This week ESPN reported that Kansas City Chiefs quarterback — MVP and Super Bowl MVP — Patrick Mahomes reportedly signed a 10-year, $503 million contract extension with the Chiefs. That makes Mahonmes the recipient of the richest contract in sports history and keeps him in Kansas City for the next 12 years. The size of the contract based on Mahomes’ proven abilities is not surprising. But considering the history of Black quarterbacks in the NFL, it is even more amazing. We’ve come a long way, baby!
Jason Reid, a longtime sports analyst for ESPN and other national media outlets, delves into the history of quarterbacks of color in the NFL in his new book, Rise of the Black Quarterback – What it Means for America (Andscape Books – 2022).
The underlying premise of the book and the theme that carries throughout its 260 pages is that for decades white owners and coaches had an unwritten rule that Black players didn’t get to play the so-called “thinking positions,” such as interior offense live, middle linebacker and of course quarterback. The underlying racist belief was that Black players were not smart enough to play these positions. No matter how good their arm, they didn’t have the ability to learn the play books or the willingness to take the time and effort to study the plays. Those positions had to be played the smartest guys on the team, the alpha males — obviously white. White coaches and team leaders didn’t want to put Black players in leadership roles. The same kind of thinking that didn’t want to see Barack Obama in the White House.
Quarterbacks from historically black colleges were not drafted as quarterbacks. It took until 1969 for that to happen, when Eldridge Dickey was drafted as a quarterback by the Oakland Raiders. Black quarterbacks were told that they would be shifted to other positions like wide receivers or end if they wanted to play in the NFL. These players had to bite the bullet and learn a new position — which is not always easy — if they wanted to play. Some, like Warren Moon, went to Canada before eventually coming to the NFL.
As Reid so aptly points out, this unspoken ban on Black quarterbacks has been the 800-pound gorilla sitting in the corner that no one wanted to talk about.
Presenting an historical perspective of the sport, Reid goes about tracing the history of the involvement of Black players in professional football — from the early days of the 20th century through the early 1930s. That’s when Blacks were banned by some secret code among owners. It would be the 1940s before they would play again.
Readers are introduced to Willie Thrower — the coolest name of anyone who ever played football. In 1953 he was the first Black man to play quarterback in the NFL’s modern era — an era defined by the elevation of the role of quarterback to the pinnacle of the sport.
Reid tells the story of Fritz Pollard, who was the first Black coach back in 1921 and earned a prominent place in the history of professional football. It took more than 40 years, through the efforts of his family and fellow football players, to finally get Pollard enthroned in his rightful place in Canton’s Football Hall of Fame.
Most sports fans know about the integration of baseball. They know about Jackie Robison and Satchel Paige and Larry Doby. They know that Robinson broke the color line on April 15, 1947, when he played first base for the Brooklyn Dodgers. But on March 21, 1946, the NFL’s ban on Black players ended when the Los Angeles Rams acquired former UCLA star running back Kenney Washington — who happened to have been Jackie Robinson’s teammate on both the Bruins football and baseball team.
Cleveland plays a significant part in the book based on interviews with former Cleveland Brown John Wooten, who is Black. Wooten recalls the day back in 1959 when his teammate, Bernie Parrish, who is white, was forced to leave the hotel room that they were to share. Parrish apologized and said this was not his doing. But Black and whites were prohibited from rooming together — a remnant of the league’s 12-year barrier that had finally fallen 13 years earlier. And let me remind you, this was 1959 — five years after the United States Supreme Court ordered integration of public schools.
Wooten, who would go on to play nine seasons with the NFL, eventually became a scout for the Dallas Cowboys and held several front office jobs with NFL teams. But he never forgot that incident of blatant racism that he experienced.
Wooten’s is just one of the many stories that Reid tells of racist treatment endured by Black NFL players — from name calling, to being brutalized by fellow players on the field or having to stay in private homes on road trips because hotels would not accommodate them. There are stories of players whom fame and wealth sadly led them to drugs and alcohol abuse. And of course, the stormy career of Michael Vick and the tragedy of Colin Kaepernick, whose belief in racial justice cost him his career.
Reid fills the book with statistics and facts about Black players, who now make up somewhere between 60-70% of NFL players. Of the thousands of Black players, in the 100-year history of the NFL, there have only been 25 Black head coaches.
Reid explains the dynamics of the relationship between race and the NFL. You will learn about the talented players who lost their chance to play simply because of the color of their skin. This is likely to give you a different perspective of how professional sports are reflective of the racial mores of our society.
And perhaps knowledge of the long history of mistreatment of Black quarterbacks will influence your opinion as to the recent ruling that suspends Cleveland Browns quarterback Deshaun Watson for 11 games with a fine of $5 million. In my humble opinion, Watson may have engaged in some sexual activity in the past, but today he got screwed by the NFL. That old stereotype lingers and die hard. Watson is just another victim.
C. Ellen Connally is a retired judge of the Cleveland Municipal Court. From 2010 to 2014 she served as the President of the Cuyahoga County Council. An avid reader and student of American history, she serves on the Board of the Ohio History Connection, is currently vice president of the Cuyahoga County Soldiers and Sailors Monument Commission and past president of the Cleveland Civil War Round Table. She holds degrees from BGSU, CSU and is all but dissertation for a PhD from the University of Akron.