
are Black quarterbacks.
Doug Williams broke down the barriers.
He broke down those barriers by example.
["Kingdom" playing]
I feel like we gotta
have more conversation, man,
and more dialogue on different levels.
But I got one question.
Common, I was one of the best freestylers
on the field when it came to
You draw a play out for me,
but then I can freestyle.
Second row of the church
With my hood on ♪
My homie used to rap
He was about to get put on ♪
You're a hell of a freestyler.
Hell of an artist.
Like, when you putting
those lyrics together
I know when I was doing
my thing on the field, like
How you come up
with the things to say, man,
that just really resonate with people?
My money ain't straight
My fam ain't straight ♪
Ain't wanna push keys
Heaven couldn't wait ♪
That's a great question.
And I never thought about it.
-You were freestyling out there. We-We
-Yeah [stammers]
[Common] You prepared.
You worked at the craft.
-This is what you love.
-Right.
God has blessed you with a gift,
like, and you develop that gift.
But then you're able
to be free enough in the mind
and in-in your spirit
and-and confident enough to be like
if something don't go this way,
then I know how to make it go
-Yeah.
-this way and get there.
Obviously watching you, you brought,
like, a whole lot of excitement.
To watch you freestyle
and have those talents to do it,
that made the game more
exciting for all of us, man.
R-Right. That was more recognizable. Yeah.
And it's funny because I've been in
situations where the system then went out,
-I just got a rhyme.
-Yeah.
And, man, one thing
with Black quarterbacks,
man, that's a gift
to do what you're doing.
-Right.
-You know, as much as it was like saying
that we want a quarterback
to stay in the pocket.
It's like, no, the-the goal is to win.
-Yeah, exactly.
-The goal is to move forward
-Yeah. For sure.
-and if you're moving forward,
-like and getting it done
-That's all that matters.
that's what matters.
[music continues]
[music ends]
-Coach, how you doing?
-Hey, Michael.
-Thank you for coming.
-Good to see you.
-Thanks for having me.
-Yeah.
[Vick] Amazing compound you got here.
I look forward to learning more about it
and, you know, spending some time
talking about Doug.
Doug Williams kept me in a job.
Welcome to Joe Gibbs Racing.
Any fans that visit, we tried to design it
so they could see a lot.
What's going on, baby? How y'all doing?
Oh, man.
You gotta be an athlete to get in here.
Well, whoever's driving this car
is way smaller than me.
[crew members laugh]
This car hard though. I like it.
I wanna take it back
to when you first met Doug
and when you arrived
on campus at Grambling.
What did you see?
And what was your first impression?
[Gibbs] It was very unusual.
I don't think I'd ever
done that before or after,
but Coach McKay said,
"Look, there's a quarterback at Grambling.
We got a first-round pick.
Go find out everything
you can about Doug."
And so I go over there
not knowing what's gonna happen.
-Yeah.
-And I spent three days with him,
-he was teaching classes.
-Okay.
I was sat in the back
of the room. [chuckles]
And then afterwards we go to McDonald's
and then we would get on the board
and talk football.
And I think I had
a real good feeling for Doug,
what kind of person he was and,
you know, football smarts.
So I go back to Coach and I said,
"Hey, Coach, this guy is really"
-He got it.
-"And I think if you do take him,
I think we got a solid guy
that could really do something special."
So, Coach, prior to you guys taking Doug,
why do you think there wasn't
a lot of Black quarterbacks in the league?
I have no idea.
I don't know how
something like that takes place
where people just were
hesitant or whatever.
I'm just glad that I was a part
of something that was totally different.
And you got Coach McKay who was a
really a person that just looked at talent
and was willing to say,
-"Hey, go look at this guy."
-"I don't see color." Yes.
And then have enough guts to take him.
Coach McKay stepped out and said,
"We're doing this."
You could immediately see the talent.
We would be in practice,
he would throw balls
and the players would go like this,
they would go, "Did you see that?"
-[chuckles] Yeah.
-I mean, this guy could throw it.
-I mean, it was
-He had a missile.
