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Field Generals History of the Black Quarterback - Season 1 - Episode 01: Resistance
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00:00:15Black QBs are the future of modern football.
00:00:21And we see that every single week.
00:00:24Now the black quarterback is dominating.
00:00:27We want Lamar Jackson.
00:00:28We want Patrick Mahomes.
00:00:32Black quarterbacks revolutionized the game, revolutionized that position because of their ability to not only throw the ball, but their
00:00:42mobility.
00:00:44And it's accepted.
00:00:46It's praised.
00:00:47That's what you expect now from a quarterback, to be able to make plays like that.
00:00:53The thing with black quarterbacks that it's easy for us to forget is how new the idea is.
00:00:59He is required to throw to a stationary target from these two positions.
00:01:04Quarterback was the most important position in sports in America.
00:01:09That person wasn't trusted to be black.
00:01:12Period.
00:01:15What happens on the NFL field isn't about a game.
00:01:21It's about so much more.
00:01:23It's a mirror of America's attitudes about itself.
00:01:27It's a mirror of who's perceived to belong and who's perceived not to belong.
00:01:36My God, if Lamar Jackson had been on a field in the 1960s, what would somebody have done?
00:01:43He couldn't have come to practice.
00:01:44They wouldn't have let him in the building.
00:01:55The NFL was wholly and totally averse to the idea of the black quarterback through the 1970s.
00:02:03And I thought blacks did not have the mental capacity to play the position.
00:02:10We, the culture, the larger culture, had this stone-cold notion of what a quarterback had to be.
00:02:17They didn't fit that.
00:02:20Black quarterbacks in the NFL is an epic story.
00:02:24If it hadn't been real life, it would have the power of a myth.
00:02:29This is tough.
00:02:32But it needs to be said.
00:02:34I think people need to not only know what I went through as an African-American quarterback,
00:02:41but what a lot of the other guys went through, you know, trying to play this position and being denied.
00:03:17Mild weather with cloud, rain and hill fog over western districts will very slowly spread eastwards during the night.
00:03:23However, it will remain cold in eastern England and Scotland, with frost in many places.
00:03:34So, Jim Brown is filming in Europe.
00:03:39He gets cast in this film that has a lot of high expectations called The Dirty Dozen.
00:03:44This is Jim Brown, the most devastating ball carrier in the history of football.
00:03:55Jim Brown, the best player in the NFL, you know, incredible football legend.
00:04:02Jim Brown has this interest in Hollywood.
00:04:05He did a movie called Rio Conchos, did pretty well, cowboy film.
00:04:10That really would be something, wouldn't it?
00:04:12People were saying, hey, this guy could be the black John Wayne.
00:04:15That's how incredible his presence was on screen.
00:04:18He was a natural.
00:04:20He was shooting the film, The Dirty Dozen, and there was a conflict between Jim Brown and the owner of
00:04:28his team, the Cleveland Browns,
00:04:30as they were going back and forth about Jim needing to be in camp.
00:04:34On this one, poles to go wide.
00:04:36And all of a sudden, rains come, and they have to delay filming.
00:04:41Jim Brown's not going to miss any of the season, but he is going to miss training camp.
00:04:45So Art Modell says that he is going to find Jim Brown for every day that he misses training camp.
00:04:54He tried to say to Jim Brown when he was making The Dirty Dozen, I'm the boss, not you.
00:05:00And Jim Brown said, really?
00:05:01No one is the boss of me.
00:05:03I am a man.
00:05:05My original intention was to try and participate in the 1966 National Football League season.
00:05:12But due to circumstances, this is impossible.
00:05:15He was the best player in the NFL, and he walked away from the game at the top.
00:05:21Frank Ryan was the quarterback on that 1964 championship team.
00:05:25If Frank Ryan had to miss training camp, I don't think Art Modell would have blinked.
00:05:30Because a lot of this was about bringing Jim Brown to heel and having Jim Brown know his place in
00:05:38the hierarchy.
00:05:39I want more mental stimulation.
00:05:42I want to have a hand in the struggle that is taking place in our country.
