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Jan. 10, 2006 Nearly 20 years ago, Doug Williams revolutionized professional football when he led the Washington Redskins to victory in Super Bowl XXII. That day, Williams became the first black quarterback to win it all, forever proving false the commonly held misconception within the league that black quarterbacks couldn’t win in the NFL. Williams also altered the post-Super Bowl celebration landscape forever by shouting “I’m going to Disney World” as he left the field, but that’s another story. Anyway, since Williams’ valiant effort on the nation’s biggest sports stage, a number of black signal callers have found success in the big leagues. While blacks are still under-represented at the position, six of the 32 NFL teams began the 2005 season with a black starting quarterback. Indeed, today, the barriers preventing certain players from having a chance to start at quarterback in the NFL have nothing to do with race, but rather style of play. Even though one scout told me several years ago that a certain starting quarterback in the league would achieve limited success in the game because “he can’t beat you with his feet,” most teams still prefer signal-callers with the mobility of Stonehenge. Indeed, despite all of the changes in the game over the past 20 years, including the increased athleticism and speed of players on both offense and defense, the prototypical (or at least typical) quarterback is big, tall and, by extension, slow. This bias on the part of NFL coaches and personnel people has negatively impacted the careers of a number of players, from Doug Flutie to Michael Vick. Earlier this season, in fact, a Sports Illustrated article actually questioned whether Vick was a “true quarterback,” even though he led Atlanta to a 14-2 record in 2004. Based on performance, SI could have written the same article about Baltimore’s Kyle Bolger. But, perhaps because he’s a pure drop-back passer, they didn’t. At the center of this debate now is University of Texas quarterback Vince Young. Young led his team to the college football national championship last week by practically winning the Rose Bowl on his own--for the second straight season. Young, a junior at UT, ran for 200 yards, and threw for 267 more in Pasadena, leading many in the sports media to coronate him the sure-fire first pick in next spring’s NFL draft. He declared himself eligible for the draft on Sunday. Many of those in and around the NFL aren’t as high on Young, however. Dan Marino, perhaps the ultimate slow-moving, hard-throwing big QB, said only that “he’ll be a high pick” on CBS’ “The NFL Today.” And former NFL quarterback and current ESPN announcer Joe Theismann has even less enthusiastic, telling sports-talk radio station WFAN in New York on Friday that he wasn’t sure if Young’s game would translate to the NFL. He questions, among other factors, the young signal-caller’s “arm strength.” Theismann also told The New York Times on Friday that “if you come in [to the NFL] as a running quarterback, I think you have a greater challenge.” As Vick will tell you, that’s a euphemism for “he’s a runner, not a thrower.” I guess Young’s leading all NCAA Division 1-A quarterbacks in passing efficiency this past season isn’t enough to change that perception. As someone who has grown increasingly bored with pro football over the past few years, I have a suggestion: Instead of expecting young guns like Young to adapt their games to the NFL, how about adapting the NFL game TO THEM. For decades, college coaches have been able to alter their offensive philosophies to accommodate mobile quarterbacks. This past season, Penn State’s Joe Paterno, perhaps the college game’s oldest of old fogies, changed his traditional offense to match the skills of his speedy QB, Michael Robinson. It’s my belief that if an NFL team can do the same to accommodate Young, the latter will change the game in much the same way Washington’s Williams did in 1988. From point of view, it’s long overdue. ------------ About the author:Brian P. Dunleavy is a New York-based freelance sportswriter. He can be reached at: bpdunleavy@yahoo.com Comment on this article here! ------------ All articles are EXCLUSIVE to Useless-Knowledge.com. Please link to this article rather than copying and pasting it onto your site (which would be unauthorized and illegal). |
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