Immediately had a great presence
and everything.
I left after that year
and then Doug went on
-with Coach McKay
-Mm-hmm.
-Yeah. Did some good things.
-and they did some great things.
[crowd cheering]
[Vick] Speaking of that, you move on
and, uh and get the job in Washington.
And Doug moves on, go to the USFL,
but he'd find his way
back to you in Washington.
[Gibbs]
I love to have, uh, veteran backup.
I always wanted somebody there that
if you're in the playoffs or something,
you get a quarterback hurt,
you want somebody
that could take over and take it.
So that's how we got to Doug,
thinking he's gonna be a backup
and we go through that first year
and he didn't play much.
And then we got in a situation where
the Raiders started talking about a trade.
Doug. He wanted that,
you know what I mean?
-He wanted to play and I said
-Right.
"Doug, I really think you're gonna do
something great for us."
That wound up being the fantastic year.
[commentator] Loads it up,
a home run ball. He's there! Touchdown!
What prompted the decision
to-to go with Doug
late in the season f-for the playoffs?
You know, those things are always
I think it's got to be a real feeling,
a gut feeling.
We came down towards the end of the year
and Jay was a little off at times.
We put Doug in,
kind of a little bit back and forth.
And then for the last game of the season,
we put Doug in.
And after that game,
we all sat down as a staff and everything
and said we need to go
with Doug in the playoffs.
-He's gonna guide us to the promised land.
-[fan] Yes. Moses.
Super Bowl XXII.
[Menefee] Well,
it was a big deal for Doug Williams
to not only play in the Super Bowl,
but just to get there.
I mean, until he was drafted in the
first round by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers,
not only had there never been
a Black quarterback
drafted in the first round
by the National Football League,
there hadn't been one drafted
above the sixth round.
So for the Bucs to draft him 17th overall
in the first round, it was a big deal.
And that Buccaneers team started off,
they lost their first 26 games
but he turned them around.
And in their third year,
NFC championship game.
Then he found himself
out of the National Football League.
[Bell] Contract time.
There was a major, major stalemate.
And Doug Williams ends up leaving Tampa
and has to go to the USFL
to continue his football career.
You had the race factor
where someone was not willing
to pay a Black man his market value.
There was no guarantee that Doug Williams
was ever going to get back to the NFL.
Just leading up to that week,
I don't know if you can explain to people
the feeling was palpable
no matter where you were in the country.
Just the excitement and the feeling
of people wanting to see Doug Williams
not only play in the Super Bowl
but succeed.
Particularly Black people.
That week, the hype around Doug
was the first Black quarterback
to play in the Super Bowl.
Some reporter asked Doug,
"Have you always been
a Black quarterback?"
[reporter] Have you always been
a Black quarterback, uh, Doug?
[Boyd] So, to ask Doug Williams
how long he had been a Black quarterback,
to me is sort of comical in its stupidity.
But it also speaks to how unusual
it was to have a Black quarterback
starting for a team
competing in the Super Bowl.
And the Denver Broncos, by the way,
were favored to win
that game with John Elway.
John Elway is significant
in sports history for a lot of reasons.
He's significant
because of his prodigious talent.
Maybe the greatest sporting prospect
at that time ever.
Probably could have gone on and been
a Hall of Famer in major league baseball,
but he was also
the quintessential golden boy.
California kid. That matters.
Handsome, blond kid. That matters.
The talent and the game to back it up.
That matters.
So what you essentially have
in that Super Bowl game
is Doug Williams playing the disruptor,
not only to
the Broncos' Super Bowl chances,
he's playing the disruptor
to the idea of the golden boy.
And here is somebody who is
decidedly not golden,
we're talking about from Louisiana,
from an HBCU.
Someone whose career
had tremendous ups and downs,
be coming off the bench to do this.
Elway went on to submit
his golden boy status,
but he didn't get it done that Sunday.
[Vick] What's up, baby?
[chuckles] Mike, what's happening, man?
The house that Doug and Eddie built.
[Williams] Hey, I-I-I was a layman.
I just rolled the seat in there.