00:05:52I draw the line in the dust and toss the gauntlet before the feet of tyranny, and I say segregation
00:06:00now, segregation tomorrow, and segregation forever.
00:06:08A great change is at hand, and our task, our obligation, is to make that revolution, that change, peaceful and
00:06:17constructive for all.
00:06:18Sports has always been a microcosm of society.
00:06:21The struggle in the states between the races has always been bloody, but it has been one-sided.
00:06:28The Negro has been doing most of the bleeding.
00:06:32One of the things that's happening in society all those years, all those decades, is you had many people in
00:06:38white society trying to keep black people in their place.
00:06:42Anything that's going on in society is reflected in football.
00:06:46I think people know that in the game of football, you know, just like in the game of life, there's
00:06:52politics.
00:06:53There's owners that own the team, and they have in mind the things that they want their team to look
00:07:01like, so to speak.
00:07:03I mean, we are talking about a league that banned black Americans between 1933 and 1946, largely at the behest
00:07:12of Washington owner George Preston Marshall.
00:07:14George Preston Marshall was an unapologetic, virulent racist who only integrated his team in the early 1960s under threat from
00:07:23the federal government.
00:07:25If you went to a game of Washington Redskins, you would go to the stadium, and marching around the stadium
00:07:34would be members of the American Nazi Party with placards.
00:07:40And those placards would be saying, Mr. Marshall, do not integrate.
00:07:45And so as a result, the football team in the nation's capital of the United States of America, as late
00:07:52as the early 1960s, was the last to feel that even in sports, you should not have black players and
00:08:02white players playing side by side.
00:08:04After that, you saw the integration, but you didn't see integration at the quarterback position, and that has everything to
00:08:11do with racism.
00:08:18The NFL did not want a black face leading their program.
00:08:23Owners definitely didn't want it, and most of the fans didn't want it.
00:08:27When I was seven or eight years old, I'm watching a game with my father, and he says, Max, watch
00:08:32where the camera goes.
00:08:33And the camera always cut to two people, the quarterback and the coach.
00:08:40Quarterback and coach were always white.
00:08:41We were allowed to play other positions.
00:08:43We could play wide receiver.
00:08:45It was accepted that a black could play running back.
00:08:48It was not accepted that a black could play quarterback in the NFL at that time.
00:08:59The decision had just simply been made across the board that black people were either incapable of playing quarterback or
00:09:05they just weren't going to let them do it.
00:09:09The notion was that we had these physical skills, but we didn't have the intellect to be a quarterback, to
00:09:21make play calls.
00:09:22We couldn't do that.
00:09:24There was still an unspoken prejudice that there were thinking man's positions.
00:09:33Quarterback, middle linebacker.
00:09:35I truly believe that they may not have some of the necessities.
00:09:41You really believe that?
00:09:43Well, I don't say that they're all of them, but how many quarterbacks do you have?
00:09:48Look, in the early 70s, the Pittsburgh Pirates fielded nine black players when pitcher Doc Ellis took the mound.
00:09:57That was Major League Baseball, which is not exactly seen as this mammothly progressive sport.
00:10:03And yet there was an understanding that the sport needed to move forward.
00:10:07The National Football League, that understanding took even more time.
00:10:12There was always a sense that you don't want to kill the golden goose and that we lived in, especially
00:10:18then, the majority white country.
00:10:20There was the perception that the NBA, for example, was not more popular because it was considered a quote unquote
00:10:25black league and fear that the same thing would happen to the NFL.
00:10:33And yeah, there may be black athletes, but those guys are like the grunts in Vietnam.
00:10:37Those are the people in the trenches.
00:10:38Those are the people, you know, sacrificing their bodies and minds.
00:10:42The quarterback position, the field general, that's who we're going to identify with.
00:10:48That's us.
00:10:51For me, as a young journalist at the Washington Post, it became consuming, angering.
00:10:57And, you know, I tell people even now, I wake up angry every day and I didn't trust young black
00:11:03journalists who didn't wake up angry every day.
00:11:06There were stories to be told that should make us angry.
