Doug Williams, the first black Quarterback to win a Super Bowl, compared the upcoming Super Bowl matchup against Philadelphia Eagles Quarterback Jalen Hurts and Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes to the election of the United States’ first black president.
The 67-year-old former Quarterback spoke with TMZ about how emotional he felt when the two teams, led by black quarterbacks, advanced to the Super Bowl.
Williams said he had “tears of joy” in his eye, a feeling he had when former President Barack Obama won the 2008 election and when Tony Dungy and Lovie Smith faced off against each other in Super Bowl XLI.
President Barack Obama walks in the Inaugural Parade on January 20, 2009, in Washington, DC. Obama was sworn in as the 44th President of the United States, becoming the first African-American to be elected President of the US. (Ron Sachs-Pool/Getty Images)
“I had tears of joy in my eye because I had an opportunity to witness this,” Williams said.
“Sit there, and just look at it, and say to myself, ‘Man, we got two black quarterbacks playing in the Super Bowl,’” he added.
“Things like that give me joy, give me cheer that make me think we made some steps. We have made a few steps,” he said, “but there’s a lot of steps we haven’t made.”
Williams also hit back at critics complaining about him playing the race card.
“It’s something that’s unusual,” Williams told TMZ. “So when something like this happens, you gotta get excited about it. It’s so unfortunate that everybody don’t look at it that way.”
Quarterback Doug Williams #17 of the Washington Redskins prepares to hand off the ball to running back Timmy Smith #36 during Super Bowl XXII against the Denver Broncos at Jack Murphy Stadium on January 31, 1988, in San Diego, California. The Redskins won 42-10. (Mike Powell/Getty Images)
“I’ve seen a couple things on social media that say, ‘why you gotta bring black into it, color into it?’” Williams said. “It’s easy for somebody to say why you got to bring color into it if you don’t understand what we, as black quarterbacks and blacks as a whole has been through. … It is a big deal.”
“One of the knock on black quarterbacks was they’re not smart enough to navigate the landscape to lead a football team to the Super Bowl,” Williams explained. “Hopefully, I put a little end to it, but you got two guys now who can play.”
Since Williams led the Washington Redskins to victory over the Denver Broncos in the 1988 Super Bowl, the only two other black quarterbacks to win the NFL’s annual championship game were Russell Wilson and Mahomes.
Jordan Dixon-Hamilton is a reporter for Breitbart News. Write to him at jdixonhamilton@breitbart.com or follow him on Twitter.
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