You know, when you talk about
this house, all Eddie Robinson.
This is Eddie Robinson's vision.
Unbelievable, man.
So let me ask you this.
What prompted you to play quarterback?
You know, throw the pill?
[Williams] When I was ninth grade,
I was a little guy.
-I was 5'5" in ninth grade.
-That's little. I was bigger than you.
-Yeah, in ninth [laughs]
-[chuckles]
Then going into my tenth-grade year,
you know, I went up to 6 feet tall.
By junior year,
Coach put me in as quarterback that year.
And I stayed there, and, you know, I was
small in school. Wasn't recruited a lot.
The SEC was not playing
a Black quarterback.
[Vick] Okay.
[Williams] The only guy that had played
in the SEC was Condredge Holloway,
-who had played with Tennessee.
-Right.
[Williams]
So schools like that didn't recruit me.
But Jackson State, Tennessee State,
Mississippi Valley, uh,
Southern University, and Grambling.
And, you know, every Sunday,
Coach Rob was on TV.
-[Vick] Right. Couldn't beat that.
-All they did was win.
And my mom, to be honest with you,
is the reason why I ended up at Grambling.
Mom like, "You gotta go."
And Coach Rob, bless his soul,
called my mom,
-uh, late one night
-Yeah.
and my mom came in
and shook me and woke me up.
She said, "Hey, you going to Grambling."
-I said, "What?"
-"What?"
[Williams] She said, "I just got
off the phone with Coach Robinson.
-He said you're going to class"
-Mm-hmm.
[Williams] "you gonna graduate,
and you're gonna go to church."
-[Vick] Mmm.
-That's all they had to say.
[Vick] And so, you-you going
through this time playing quarterback,
and you're starting to like it,
and then you're looking around
and you don't see nobody
that look like you.
So who was some of the quarterbacks
that you idolized growing up?
The guy that-that resonated with me more
than anything is James "Shack" Harris.
[commentator] Loads it up,
throws down deep.
Got it! Touchdown.
[Williams] He had played here before me,
and Shack Harris used to always come back.
[Vick] Wow. So Shack was a big influence.
I was lucky, you know. I got
an older brother who I call my mentor.
-But I got another brother, Shack Harris
-Yeah.
-[Williams] who was my mentor.
-Yeah.
And that's why I'm going on this journey
to talk about
the evolution of the position.
A lot of people come up
to me and-and they say,
"You changed the game." I'm like,
"It wasn't me that changed the game.
It was Moon, it was Donovan, it was Doug."
And so, it-it's an opportunity
for me to pay homage.
But also to enlighten people
on how we got to where we are today.
[Williams] Right.
Look around this league now.
I could be wrong,
but the next five to six, seven years,
half of the quarterbacks
in this league gonna be Black.
I like Brady.
-I like Aaron Rodgers.
-Yes.
But do the Black quarterback
give me a special interest? Yeah.
-That's being honest.
-Yeah. That's fair.
-There's a reason why though.
-Right.
Because a long, long time ago, we all
didn't have that opportunity to play.
When you watch the game today
and the quarterbacks, the Lamar Jacksons,
the Jalen Hurtses, the Kyler Murrays,
what do you say to yourself
knowing that it's a totally different era
than where you started?
[reporter] Coaches,
most of whom are White,
seem to believe that Blacks are
superior athletes but inferior thinkers.
[Williams] At the end of the day,
when I came in,
every article that was written was always
either Tampa's Black quarterback,
or Doug Williams,
the Black quarterback of Tampa.
-That-That-That is just not involved now
-Right.
and when you see Jalen and Lamar
and Patrick Mahomes and Russell Wilson,
now you got a chance.
Just watch them play, man,
and see how they play.
It tells you that the old myth
that there used to be,
we wasn't smart enough
to play that position.
[Vick] Yeah.
These guys doing the same thing that
anybody else has been doing for years.
It's just a matter of giving them
an opportunity to get it done.
And so you was drafted
in the first round to Tampa Bay.
A lot of people don't know,
but that's history within itself.