00:11:08They made me angry.
00:11:10I got this, you know, these pieces of hate mail.
00:11:13But there was one in particular that I hadn't seen before saying, nigga, if you go out there today, we're
00:11:19going to blow your brains out.
00:11:22This is great that the story is being told now because people like me who told the stories don't even
00:11:29know all of it because it couldn't be out there.
00:11:38Not quite two months ago, as we reported, the President's Advisory Commission on Civil Disorder warned that race hatred threatened
00:11:45to tear this country apart.
00:11:48Events this month have made the warning more imperative than before.
00:11:52In more than 100 cities, violence broke out.
00:11:5540 persons died.
00:11:57Hollis Brown, he lived on the outside of town.
00:12:021968, I mean, there was a lot of tension there.
00:12:05Hollis Brown, he lived on the outside of town.
00:12:09He had all this turmoil.
00:12:10He had riots in the streets everywhere.
00:12:13With his wife and five children and his cabin broken down.
00:12:17There was a separation between black and white.
00:12:20Is there anyone who knows?
00:12:23Is there anyone who cares?
00:12:25I mean, the world was falling apart and a lot of it involved us as black people.
00:12:29And the reason that we are the way we are, of course, they did it, not we ourselves.
00:12:35Your baby's eyes look crazy, it's a-tugging at your sleeve.
00:12:42You've heard to the Lord about police and you were freeing.
00:12:49But your empty pockets tell you that you ain't got no friends.
00:12:56So your baby's screaming loud now, it's pounding in your brain.
00:13:04Your eyes spits on the shotgun that's hanging on the wall.
00:13:16We are not vehemently bad.
00:13:19You have oppressed us.
00:13:21Yeah.
00:13:23Seven breezes blowing all around the cabin door.
00:13:30There's seven breezes blowing all around the cabin door.
00:13:38Our nation is moving toward two societies, one black, one white, separate and unequal.
00:13:51The final challenge.
00:13:56The final challenge.
00:14:00When we think about the 1960s, we're at this turning point within the African-American freedom struggle.
00:14:07So 1964, you had the 1964 Civil Rights Act, 1965, the 1965 Voting Rights Act.
00:14:14African Americans are asking and responding to the question,
00:14:17now that we have these new laws on the books,
00:14:20what can we do with them?
00:14:21White America responds in many different ways.
00:14:26Depends upon where you are.
00:14:27We want segregated schools at any cost.
00:14:30And when I say any cost, I mean any cost,
00:14:33cost of life if necessary.
00:14:34In the South was the policy
00:14:37of what was called massive resistance.
00:14:39Rather than seeing the children of the white people of Georgia
00:14:43surrendered to the Supreme Court and Atlanta newspapers,
00:14:48I would prefer abolishing public education forever and eternally.
00:14:52We don't care that the Civil Rights Act of 1964 told us
00:14:56we have to desegregate public accommodations.
00:14:59We don't care that the Voting Rights Act of 1965 told us
00:15:03we have to fairly register blacks to vote and let them vote.
00:15:06We're just going to refuse to do it all.
00:15:08You say that this is the land of freedom
00:15:10and 20 million black people here don't have freedom.
00:15:13The 1960s were a time of great tumult,
00:15:16and it was an absolute inevitability,
00:15:19as the sports sociologist Dr. Harry Edwards said,
00:15:22that it would express itself in the world of sports.
00:15:26This is the era of Cassius Clay, who will become Muhammad Ali,
00:15:30Jim Brown, Bill Russell,
00:15:32the image of what people now refer to as the Cleveland Summit.
00:15:35They were there to talk about Ali's refusal to participate in the Vietnam War.
00:15:44I can't go to no Vietnam and shoot them people
00:15:47and come back here and I ain't free.
00:15:49They want me to go to Vietnam to shoot some black folks
00:15:53that never lynched me, never called me nigger,
00:15:55never put no dog on me, never assassinated my leaders.
00:15:57I'm fighting to free him and my mama ain't free in Louisville.
00:16:00So since I gotta die, just let me die here now.
