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In 2020, Patrick Mahomes signed what was then the largest contract in sports history, a 10-year $450 million extension. right after his first Super Bowl victory. In 1990, Doug Williams of the Washington Redskins would be paid $1 million, or about $2 million adjusted for inflation, after winning the 1989 Super Bowl against the John Elway-led Denver Broncos. A huge feat, not just because the Broncos were favored. because Doug Williams would become the first black quarterback.
to lift the Lombardy trophy. Here to tell the story of how black men being an NFL quarterback went from being a laughable idea To the height of sports success. is John Eisenberg, author of Rocket Man. the black quarterbacks who revolutionized pro football. Take it away, John.
Quarterback in the NFL is probably the most prominent position. in all of sports. The quarterback has been football's center of attention. Everybody wants to be the quarterback, whether it be in business or whether it be in sports. They want to be the guy that makes the decisions.
Did he lead his team to victory? That's what the quarterbacks, he's the general. He's the general out there. This glamorous occupation requires part leadership, part charisma. There's fame and fortune for those who master it.
And in all of sports, there isn't another position quite like NFL quarterback. The early days of football, the quarterback was not important. The game was just sort of a scrum, a muddy scrum. Most of the plays involved just a back plunging into the line, which was just a tangle of arms and legs, and really people just wrestling there at the line of scrimmage. Not much happened.
Hunting was a much bigger deal than passing. There was very little scoring. It wouldn't be surprising to see a game with a final score of six to two, a safety and a touchdown, and a missed extra point. It wasn't very exciting. That all changed as football evolved and became more sophisticated, and the forward pass became a big part of the game.
Coaches said, Hey, we can move the ball in chunks. large chunks throwing it instead of small chunks running it. And so that brought the quarterback front and center into football. And then the lights of television came on, and suddenly these games were on in living rooms across America. The quarterback had the ball in his hands, he was throwing the ball, and it was so dramatic suddenly.
The quarterback touches the ball every play, they have the most to do with whether we win or lose. If you have a guy that can play successfully at quarterback, you have a chance to win half your games just about no matter what happens. and a lot of other areas. Without a quarterback, you got a chance of winning, maybe one or nothing. I think it's the most dramatic position in the game for losing a game.
Shotgun left, live, 782 drive, B-wide. That. Do it again. By the 70s, this position is glamorous, high-paid. You are so important that if you're the quarterback of a team, you're really the face of the team.
Whoever your quarterback was, that said a lot about who your team was. what you were like. And that never changed. I mean, it's even more the case now. This celebrity status sells tickets and ensures the highest salaries in pro football.
No other player is held in such esteem by the public. and no other position poses such an enormous challenge. But There were almost no blacks, but At that position for the majority of the history of the NFL. In the first years of the NFL, they did not bar black players, but there were very few. But the fact that there were some was noteworthy.
If the NFL had had a most valuable player award in its first season in 1920, they didn't. If they'd had one, it would have been won by Fritz Pollard. And he was a darting runner, a kick returner. He kicked, he punted, he did all sorts of things, played defense, of course. And he played for a team in Akron, Ohio, the Akron Pros, and they won the championship.
All the while dealing with unbelievable racism from fans in Akron and wherever the Akron Pros went to play. He lines up a quarterback in a game. By then, he's playing for a different team in Hammond, Indiana. The Hammond Pros. long relegated to the dust bin of history.
But he lines up a quarterback. It's in a box score. You can see it. And that's the first time that a black player played quarterback in the NFL. It was in 1923.
It was Fritz Pollard. There were a few other black players in the league in the 1920s. There just weren't many of them. And then. 1933, the word has come down.
No more black players. It was never written as far as anyone can tell, but it was an agreement. It held in place into the late 1940s. No black players in the NFL. I don't think the NFL had any intention of reintegrating.
It all happened sort of by chance. The Rams were in Cleveland for the first nine years of their existence, and they moved to Los Angeles. And they're gonna play a Memorial Coliseum, which is still there. Was built with taxpayer money for the Olympics, the 1932 Olympics, and is governed by a public commission. And so, at a commission hearing after the Rams moved and they wanted a lease, three horse riders from black newspapers attended the commission meeting and said, you can't have this.
We can't have taxpayer money supporting a lease for a team. In a segregated league, black taxpayers spend just as much as white taxpayers. And the members of the commission immediately said, this is a problem. You're right.
So the Rams had to integrate. They weren't going to get a lease otherwise.
So what happened to the Rams started a process of teams. In the rest of the league, ever so slowly starting to bring in black players. But a quarterback. That position. Of quarterback became very, very protected.