[Williams] When I came out, I was
the first 17th pick in the first round,
but Tampa had the first pick.
-They traded to Houston
-Ah.
[Williams] 'cause they knew,
back in 1978, they knew.
Nobody was going to draft
a Black quarterback in the first round.
So they took their chances,
and I was sitting there when they picked,
which was all right with me.
Man asked Coach Robinson,
"What do you think it's gonna take
for Doug Williams to succeed in the NFL?"
An opportunity to play.
Just a chance.
And didn't say nothing else.
-That was it. That resonated.
-[chuckling]
[both chuckling]
[Williams] Joe Gibbs, well,
he was working at Tampa at that time
and told John McKay that
if we wanted a franchise quarterback,
we gotta draft the kid out of Grambling.
Let me say this.
John McKay didn't c-care anything about
the color of your skin.
It was about the athlete.
["Old Landmark" playing]
-Now let us all ♪
-All go back ♪
-Back to the old ♪
-Old landmark ♪
[commentator 1] Can you believe it?
-Go back to the old ♪
-Old landmark ♪
Could you play?
-Go back to the old landmark ♪
-Old landmark ♪
Then we'll stay
In the service of the lord ♪
-Now let us kneel ♪
-Kneel and pray ♪
-Kneel in the old ♪
-Old time way ♪
Five years that I spent with
John McKay was five great years.
Kneel and pray ♪
-In the old time way ♪
-Old time way ♪
-He will hear us and be ♪
-Hear us ♪
We'll be given bread from heaven ♪
He will feed us until we want no more ♪
Preachers preach ♪
[commentator 2] He's got some room.
Gets a good block and in!
Dougie!
[commentator 2] Threw a bullet into
the end zone. Caught! Touchdown!
Holy moly.
Sons and daughters buried in the water ♪
Coming up shouting
Nobody doubting ♪
-Everybody ♪
-Happy in the service of the lord ♪
-[vocalizes]
-All go back ♪
[music ends]
[Vick] Still, going through those times,
you got hate mail.
[Williams] It wasn't easy.
When you're young, you don't know.
You open them and no address on it.
They say all types of things.
And there was a box that was,
I mean, nicely wrapped.
I don't know who would spend
that kind of time wrapping this box, man.
And I opened it, and-and lo and behold,
I opened this box, a rotten watermelon
and a note that say,
"Throw this to these N's."
[stammers] "They should catch this."
And that was the-the thing that took
broke the camel's back.
From then on, if it was a no address,
no return address, I didn't even open it.
I threw it in the trash can.
My dad always told me,
"You got to be a couple of steps ahead
of the other guy to get a chance to play."
-Yeah.
-So I felt like everywhere I've been,
I was probably twice better
than the other guy,
I got a chance to shine.
John McKay was that guy.
[stammers] Joe Gibbs was that guy,
and I appreciate both of those guys
for-for looking at it and understanding
that he's the best talent.
-That he needs to play.
-[Vick] Right.
You mentioned Coach Gibbs.
So I just wanna know a little bit more
about that relationship.
The reason why I ended up in Washington
was because of Joe Gibbs.
I went to the USFL. When the USFL folded,
I got one phone call.
-Yeah. That was Joe.
-Joe Gibbs.
He asked me, could I come to-to Washington
to be the backup quarterback?
So I ended up in Washington in 1986.
-[stammers]
-That's it.
And you get to Washington in 1986.
Jay Schroeder's the starter.
You come in with a mind-set.
How did you end up on the field
and ultimately in the Super Bowl?
[Williams] I played one game in 1986.
I threw one pass.
That was another game. In the championship
game against the New York Giants,
Lawrence Taylor came off the edge,
and hit Jay Schroeder.
[commentator 1]
Schroeder down on one knee.
Coach Gibbs was gonna put me in the game.
So I ran halfway out on the field.
I'll never forget this, and I looked up,
Jay Schroeder waved me off,
-told me to get back
-[sighs]
-and I did a U-turn.
-One of those.
[commentator 1] Schroeder waved him off
and said, "Get out of here. I'm okay."