00:16:06I think in many ways that black power movement
00:16:10was the beginning of the rise of the black quarterback in its current form.
00:16:18Football was never as open and progressive as, say, basketball eventually became.
00:16:24Football from the very get-go was deeply resistive
00:16:28to the kind of social justice movement
00:16:31that black people were participating in.
00:16:33As rights were gained by people of color in this country,
00:16:37those whites who were racist
00:16:39were threatened by a successful black quarterback.
00:16:42Because what's gonna be next?
00:16:44Is it gonna be a black CEO?
00:16:46Is it gonna be a black president?
00:16:47What are the possibilities of my world unraveling
00:16:50because of the success of people who don't look like me?
00:16:53There have been many forward-thinking minds in the NFL.
00:16:59But by and large, the NFL has been slow here.
00:17:03There were some coaches who had the courage of their convictions
00:17:05and they were pressured into not playing them.
00:17:08I'm not giving this position up to you.
00:17:10This is too important.
00:17:12Guys like Willie Wood and Ken Riley,
00:17:14who are quarterbacks in college.
00:17:16Jimmy Ray, one of the great quarterbacks in Michigan State,
00:17:19get switched to a safety,
00:17:20get switched to a receiver in the NFL.
00:17:22They're wanting opportunity.
00:17:24They want the opportunity to be a quarterback
00:17:27so they can succeed on their own terms.
00:17:29This is the legacy of Shaq Harris.
00:17:36James Shaq Harris had more courage.
00:17:39I mean, I don't even know how he continued on.
00:17:43You know, people talk about hate now.
00:17:44I don't want to hear about hate and haterade.
00:17:46You don't know anything about hate.
00:17:48James Harris knows about hate.
00:17:50I always felt growing up in Louisiana
00:17:55that it was unbalanced.
00:17:58You know, challenges that we had to overcome.
00:18:05If you're someone like James Harris
00:18:08and you're growing up in Monroe, Louisiana,
00:18:11you're growing up in a world that conspires
00:18:13every way to deny you opportunity.
00:18:17We rode on the back of the bus.
00:18:19We had colored and white water fountains.
00:18:22We had to stay within our own community.
00:18:27My father was a preacher.
00:18:30I asked him.
00:18:31I said, if all men are created equal,
00:18:35then why do I have to ride on the back of the bus?
00:18:38If all men are created equal,
00:18:41why do we have to get our books from other schools?
00:18:44And he told me, James, just remember one thing.
00:18:48That's not the work of the Lord.
00:18:50That's the work of man.
00:18:52One of the things I remember most
00:18:54is seeing the demonstration where blacks
00:18:57was merely demonstrating.
00:18:59They were being beaten,
00:19:00and I never can get that out of my mind.
00:19:03And all those people who fought for our rights,
00:19:06Jim Brown and Bill Russell,
00:19:09I really respected those guys
00:19:11because I thought they were fighting for the rights of others,
00:19:16fighting for my rights.
00:19:18When I was in high school, in the 10th grade,
00:19:22I was starting at quarterback.
00:19:24My playing style was to win.
00:19:27I followed the game.
00:19:29There was no blacks playing quarterback
00:19:31on any pro sports level.
00:19:34They said we weren't smart enough.
00:19:37They questioned, you know, our character.
00:19:40And then I saw a clip in a Marlon in a magazine.
00:19:45In the fall of 1968, you see a black quarterback.
00:19:49You hear about this guy named Marlon Briscoe.
00:19:55There's no question that if you're trying to be a black quarterback in the 60s,
00:19:59it's inherently political because arguments about black people's places in society is politicized.
00:20:06Arguments about black intelligence are politicized.
00:20:09Arguments about black humanity are politicized.
00:20:12So, unavoidably, anybody who sought to become a quarterback was challenging the white hierarchy.
00:20:19Everything to do with leadership, there was no blacks.
00:20:25So, Marlon Briscoe is coming into this moment.
00:20:29Black athletes, in some ways, become kind of symbols for this idea of black power and black empowerment.
00:20:47It's not the only way to commit.
