QB Lamar Jackson of the Baltimore Ravens was seconds away from taking the game into OT against the Buffalo Bills, when tight end Mark Andrews usually sure-handed dropped the ball with 93 second left on the clock, losing a chance to secure a two-point conversion and tie the score. The 27-25 loss ended the Ravens’ season.

Jackson also lost the opportunity to lock up his third NFL MVP award. Despite, out playing QB Joe Burrows in every offensive statistic in the league, passing yards, rushing yards, 41 touchdown passes, and only 4 interceptions. Evidently, the voters thought the two-point win in Buffalo was reason enought to give Burrows the MVP Award.

To understand why I am saying the 2024, NFL season is the year of the Black QB, in 2024 in a league of 32 teams, fifteen had black starting QBs.

Never in the history of the league, have they had that many blacks starting at the QB position. The NFL is 70% black, but the QB position was the last to open the door for the black QB.

In 2017 the New York Giants benched Eli Manning and started Geno Smith, when the season ended every NFL team had started a black QB at least once.

We who followed the NFL knew the loss would cost Lamar his third MVP Award. Burrows was named the MVP of the 2024 NFL season during NFL Awards Night in New Orleans, the site of the LIX Super Bowl.

The loss to Buffalo cost Lamar a piece of NFL Black America History. He would have been one of four Black QBs to start and play in the playoffs. There would be Jaylen Hurst (Eagles), Patrick McHolmes (Chiefs), Jayden Daniels (Commanders), and Lamar Jackson (Ravens).

Since this is Black/American History Month, black athletes will be showcased in the Super Bowl in New Orleans and the NBA All-Star Game in San Francisco, has anyone asked the question where did this history of the Black Quarterback begin?

Fritz Pollard was born and raised in Illinois in a predominantly white neighborhood. He was an eyewitness to racism up close and personal. He escaped by becoming a great all-around athlete in high school. He was headed to Dartmouth College to continue his education by train. The train stopped in Providence, RI, and there he fell in love with Brown University.

The GREAT Fritz Pollard

During the 1915 and 1916 Brown football seasons, Pollard, achieved legendary status, compiling “firsts” as frequently as he gained first downs. He was the first black to play in the Rose Bowl (1916), Fritz was also named to Walter Camp’s All-Americaa Team, and was the first African American named to Camp’s backfield. Nicknamed “the human torpedo,” Pollard had almost single-handedly defeated Yale and Harvard (Brown’s first win over the Crimson) in 1916. The Bruins were the first college team to defeat, both Ivy League powerhouses in the same season. His exploits at Brown earned him election to the National College Football Hall of Fame in 1954 — the first African American ever chosen.

As a professional player, Pollard continued to garner “firsts” despite the overt racism of the period. He was among the first African-Americans in the APFL and NFL leagues and, along with Jim Thorpe, was the major gate attraction. A Black man playing football in a predominantly white environment was a novelty in the 1920s. Fritz Pollard was the first African American to play on a championship undefeated team (1920), as well as the first Black quarterback (1923) and coach (1919).

In 1978 Doug Williams of HBCU Grambling College became the first black college QB to be drafted in the first round of the NFL (17th). His road to the Super Bowl would take 10 years, his journey was not a bed of roses.

Being a pioneer in America (being first) especially in pro sports, the scrunity can be unbearable for the black athlete. The black athletes who have been kicked to the curb and never received a fair shake are too many to count. There is and never will be an “Even Playing Field” as long as there is ‘White Privilege’ standing in front of the door.

Black QBs have come and gone in the NFL since Doug Williams became the first Black to start and win a Super Bowl and MVP in 1988. There was one man and coach who was determined that Doug Williams was not going to fail as a player in the NFL-Joe Gibbs!

In 1988 the pride of DC was Washington Redskin coach Joe Gibbs and winning Super Bowl QB and MVP Doug Williams. Williams was the first black quarterback to start and play in a Super Bowl, Gibbs made it happen. Gibbs was color-blind and saw Doug as a human being, not a piece of cattle.

1988 would be Doug’s last year as a starting QB in the NFL. He lost his starting job to QB Mark Ripken. In 1990. He was due one million dollars if he made the team, he was waived and the Redskins signed Philadelphia Eagle QB Jeff Rutledge as the backup QB at a discount. No team claimed Doug after he was waived. He became an angry black man and cried “Racism.” The more things change, the more they remain the same in America and the NFL.

He had forgotten in 1977 Gibbs was the only NFL Coach to visit him at Grambling when all others cared less. Doug led the NCAA in total yards from scrimmage (3, 249), passing yards (3,286), touchdown passes (38), and yards per play (8.6). He finished 4th in the Heisman Trophy voting.

Again, it was Joe Gibbs who thought it was important to travel to Grambling to interview Doug Williams, the black QB. This was 1977 instead of 1877! Joe Gibbs made it happen!

In 1978 Doug was the only black starting QB in the NFL. Still, he encountered racism from the fans and a member of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers’ coaching staff. The QB coach Bill Nelsen thought it was okay, to talk down to the No. 1 draft choice and starting QB.

When Nelsen began talking down and berating Doug in practice, Gibbs the Offensive Coach heard the exchange on the opposite end of the field. He sprinted to Nelsen and confronted him.