We could run a ball, we could tackle, but to think, to strategize, that was supposed to be for others. The coaches said, well, we'll take a black player as a running back. We'll take a black player as a wide receiver. Those are more athletic positions. You don't have to think as much.
Quarterback is a thinking position. You have to call the signals, run the offense, really be a coach on the field. It was said that we didn't have the mental capabilities to be able to remember the plays. That was, you know, certainly the perception, you know, how can he play quarterback? They're not smart enough, and that's ridiculous.
A. Was he smart enough? Was he enough of a leader? See, can he come through in the clutch? D, will white teammates respond to it?
And that white decision-making apparatus. did not trust. A black athlete in that position. And then, less obvious but certainly true: if indeed your quarterback's the face of your franchise, they didn't want that face to be black. Period.
The agent Lee Steinberg, famous agent, told me, NFL owners want their quarterback to be a guy they can take to the country club. take on their boats. And they are much more comfortable with someone who looks like them. Any good black player coming out of college, black quarterback, has to play another position or they go play in the Canadian Football League where there's less racism. Really to understand this, you have to understand America after World War II, this period when football started to become really popular in America.
Football had a lot of connotations that were connected with the military. And quarterback was the field general. He was in a very prominent leadership position. it was apparent that Some people felt this leadership position Didn't Belong to a black person. The idea that a black guy couldn't lead men, nobody would follow him.
And that he didn't have the smarts to learn a playbook. A lot of people. In football and outside of football thought that this was true for a long time. And so it's just a stunning thing. When in 1978, The Tampa Bay Buccaneers use a first-round draft pick on Doug Williamson.
a black quarterback from Gramlin. And you've been listening to John Eisenberg tell the story of Doug Williams. would go on to be the first black quarterback. To win a Super Bowl. And what a story he's telling here about America, about race, about sports.
When we come back. How Doug Williams smashed through those barriers, becoming, in a sense, the Jackie Robinson of quarterbacks. Doug Williams' story continues here. on Our American Stories. Ready to change your life for just $2 a day?
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Speeds may slow after 50 gigabytes per month when network is busy. See terms. And we return to Our American Stories and with author John Eisenberg. And we last left off at the 1978 NFL draft, the Tampa Bay Bucks. choosing in the first round draft pick.
A quarterback. From Grambling State named Doug Williams. In this segment, you'll be hearing not only from John, but Doug Williams himself, as well as Doug's coaches, teammates, and those around the league familiar. with his story. Doug It's from Zachary, Louisiana.
Grew up in the Deep South. Grew up in a town of just a segregated classic Deep South Town. When I was growing up, the Ku Klux claims and the voters' rights and civil rights was very much alive. Grew up dealing with segregation. I live between two intersections.
And just about every Friday night, There was crosses burning on each end. because within those two intersections, only black people lived in that area. You don't play Little League Baseball with whites. You don't go to school with whites. That's what Doug grew up with.
He goes to grambling. There were certain schools that had a tradition of producing tremendously talented individuals. And those schools got a reputation. There was a tremendous pride if you played football at Granlin. Coach of Grambling is Eddie Robinson, one of the most famous football coaches in America.
Eddie Robinson. is probably the most underrated coach in the history of American sport. As a man, as a human being, as a motivator, as a mentor, I don't think you can get any better than that. What about the X's and the O's? It was more about the joke.
Other football coaches have won 300 or more games, Amos Alonzo, Stagg, Bear Bryant, and George Hallis, but never has a black coach enjoyed so much success. If it means anything, I would want it to mean something to the young blacks who have played the game and who are playing in any other field, that there are more opportunities here than in any other country in the world. And Eddie Robinson. has been sending players to the pros. Since the 60s, 50s, 60s, and 70s has sent a number of great players to the NFL and to the American Football League, another rival league, but never a quarterback.
And Eddie Robinson said, I want to produce the first black quarterback. He thought it would be Doug Williams. You know, big, strong, smart, big arm. And the rest is history. Williams quickly established himself as one of the nation's best college quarterbacks.
Has a scrambler? As a passer, And most critically, as a leader. I saw him play twice in college and watching him reminded me almost of Archie Manning. He's an all-American at Grambling, sets all sorts of records, finishes high in the balloting for the Heisman Trophy. My senior year, you know, I had 8,400 yards.
I was an all-time leading passer. Had the most TDEs in one season. Wide open offense just blew everything out the water. And is drafted high. by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
They're coached by John McKay. Coach McKay said, Hey, look, I think I need to send you over to Grambling. I want you to do some research on this quarterback over there. I can remember Coach Gibbs calling and saying that he wanted to come down and spend a day. Spent two days with him.