[Williams] That was the worst moment
of my whole football career.
'87, the next season came up.
The first game of the year, he got hurt.
And I came off the bench,
and we beat Philadelphia,
-like, 34-24.
-[Vick] Yeah.
[commentator 2]
Touchdown, Washington Redskins.
[commentator 3] Oh,
he threaded the needle right there.
[Williams] And I guess the legend
of Doug Williams was beginning to be born.
We played up at Minnesota.
The last game of the year,
December 26th, and we was behind.
Coach Gibbs put me in.
I hit Ricky Sanders,
and we ended up kicking a field goal
and winning that game.
[teammates cheering]
[Gibbs] Way to go, man.
Way to go, Douglas.
And after the game,
Coach Gibbs's press conference,
nobody had an idea, and he said that
his starting quarterback for the playoffs
was going to be Doug Williams.
-So everybody was shocked.
-Statement.
[Williams] Everybody was shocked.
[Vick] And so,
you're going through this time,
you get to the Super Bowl.
Take us through that week.
What's going through your head, Doug?
'Cause now this is a big moment.
You making history.
Very big moment, man.
That whole week was
a week where everybody, these reporters,
-everybody camping out to get a story.
-Right.
And the story that week
was the Black quarterback
-[Vick] Right.
-Doug Williams.
I wouldn't even come out of my room.
Jimmie Giles, my teammate in Tampa,
called me one night.
He said, "Hey, let's go to dinner."
I said, "Man, I ain't coming out there.
I don't want to be dealing
with the media."
-Right, right, right.
-Saturday morning,
I woke up, and I had a toothache
and I couldn't go, man.
He said, "Hey, you gotta do a root canal."
-[groans] So the day before the game?
-Saturday, the day before the game, man.
I sat in the sat in the seat for
four hours and had a four-hour root canal.
I woke up the next morning, felt no pain.
-Wow.
-None.
Man, I-I could not believe it.
I got on that bus
and going into San Diego,
going out to Jack Murphy Stadium, man.
And so many things was going through
my mind as to how did I get here?
The people that I had to thank
-for getting me here
-I can only imagine.
and the people I had to tell
which way to go.
-Right. Right. Right.
-[laughs]
[reporter] Doug Williams,
he is a man about to step solidly
into the pages of social history today.
[Vick] Man,
that had to have been an exciting moment.
I'm seven years old, I watched the game.
You light it up.
[commentator 1] Williams going up top,
got Sanders on the fly at midfield.
He's gone. Touchdown, Washington Redskins!
[Vick] Went down ten,
came back and scored maybe 45 unanswered.
-[commentator 1] He's got it. Touchdown!
-[commentator 2] In the clear at the ten.
Touchdown, Washington Redskins!
[commentator 3] We are seeing
a virtuoso performance.
Doug Williams, he is having
a dream day for a quarterback.
This is history in the making.
[commentator 4] The first
Black quarterback to win a Super Bowl.
I hope he puts to bed once and for all
about the Black athlete
in professional football.
-When it was over, to walk off that field
-Yeah.
-with my hand held high in the air
-Yeah.
[Williams] man,
so many things was going across my mind.
You talk about the Super Bowl.
It ain't about me and my family.
It's about everywhere I go,
people always say,
-[Vick] Yeah.
-"Man, I remember that day."
[Vick] Doug,
why is winning the Super Bowl,
to this day, still so important for you?
Well, not only for me, but I think
for the National Football League.
The impact of a Black man getting a chance
to start in the Super Bowl,
win the Super Bowl and MVP.
If they write a story
on the National Football League,
could they leave you out of it?
-No.
-That's the impact.
-Wow.
-That's the impact.
-That sums it up right there.
-Yeah.
Wow, that sums it up. That's amazing.
[Vick] Sometimes a myth sticks
until it gets shattered.
The fact is, you can break the history
of the NFL down into two eras.
Before Doug Williams, many thought
Black men couldn't play quarterback.
After Doug Williams,
things would never be the same.
[crowd chanting]
We want Doug! We want Doug!