He threw his clipboard down, pointed his finger in Nelsen’s face, and said, “Don’t you ever talk to him like that again, is that clear?” According to Doug, Nelsen never confronted him in that manner again. Joe Gibbs was there.

In each successful phase of Doug Williams’ pro career, his ‘Guardian Angel’ was his color-blind coach, Joe Gibbs. Fritz Pollard and Colin Kaepernick never had a Joe Gibbs to lean on.

During his time with the Buccuneers, Doug was paid $120,000 a year, the lowest salary among starting QBs and less than the salary of 12 backup QBs in the league. After the 1982 season Doug asked for a $600,000 contract. Bucs owner Hugh Culverhouse bucked and said, “My offer of $400,000 stands.” Head Coach John McKay agreed that Doug should be given a raise to $600,000. Culverhouse refuse to budge.

Doug’s next move took courage, he gambled and sat out the 1983 season. That year, the Bucs went 2-14 and did not make the playoffs again until the 1997 season, this was 14 years after Doug said, “No Mas!”

Talking about cutting off your nose despite your face meet NFL owner Hugh Culverhouse and today’s NFL owners who still refused to allow a Black American to join their “Good Old Boys” ownership club.

Doug’s gamble paid off, guess who came to the dinner table in pro football in 1984, the upstart United States Football League. Guess who was ready to sit down at the dinner and eat-Doug Williams.

He signed with the Oklahoma Outlaws and they brought in NFL Hall of Fame coach and QB guru, Sid Gilman out of retirement as director of football operations. Gilman made Doug his highest-profile player to sign a contract. Doug signed a 3 million dollar for three years, with a 1 million dollar signing bonus. making him easily one of the highest-paid players in all of pro football.

Years later, Doug recalled, he was won over when Outlaws’ owners William Tatham Sr. and Bill Tatham Jr. “Treated me as a human, rather than a piece of cattle in a stockyard.” How soon he forgot!

Doug had moderate success in the USFL, the league folded in 1986. Guess who was there to scoop him up and sign him with the Washington Redskins, Joe Gibbs, his former offensive coordinator with the Buccaneers, and the rest is pro football history.

Washington, DC, is known for eating black athletes up and spitting them out. Doug’s friend and confidante, Bob Piper, was an alumnus of Grambling.

Piper was an outstanding high school basketball coach in the DC Public School system at Western High School High School in the 80s. He won a city championship. Piper was a frequent guest on Inside Sports and supported my non-profit Kids In Trouble.

Piper advised Doug to connect with me to help him avoid the naysayers. We connected, and I was introduced to other Grambling alumni. Coach Eddie Robinson was an Officer and a Gentle-Man.

GRAMBLING LEGENDARY COACH EDDIE ROBINSON-TRULY AN OFFICER AND A GENTLE-MAN.

While I watched the NFL Awards show, I reminisced about the NFL players who were a part of community outreach long before the NFL, and the Walter Payton ‘Iron Man Awards.’

There were Washington Redskin players, Harold McLinton (LB), Roy Jefferson (WR), Larry Brown (RB), and Ted Vactor (DB). Lenny Moore (RB/WR), Johnny Sample (DB), Lydell Mitchell (RB), Joe Washington (RB), Freddie Scott (WR), Sanders Chivers (LB), and Doug Nettles (DB) from the Baltimore Colts joined the Kids In Trouble team. They were the original “Iron Men of the NFL.” in the 70s and 80s.

Bob Piper, introduces and welcomes Doug to DC. L-R Senator Decatur Trotter-HBell and Sam Jones (NBA) during a luncheon for Kids In Trouble.

Doug Williams is Santa’s Helper with HBell and Jim ‘Bad News’ Barnes (NBA) at W-U-S-T Radio Hall in DC.

In the 70s, the late Washington Redskin’s LB Harold McLinton was Santa’s Helper (The Original Iron Man) for Kids In Trouble elementary school children at the Hillcrest Saturday Program in DC.

Harold proves, “NO ONE IS TOO TALL TO STOOP TO HELP A CHILD!”

NFL Films videotape the first-ever National Television promo for the league in 1972. The Hillcrest Children’s Center and Kids In Trouble Saturday Program in DC were the benefactors. Larry Brown (RB), MVP of the NFL, and Harold McLinton teach water safety to inner-city kids.

Roy Jefferson No. 1 draft choice of the Pittsburg Steelers, All-Pro WR for Super Bowl Champions Baltimore Colts, and Washington Redskin All-Pro WR is a Santa’s Helper during an annual Kids In Trouble Toy Party in DC. He looks to be in shock!

THE LATE NFL LEGEND JIM BROWN WAS A ADVOCATE FOR KIDS IN TROUBLE, AND FREQUENT CONTRIBUTOR TO INSIDE SPORTS.

Jim Brown is a co-host for a Kids In Trouble Police/Youth forum in DC with Congressman Tom Davis (R-Va)

THE ORIGINAL NFL IRON MEN: ROY JEFFERSON, WILLIE WOOD, AND JOHHNY SAMPLE.

Thousands will attend the Super Bowl in New Orleans and millions will watch the game around the World. I hope QBs, Doug Williams, Jalen Hurst, Patrick Mahomes, and Colin Kaepernick remember, Fritz Pollard, and THE ORIGINAL IRON MEN of the NFL. Hopefully, they will know a change is coming, but it won’t be at Super Bowl LIX.