00:20:49Marlon Briscoe was a rookie out of Nebraska, Omaha.
00:20:53Everyone calls him Marlon the Magician.
00:20:54He's almost like this folk hero.
00:20:57Marlon Briscoe gets the name magician in college.
00:20:59He's just magical with the ball.
00:21:01He can make everything happen.
00:21:03He was setting records at Omaha, Nebraska.
00:21:06So, I started following him.
00:21:08Before he gets drafted, he has this hope.
00:21:10And he says, look, it's the late 60s.
00:21:13Things are starting to change.
00:21:14I'll get this opportunity.
00:21:16The Denver Broncos drafted him as a DB.
00:21:19He had never played DB.
00:21:20But he says, I know you like to switch guys like me.
00:21:22But just give me three days.
00:21:24Give me three days to prove that I can play quarterback.
00:21:26And then after that, if you want to switch me, you can switch me.
00:21:30I guess just wanted to appease me and felt that, you know, nothing would come of it.
00:21:34During those three days, I was able to exhibit my skills.
00:21:38He spends three days in training camp just wowing the media, wowing the crowds.
00:21:43He can throw it farther than anybody.
00:21:44He has one of the best arms in the NFL.
00:21:46But it's still not good enough for Lou Saban, the head coach.
00:21:49The offensive drought that Denver had suffered through the last few seasons
00:21:52would be quenched by veteran quarterback Steve Tenzi.
00:21:56But as the season goes on, the Denver Broncos quarterbacks are hurt.
00:22:02But injuries to all three, including Steve Tenzi's twice broken collarbone,
00:22:06prevented a true offensive blossoming until midseason.
00:22:10One after another, gone, gone, gone.
00:22:12And so Lou Saban is desperate.
00:22:15It's not like he has this moment where he says, yes, this is all about merit.
00:22:19I don't care about color.
00:22:21He's got no other quarterback.
00:22:22Lou Saban walked up to me and said, my friend, you're now a quarterback now.
00:22:27And that's your number, number 15.
00:22:32Let's go, Marilyn!
00:22:34Marlon Briscoe, number 15, was introduced into the quarterback slot.
00:22:38He gets this opportunity and he's electrified.
00:22:43He is so good on the run.
00:22:46It's unbelievable.
00:22:50He can throw the ball 50 yards both ways.
00:22:53So if he's rolling out to the right, he can throw it 50 yards.
00:22:55If he's rolling out to the left, he can throw it 50 yards.
00:23:01He rolls out from the pocket to create angles for himself.
00:23:06And he's very specific about this.
00:23:08A move to create angles for myself.
00:23:14He's also fast.
00:23:16A scout from the Cowboys says he's the fastest quarterback we've ever seen.
00:23:20And it's true.
00:23:21When he plays that first year, every defense that has to go against him says we can't stop him.
00:23:30Black fans, they love it, right?
00:23:34To see a quarterback commanding an all-white offensive line, that's a big deal.
00:23:41We were a huge, a huge sports family.
00:23:47But we also were really conscious of what was going on with black experience.
00:23:51So to have a black quarterback anywhere, I mean, that was groundbreaking to us.
00:24:13Give me a divide left and go 99.
00:24:21Every time you read the report after the game, the opposing coach is praising him.
00:24:26The players are praising him.
00:24:28But at the same time, there's this knock coming against him.
00:24:32It's that he's a scrambler.
00:24:33And at that time, scramblers really becomes this kind of code word.
00:24:36There's a lot of chaos.
00:24:38The offensive lineman doesn't know where the quarterback is.
00:24:40The receivers don't know what's going on.
00:24:43And I think that gets to Saban.
00:24:45Saban's like, this is not my guy.
00:24:46And what happens after the season, Saban starts to have off-season quarterback meetings without Marlon Briscoe there.
00:24:59So the guy who starts five games, the guy who many local fans want as the starter,
00:25:05he's cut in 1969 right before training camp.
00:25:09It crushes him.
00:25:11It was obvious that Lou Saban was not going to give me an opportunity to compete.
