ClutchPoints
While on The Pivot Podcast, Barack Obama, who recently recalled a viral Key & Peele moment, spoke about how he sees the country’s continued and progressing racial advancement, even in the way the NFL has slowly adopted more and more black quarterbacks over his lifetime.
“You guys are a lot younger than me, so I’m thinking back to folks like Warren Moon and Vince Evans; it was still a rarity when I was a young fan. So, any time there was a black quarterback, it didn’t matter what team; you were rooting for them just because it felt like they were representing everybody. There was still so much bias against black quarterbacks.
“Then you start getting that generation of Donovan McNabb, Randall Cunningham. It wasn’t a rarity, but I think a burden of proof was still on the black quarterback; can you execute?”
Although Cunningham and McNabb’s eras don’t exactly overlap, we can understand the general narrative Obama is presenting. We can forgive his casual sports fanhood and non-encyclopedic knowledge of quarterbacks.
In 1923, Fritz Pollard was the first professional black quarterback. He was also the first black head coach in the NFL and first black All-American. In 1949, George Taliaferro was the first black player drafted into the NFL.
In 1968, Marlin Briscoe started for the Denver Broncos and was considered the first black quarterback to start a game in the modern NFL.
In 1988, Doug Williams, with the Washington Redskins, was the first black quarterback to start and later win the Super Bowl. He is now the senior advisor to the general manager of the Washington Commanders.
The conversation continued with Obama bringing the narrative into today’s NFL.
“Everybody understands now that if you don’t have a mobile quarterback these days, you’re going to have a problem. Look there are still preconceptions. Think about Lamar, who right now is playing better than just about anybody. He is a two-time MVP and might win it again this year. The fact that there were still, as recently as four or five years ago, folks saying maybe we should change him into a receiver. So, some of those old habits die hard. I think with Patrick, with Lamar, with Stroud, now I think it is a given who is the best player and the way that the NFL has changed you want somebody who is a dual threat.
“I think the NFL reflects society generally. We have made progress and when I talk to young people don’t say nothing has changed because when I was born in 1961 the south was still basically Jim Crow, maybe not legally but operationally that’s how it was. So things have improved, things have changed. We wouldn’t be sitting here if it hadn’t, but that doesn’t mean things haven’t.”
Sports have always been a driving force in the United States political conversation.
The post [Barack Obama breaks down how the history of black QBs have...
