The rise of the NFL Quarterblacks
White QBs dominated until very recently.
Being an NFL starting quarterback would seem to be the most elite job in American sports. So, it’s hardly surprising that much of the debate over race in American sports would involve NFL quarterbacks.
As a Southern Californian of a certain age, it didn’t seem to me that local teams were all that biased. USC had a black starting quarterback, Jimmy Jones, from 1969 through 1971, while the L.A. Rams dramatically switched to a black quarterback, James Harris, midway through the 1974 season, trading away their veteran white QB, John Hadl, after losing 2 of their first 5 games.
Lots of other QBs that SoCal teams of my youth interacted with weren’t all that white, such as German-Mexican QBs Joe Kapp of Cal-Vikings and Jim Plunkett of Stanford and both northern California NFL teams. Then there were the Throwin’ Samoans of the northwest, such as Jack Thompson and Samoa Samoa.
Perhaps most remarkably, the Los Angeles Rams’ quarterback, the 1969 NFL MVP, Roman Gabriel, an early huge quarterback at 6’5” and 225 pounds, was half-Filipino.
Nobody has been able to explain Gabriel ever since, so nobody talks about him.
Still …
The notion that the QB of the future would be a black guy who could both pass and run has been commonplace for generations. For example, Oliver Stone’s 1999 movie Any Given Sunday has a shouty Al Pacino coaching 39-year-old white has-been QB Dennis Quaid and up and coming star QB Jamie Foxx while trying to explain to heiress owneress Cameron Dias why he won’t fully commit to a black running quarterback.
Anyway, white passing quarterbacks dominated the NFL up through Tom Brady’s 7th Super Bowl win in 2021.
Since then, the NFL has trended toward black or part-black quarterbacks such as the half-black and half-white Patrick Mahomes, who has won three Super Bowls. A friend jokes that that in the future, the position will be called the Quarterblack. In 2024, Mahomes has been worse than usual, ranking only 11th on the ESPN QBR rating. Yet the Kansas City Chiefs are 13-1 in won-loss.
ESPN has been tracking QuarterBack Rating since 2006. Here are the starting and top 12 QBR quarterbacks every nine years since:
Not much changed between the 2000s and the 2010s as white pocket passers like Brady, Brees, Rodgers, and Rivers kept on keeping on for a remarkable number of years.
But, finally, a big change happened in the 2020s.
Lamar Jackson, who is going for his 3rd MVP award, seems like what Oliver Stone was envisioning in the late 20th Century. But particularly striking are the part black and part non-black quarterbacks like Mahomes, Jordan Love, the part Korean Kyler Murray, and Dak Prescott.
Update: I somehow had C.J. Stroud listed as white before.
Pro football goes through phases and right now the quarterback who can run and throw is highly valued. Lamar Jackson is revolutionary and other teams are trying to duplicate Jackson's successful run. When Jackson was originally picked, it was expected that he would be some sort of hybrid. Instead, he became one of the finest players in the game.
Nearly twenty years ago, the Patriots made a virtually unnoticed trade for a white, pint-sized spare receiver and kick returner named Wes Welker. Welker revolutionized the position of slot receiver. Other teams also tried to make slot receivers stars but none succeeded like Welker. Today, the slot receiver is pretty much phased out of football. Perhaps that's because there are no Tom Bradys around who have the discipline to make an eight yard hitch throw.
Football has changed radically in the fifty-five years I've followed it. The first Super Bowl I can remember is Super Bowl 3, Joe Namath's claim to fame. The New York Jets and the Baltimore Colts were three-quarters white. Today's NFL is three-quarters black. I remember the position of nickel back was adopted by George Allen when he'd replace the middle linebacker with a defensive back on third downs. Nowadays, teams often have seven defensive backs in the game. Allen was one of the first coaches who put great value in special teams. Today, the kickoff has been de-emphasized because of the fear of injuries. Fullbacks used to be vital to an offense. Think of Jim Brown and Jim Taylor. Now the fullback position is almost obsolete and most teams do not have a fullback on their roster. Teams that have fullbacks rarely have them run the ball.
The discouragement to play football in the white community has been going on for a while. Those players just aren't there in numbers to nurture and select from anymore. They are in somewhat safer soccer and lacrosse. I personally watched a handful of (white) moms channel their sons into other sports after one injury. In the old days, they'd have gone along and expected them to take the lumps.