00:25:15I didn't ask to be the starting quarterback.
00:25:18All I wanted was an opportunity to compete for the job, which I think I richly deserved.
00:25:25Briscoe's the prototypical quarterback today.
00:25:28He is Jalen Hurts before Jalen Hurts, right?
00:25:31He changes what the NFL or pro football could be.
00:25:35The idea of a dual threat quarterback being not the guy you want was an original barrier of entry erected
00:25:44around the position to keep black players from playing quarterback.
00:25:48Coaches were saying, no, I'd rather not have this weapon at my disposal.
00:25:53I'd rather have this particular limited brand of playing this all-important position than have to maybe turn it over
00:26:06to these guys.
00:26:07I don't want to hear about this stuff.
00:26:10Well, the style of play back then just wasn't conducive to the mobile quarterback or this and that.
00:26:14I grew up in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
00:26:16Fran Tarkenton, a pro football Hall of Famer for the Vikings.
00:26:19He was known for scrambling all over the place.
00:26:22He was a shorter quarterback.
00:26:23His mobility, his running skills were his key asset.
00:26:27He threw for a million yards, but he also did it because he ran and scrambled.
00:26:32Black quarterback couldn't do that.
00:26:36It's really honestly a matter of black and white.
00:26:39I felt that I would have other opportunities to quarterback in the NFL and none of those opportunities came.
00:26:45And I had to come to the realization that no one was going to give me an opportunity to play.
00:26:53One of the things that you're sort of trained back then in the 60s, if you're a young person, a
00:27:02young black person to understand,
00:27:04and that is that when there's success for a black person doing anything, it's like that.
00:27:12It has had a tendency to be momentary.
00:27:15So when Marlon Briscoe was a quarterback, you never looked at this as being something that was going to be
00:27:23sustained.
00:27:25Because you look at society, it was like that.
00:27:27It was nothing that was sustained, which is why the great civil rights movement was taking place.
00:27:32Because it was trying to make sure that things would be sustained.
00:27:36So when Marlon Briscoe had his moment in the sun in 1968 and then it disappeared, it was like, what
00:27:44else is new?
00:27:45We've seen this story before.
00:27:51Football scouts know this territory well.
00:27:54A CBS News survey shows that 17 grambling grads who learned their football under Coach Eddie Robinson made this year's
00:28:02active rosters.
00:28:06Hey!
00:28:08You got the speed!
00:28:10Come on! Come on! Come on!
00:28:11We do most of our recruiting in Louisiana, northern part of Louisiana, straight down the street.
00:28:16Down through the heart to the south.
00:28:18Eddie Robinson was the head coach at Grambling.
00:28:21He decided in the mid-1960s that he was going to take on the mission of creating the first black
00:28:27quarterback to go to the NFL,
00:28:29who the NFL would not be able to turn away, would not be able to force to change to another
00:28:34position.
00:28:35And that became his project.
00:28:37Eddie Robinson is a very significant figure in the history of football
00:28:42and also in the history of race relations within American sports.
00:28:49When he took over the job at Grambling State, you know, it was a forgotten HBCU in North Louisiana.
00:28:57In 20 years, he had built it into a powerhouse.
00:29:01At one point in the late 1960s, Grambling State only trailed Notre Dame and USC in producing professional football players.
00:29:09Size is important on this team. The rest a young boy can learn from Coach Robinson.
00:29:14Eddie Robinson always believed that football had its place in America.
00:29:18To make it in America what you had to do, you got the dream, you got the work to make
00:29:23your dream come true.
00:29:24He knows that one day, with integration through football, you could change America.
00:29:30Talking about a wrong doesn't help it. My thing is to change it.
00:29:37HBCU coaches, Eddie Robinson in particular, they sit at this crossroads.
00:29:41Their approach is very different than what's happening on college campuses, especially at HBCUs, regarding black power.
00:29:49Eddie Robinson was famous for having his young man dressed in shirts and ties on the road long before that
00:29:54one.
00:29:54That became the norm. They were going to represent Grambling State.
00:29:58They were going to represent their program.