You know, he picked me to McDonald's. We came back and we talked football. We got on the board. You put him on the board to talk about things. Just had a great conversation.
But Williams was feeling doubt. What I really wanted to do in life was to be a high school coach. I wanted to be like my brother. I told Coach Rob, I said, coach, If I don't get drafted within the third round. I think I'm going to go and coach high school football.
And Coach looked at me and said, Hell, Cat, you can't do that. Hell, you got to go whenever they call you. Nampa Bay Buccaneers. First round selection. Quarterback Doug Williams of Gramley.
Tampa Bay is a new franchise at that point. Two years old, they're the worst team in the league. April 1974, Florida's Tampa Bay area is awarded the National Football League's 27th franchise. The Buccaneers became the first team in NFL history to finish 0-14. They are coached by John McKay, who was a famous college coach in the 70s at Southern Cal, right?
He had championship teams with black quarterbacks. This is a man that did not see color. Up until that point, there'd never been a black quarterback taken in the first round. Coach McKay deserves a lot of credit for that. John McKay, man.
People don't know this. Jimmy Jones. was John McKay quarterback in 1969. And at that time, you didn't find a lot of African-American quarterbacks playing at the major university. Coach McCade was colorblind when it came to football players.
John McKay wanted the best player on the football team. First I got in trouble when I first came in because I said football is football. It's a fairly simple game played by 11 people on each side. If you can figure a way to get 12 on your side, you have a better opportunity. It bothers me that they have picked us to be the worst team in football because what they're doing now is challenging your Physical.
and your mental capacity and my ability to coach.
Now this this hurts me. Second worst team. I could stand it. But not the worst thing. He was the rare coach.
You know, he used to call me Dougie. You know, he said, don't worry about it. It's going to be all right. I've been a Williams fan all along. I've had to listen to a lot of nonsense.
And he realizes where he's going in life. He's not a guy who has two or three Mercedes. Has a big hat, 74 girlfriends. He is intelligent. He knows what he wants to do later on in life.
And I admire him for it. Doug comes in and immediately makes the Tampa Bay Buccaneers the better. They start winning games. Rookie year was a little tough because I got my job broke early in the season. For seven and a half weeks, I wide shut that we won five games, won more games in one year than they had won in the first two years.
He played the game in a way where it wasn't always right, it wasn't always pretty. I mean, he was 6'5, about 225 or 30 pounds with no fat. He had an extraordinarily strong arm, could, at the flick of a wrist, sling it. Yeah. 65, 70 yards down the thing.
I mean, he let that thing go, and you see, other players would go. Good gosh. Did you see that? I mean, he could throw that thing like you wouldn't believe.
Sometimes the balls were high.
Sometimes he would get out of sorts and throw some interceptions early. but he was a winner and he always gave you that feeling of game wasn't over we're still in it we got dug and they don't He came into a situation that wasn't easy. Number one, the franchise had not been very good. We lost 26 games in a row the two years before he got there. Number two, Tampa was still more of a southern city than it probably is today.
And there was no question that there was a focus on the fact that Doug was an African-American or is in those days a black quarterback. But he knew the game. He was a leader. His second season there in the NFC Championship game. A one game from the Super Bowl.
They lose it. But he plays for five years. With Tampa, And they're in the playoffs three times. He helps them achieve respectability. One year, here is an expansion franchise going all the way to the NFC Championship game.
His career should never come to an end in Tampa Bay. We were going through negotiations with Doug. In 1982, there was only um 28 football teams in the um National Football League, I was the uh fifty fourth highest paid quarterback. But only 2018. The Buccaneers are owned by a man named Hugh Culverhouse.
who was from the Deep South. And so when Doug's contract ran out in Tampa in the 80s. The Hugh Culverhouse. didn't want to pay a black quarterback that was going great. He lowballed him in negotiations and basically ran him out of town.
didn't give him a decent contract offer. Doug became so disgusted, he was out of football for a year. And then he played in a couple years in another rival league. The United States Football League.
So he's out of the NFL. And then in 19 86 signs with the Washington Redskins strictly as a backup. When we come back, more of this remarkable story on Our American Stories. Ready to change your life for just $2 a day? Orange Theory Fitness delivers one-hour workouts that combine strength and cardio to help you burn fat, build muscle, and feel unstoppable.
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And we return to our American stories, and with the final portion of our story on Doug Williams. Telling the story is John Eisenberg, author of Rocketman. Doug Williams himself. And Doug's coaches, friends, and those around the league who saw his ascension. are here to tell the story as well.
