As Mahomes, Hurts make Super Bowl history, a question lingers: What took so long?
 

[February 11, 2023] By Amy Tennery

PHOENIX (Reuters) - Kansas City Chiefs' newly minted league MVP Patrick Mahomes and the Philadelphia Eagles' budding superstar Jalen Hurts will make history on Sunday, marking the first time two Black quarterbacks have started in the Super Bowl.

The occasion prompted uneasy celebration in Phoenix this week, as a sign of progress but also a stark reminder of hurdles that Black players have faced for decades.

Asked by a reporter this week what took so long, NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell was blunt: "There are probably a variety of reasons - probably none of them good."

"The reality is, there's such great talent at that position, Black and white," Goodell said at his annual state-of-the-league media briefing. "I think we have 11 Black starting quarterbacks today. They are some of the best leaders I've ever seen."

It wasn't until 1988 - at Super Bowl 22 - that Doug Williams became the first Black quarterback to start the NFL title game, winning the Super Bowl for the then Washington Redskins.

When the Tampa Bay Buccaneers picked him out of Grambling State a decade earlier, Williams was the first Black quarterback to go in the first round who was not eventually converted to another position.

He told the New York Times that year that Black quarterbacks had not "been given the opportunity and the patience" their white counterparts had.

"White quarterbacks like Bert Jones and Terry Bradshaw needed time. But their teams let 'em learn. You learn from experience. It's hard to learn and produce at the same time," he said.

Twenty-three years later, Michael Vick made history as the first Black quarterback taken first overall in the NFL Draft, bringing a different style to the position with extraordinary mobility.

"When I first came into the league there was a lot of speculation about how long I was going to last as quarterback and if my style would hold up and I should change my style and become a pocket passer," said Vick, who now works as an on-air analyst for Fox Sports.

"I never felt it was thing where people said it was harder to win with Black quarterbacks, it was more about durability. There are a lot of stereotypes but we found ways to overcome that, we found ways to cross that barrier."

'A PROUD MOMENT'

At Super Bowl 57, Hurts will be only the eighth Black quarterback to start the title game. Mahomes became the seventh when he started for the Chiefs in their victory over the San Francisco 49ers three years ago.

Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Jalen Hurts speaks with the media ahead of the Super Bowl in Phoenix, Arizona, U.S., February 7, 2023. REUTERS/Nathan Frandino

Before them came Cam Newton with the Carolina Panthers, Russell Wilson, who won with the Seattle Seahawks, and the 49ers' Colin Kaepernick, whose kneeling protest against racial injustice begun in 2016 transformed American professional sports.

Kaepernick was lambasted by many fans and filed a collusion grievance against NFL owners a year later, when he went unsigned as a free agent, eventually settling with the league in 2019. But he never threw another NFL pass.

Following the murder of George Floyd by Minneapolis police in May 2020, Mahomes was among more than a dozen Black NFL players to appear in a video demanding an end to systemic racism and police brutality, declaring "Black Lives Matter."

Hurts, who was drafted in 2020, has sported the “Black Lives Matter” slogan on his helmets during games.

After the beating death of Tyre Nichols in Memphis last month, the NFL released a statement saying the league remains “deeply committed to combating the injustices and inequities” that plague our society.

"To have two Black quarterbacks competing on this big stage, in a sport where, not too long ago, Black men were deemed as not intelligent enough to play that position, is a testament to the progress that we have made," NFLPA Executive Director DeMaurice Smith told reporters this week.

"This is certainly a proud moment for the game of football that has been long overdue."

(Reporting by Amy Tennery in Phoenix, additional reporting by Steve Keating and James Oliphant; Editing by Bill Berkrot)

[© 2023 Thomson Reuters. All rights reserved.] This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.  Thompson Reuters is solely responsible for this content.