00:30:00And they would, in turn, represent African Americans to the best of their ability.
00:30:04This systematic and patient approach to change, part of that was a belief in respectability.
00:30:12So respectability politics is the idea that if you present yourself in a way that white people will respect,
00:30:25then you are more likely to get something that you want.
00:30:33So, for instance, if you wear a suit when you appear in front of white people, then they're more likely
00:30:42to see your humanity.
00:30:45And for most of American history, it was a form of survival.
00:30:49In the South, you could be killed if white people simply didn't like you.
00:30:54If you didn't put a sir or a ma'am at the end of your sentence, that could kill you.
00:30:59And that became what they call respectability politics.
00:31:03And that idea also emerged in sports.
00:31:10That's how he sees football, that there's power in integration.
00:31:14There's power in seeing his black athletes.
00:31:17Now, the biggest thing to that is going to be the quarterback.
00:31:21For all his goals of proving what integration will look like, the quarterback will get him there the quickest.
00:31:32One night in 1964, Eddie Robinson is on Howard Cosell's radio show.
00:31:37Howard Cosell raises the question of no black quarterbacks in the NFL.
00:31:42His last question to me was, can you develop a quarterback who can play in the NFL?
00:31:51Well, I tell you, I guess his words just kind of drove us to trying to come up with that
00:31:59answer.
00:32:01The very same night, he flies back to Monroe, Louisiana, and he drives straight from the airport to the house
00:32:08of James Harris and Harris's family.
00:32:12Coach didn't do a lot of cursing, but he wore damn and hell out.
00:32:17He said, damn it to hell. Hell, kid, if you come to Grandma in four years, hell, you'll be able
00:32:25to play quarterback.
00:32:27And I'll be able to go and tell that damn Howard Cosell that I produced a quarterback.
00:32:33Eddie Robinson was for many years very cautious about taking public stands.
00:32:38But the stand he decided to take and the way he did it was to prepare James Harris to cross
00:32:45the color line in the NFL.
00:32:46I went to Monroe and told his mom and his daddy and his granddaddy that I came to recruit him
00:32:54for him to be the first one to play in the NFL.
00:32:59Before my father passed away, he said, James, I want you to do one thing for me.
00:33:05I want you to use football and get a college degree for your mother.
00:33:12And this was the first step.
00:33:17I went to Grambler with a prayer and a promise, a promise that I get a college degree and a
00:33:23prayer that I'd be able to play quarterback in the National Football League.
00:33:29What Eddie Robinson realized is if I'm going to make this mission, right, I have to double everything they think
00:33:35about a quarterback.
00:33:36Gabriel came to the pros with the strength of a linebacker. He stands in the pocket tall and strong.
00:33:42So a quarterback standing 6'2", 6'3", my guy's going to be 6'4".
00:33:47It's saturation bombing with touchdowns coming in cluster.
00:33:52If in the NFL they're throwing a lot of long passes, I have to do that too.
00:33:57Coach Robb redid the whole grambling offense so there would be a lot more downfield passing.
00:34:04They needed it to make James Harris NFL material.
00:34:08The other thing he does is he's bringing his old players back, Willie Davis from the Green Bay Packers,
00:34:15to teach them what Vince Lombardi does, to teach them what Bart Starr does.
00:34:19I went to the coaches in the NFL. I went to the scout.
00:34:24I got the Rams playbook. I got Green Bay's book.
00:34:29Coach Robb also had to develop a quarterback who would stand up to all the racism, all the bigotry,
00:34:35all the efforts to intimidate him, all the pressure that that breakthrough black quarterback would have to face.
00:34:43This brilliant sports information director named Kali J. Nicholson would pretend to be an aggressive, demanding, insulting white reporter,
00:34:54throwing those difficult questions at James Harris to make sure he could keep his cool.
00:34:59We had to prepare him for being able to answer questions that people were going to ask him.
00:35:08We just had to convince people that, yes, if he plays quarterback at Grammy, he can run an NFL offense.
00:35:16Eddie understood the racial aspect of it. There was a lot of work to do to change minds.