When we last left off, Doug had left the NFL before receiving a call to join the Washington Redskins as a backup quarterback. Washington already had their franchise starter in Joe Theisman, but things were about to change in that locker room. Let's return to the story.
So he's out of the NFL. And then in 19 Eighty six of the USFL folds. He received a lifeline. Thanks in part. to a cruel twist of fate.
First and ten, Reagan, Sway Flicker, back to size. Friends have been a lot of trouble. And it was Lawrence Taylor who slammed Theisman to the ground at the 42-yard line. The blitz was on. That's not necessarily a good play to have Paul.
Quickly, Lawrence Taylor is up saying Feisman is hurt. And I don't believe Lawrence Taylor would have reacted that way unless Fleisman is really hurt. Is this the kind of injury that can end an athlete's career? any injury can possibly in the athlete's career. Doug rejoins the NFL E signs with the Washington Redskins strictly as a backup.
He thinks he's going to live out his days as a backup. Could you come and play back up quarterback for us? And I laughed at Coach. I said, Coach. At this particular time, I can play any up you want me to play because I don't have a jaha.
I still remember having discussions and Mr. Cook is going, what? That amount of money for a backup quarter Joe always felt the most important position on a football team is a quarterback, and the second most important position was the backup quarterback, because if you don't have a good backup quarterback, your season's over at that point. Couple years he's on the roster, he plays and Then what happens is in the 1987 season that goes into 88.
Well the Redskins have a good team. They're a winning team. And one year going into the playoffs, Doug has the starting job.
Okay. Washington is a city divided by race. Mm-hmm. and the racial divide was reflected in the city's NFL franchise. one that was infamously the last to integrate.
and was ruled by the iron fist of George Preston Marshall. When the NFL was all white, the entire league was all white, pretty much at his behest through the 30s and through World War II. And then after World War II, when slowly but surely the NFL began to reintegrate. Here was a holdout. He didn't still didn't want black players on his team.
Would tell the media this. And so into the 1960s. There are no black players on the Redskins. George Preston Marshall vowed to never have. A a African American.
a player on his football team. He was an outspoken racist. And to their detriment, by the way, as other teams were Bringing in the players from this great pool of talent, they put the Redskins behind. And after their years of winning titles, they fell off and were not as good. That's part of the reason why.
And his power within the Lea slowly waned because his fellow owners. saw him. As the dinosaur that he was, I don't know that. People outside of Greater Washington and people with no ties to the Redskins understood that. Robert Kennedy essentially threatened the owner, the then owner of the Washington Redskins, to integrate his team or get the hell out of what was called DC Stadium.
Get out. I mean this was ordered desegregation. It took decades for the NFL to overcome. What George Preston Marshall did to it from a racial perspective. In the Redskins Fight song, the lyric, which is now Fight for Old DC, was Fight for Old Dixie.
The Redskins may have had a checkered past. But for Doug Williams in nineteen eighty six, The present meant opportunity. We're playing in Minnesota. It's the last game of the season, and Jay Schrader is not playing well in the first half. We put Doug in the second half, come back and win the game.
And at that point, the coaches decided that even though Schrader had started more games and won more games, Doug Williams is going to be his third quarterback in the playoffs. That was a huge gamble. I've always been ready to play. I never considered myself as a backup. From an emotional standpoint, I was elated to get the opportunity to play.
He is mostly. He's going to guide us to the Promise Land Super Bowl 22. Yeah. Back is Doug Williams. Sets up Blitz, throws it in a hurry.
Diddier at the four, touchdown, Washington Redskins. And they go right through the playoffs, win a couple games, and find themselves in the Super Bowl. There were dark clouds ahead. In the form of the two-time AFC champion Denver Broncos, who were quarterbacked by John Elway, probably the most famous quarterback in the league. Everything that quarterbacks in the NFL had been to that point.
You know, white, strong arm, great talent. No one really gave the Redskins a chance to win that game. But everybody was hyped up on John Elway. All you could hear about was the Elway Cross. John Elway throwing the ball so hard that he left the cross in between chest of his receivers.
And I'm like, people forgot they were saying these same things about Doug Williams back in the 70s. Although Elway was the main attraction, Doug Williams is the first black quarterback to start a Super Bowl game.
Some people didn't really know how to actually deal with the situation, particularly when it came to the media. How long have you been a black quarterback? How long have you been a black quarterback? Doug, how long have you been a black quarterback? Doug said, Well, I've been a quarterback for about 10 years.
I've been black all my life.
Well, you know, the thing I had to say to myself, first of all, I didn't come here with the Washington Redskins as a black quarterback. I came here as the quarterback of the Washington Redskins to play a football game to win it.
Now, whatever happened after that, you know, I can't control anyway.
So the most important thing to me was to go out and perform up to my abilities and try to win the football game. Doug didn't make it a big focus. Doug Williams was the guy. He was the guy to handle it. We didn't care if Doug was black, if he was red, if he was yellow.
We just wanted a guy that was going to lead our football team. But Doug Williams' success or failure is going to have ramifications on future black quarterbacks. This was a big, big moment. Not only for Doug, but for those that were going to come behind him, you kind of understood that if he won, it would probably create opportunities for others. And this may be fair or unfair.
You have this burden on your shoulders. We need you to not only perform, but we need you to excel. I think for me going to the Super Bowl and getting the opportunity to play is some of the dreams that Martin Luther King is talking about, not so much black and white, but the fact as an individual, as a person, and no matter who you are, what color you are, just get that same opportunity that everybody else gets. Mm-hmm. Uh ABC Sports Player.
Presents the Washington Redskins, the National Football Conference Champions. Against the Denver Broncos, the American Football Conference champions. In Super Bowl 22, live from San Diego Jack Murphy Stadium. From Grambling, quarterback, number 17, Doug Williams. Washington quickly fell behind, 10-0.
We got off the horrible start. A first offensive play for the Broncos touchdown. Oh, I'm thinking it's about to be a blowout because you know it's John Aylway. Eight years old, watching John Elwood play, I thought he was just the best quarterback ever to play the game. Oh man, we're about to get drowned.
On first and 10, slipping down is Williams, and he's hurt. Did you see him twist his leg when he went down? When Williams' leg crumpled beneath him, his dramatic resurgence appeared to have reached a tragic conclusion. I went back to pass. My right foot just kept going back and ended up hyperextending my left knee.
I was really concerned that, oh no, Doug, you get all the way here to the Super Bowl, and now. And you thought, oh my gosh, he's going to be out of the game entirely. But Doug Williams had overcome greater tragedies than this. He had always persevered despite physical and personal pain. After sitting out two plays, he turned in a record-setting performance that was swift, stunning, and simply magnificent.
People in football talk about. The drive. The cash. For Redskins fans, what they remember about the 1988 Super Bowl, they just went down the field and went bang, bang, bang, bang, bang. Literally, in about a 20-minute span, The game went from ten to nothing Denver to thirty five ten us.
The game is a route And Doug Williams and the Redskins win over the Denver Broncos and John Elway. And Doug Williams throws five touchdown passes. He's the most valuable player in the game. And 100 million television viewers watched Doug Williams walk off the Super Bowl field as the winner. To see him go out and do what he did, not just do what he did, not just win the game, but dominate the game, it showed to me that.
Now, finally, hopefully. That stigma of a black NFL quarterback being successful is totally over. For every Michael Vick and Vince Young and Cam Newton, Rob Wood Gifford III, all of those guys have to pay homage to what Doug Williams was able to accomplish. There is no moment in the history of black quarterbacks in the NFL that is more important. and that is when Doug Williams, After all those years and all the difficulties he'd been through, he wins the Super Bowl for the Redskins and shows the world that a black quarterback can stand at the pinnacle of the sport.
And a terrific job on the production, editing, and storytelling by our own Monty Montgomery. And a special thanks to John Eisenberg, author of Rocketman: the Black Quarterbacks, who revolutionized pro football. Anybody watching that day remembered it: Super Bowl 22. Doug Williams taking the championship home. taking it home for his team, for the country.
The story of Doug Williams, the first black quarterback to win a Super Bowl. Here. on our American stories. Hey Donald, are you really flying on that treadmill? I'm trying to run as fast as T-Mobile 5G home internet, Zach.
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This is Julie Nettleman from Dudes on Dudes with Gronk and Jules. Sunday mornings, I've got my game day ritual. Coffee. Lucky socks. And now, new morning uncrustable sandwiches.
It's all about that 12-gram protein boost with the new uncrustables, bright-eyed berry, or up and apple flavors. Bright-eyed berries got a feisty. Receiver energy up in Apple. Your classic do-it-all tight end.
Soft, pillowy-packed with protein, and easy enough. for Gronk to grab from the freezer. Whether you're on the couch, driving to the tailgate or heading to the locker room. New morning uncruscible sandwiches. Are the MVP of snacks?
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Pay-per-view just got knocked out. Stream UFC 324 live on January 24th only on Paramount Plus. Visit paramountplus.com/slash UFC to get started. This is an iHeart podcast. Guaranteed human.
Mm-hmm.