00:35:23James is going to be that guy.
00:35:25He believes him, but he realizes the reality of guys that look like him don't make it.
00:35:31So I should be prepared in case, like, this dream doesn't come true.
00:35:42I started off and played Morgan State in New York, 64,000.
00:35:51And through that year, there was a promise that I would get drafted.
00:35:55But at the end of the year, Coach Robinson tried to get me some All-Star games.
00:36:01Nobody would invite me to play in the All-Star game in spite of being played a year in black
00:36:08college football.
00:36:10I had graduated, and I remember walking across the stage.
00:36:16My mother and Coach Robinson, one of the happiest days of my life.
00:36:21I went to Grambling with a prayer and a promise.
00:36:24I had fulfilled my promise.
00:36:26I got a college degree from my mother.
00:36:30But my prayer to play quarterback was unfulfilled.
00:36:37I started looking at it realistically as the draft started approaching for me.
00:36:43Marlon played well, set records, and at the end of the year, they didn't allow him to play no more.
00:36:51They weren't ready for a black quarterback.
00:36:54To me, it was obvious.
00:36:56And I remember riding home and seeing, well, it's over.
00:37:03I wasn't ready to quit playing football.
00:37:06But who was I kidding?
00:37:08It's over.
00:37:10Got a college degree.
00:37:11I got to be prepared to teach school.
00:37:15And this next 30 miles, I got to try to put football behind me.
00:37:20And that was one of the long rides that I had.
00:37:25I got to be prepared.
00:37:41Attention, please.
00:37:44The 34th Annual Professional Football Selection Meeting is now in session.
00:37:52We had a lot of guys eligible for the draft.
00:37:55We all would go to class, come back.
00:37:58For each of the first two rounds, the clubs will have a maximum of 15 minutes per selection.
00:38:03The first choice in the first round, Buffalo.
00:38:07Coach Robinson called me when they started calling him.
00:38:11It was teams calling him, asking him, would I switch position?
00:38:15They draft me earlier.
00:38:16And we had a talk.
00:38:18And I told Coach that I'd been through this before.
00:38:20I wanted to play quarterback.
00:38:22And I was committed to playing quarterback.
00:38:25Coach said to me, well, Hellcat, you play quarterback.
00:38:30The Buffalo Bills select as their first choice in the first round.
00:38:34Half-back O.J. Simpson, the University of Southern California.
00:38:37When I told them I wasn't going to switch, and I kept my word, they kept their word.
00:38:42And they didn't draft me.
00:38:43I decided that if I wasn't drafted in the first three rounds, then I had no chance of making it.
00:38:50Since there was no blacks playing quarterback anyway.
00:38:56Next day, I found out I had been drafted in the eighth round.
00:39:00I was totally disappointed.
00:39:02Totally disappointed.
00:39:04So I decided that I wasn't going to play pro football.
00:39:08Coach sent for me, and I started thinking about how important it was to him.
00:39:14So I decided that I was going to go and accept the challenge.
00:39:19And he was happy to hear and told me that I needed to get myself prepared for the one opportunity
00:39:25that I may not get but that one opportunity.
00:39:35I stayed in the YMCA.
00:39:37The rooms were $6 a night.
00:39:39The room was so small, I could take my foot and turn the TV on.
00:39:43And I remember OJ staying in the Hilton.
00:39:54You know, it's hard for us to understand how big OJ Simpson was coming out of USC.
00:40:05For Shaq to come in that same draft, it provided, you know, in some ways, the press cover, right?
00:40:10It's like he's the forgotten man.
00:40:15They gave me a job so I could have some money.
00:40:18My job was working in the equipment room.
00:40:21I had to help them put out shoulder pads and cleats.
00:40:25I know there wasn't a job of a quarterback.
00:40:27It wore on me.
00:40:29I didn't think I had a chance of playing anyway.
00:40:32I had to try to keep up with Jack Kemp and Tom Flores and those veteran guys.
00:40:38The first preseason game I was going to play in, in Detroit.
00:40:43So I called Coach Robinson.
00:40:45I said, Coach, I don't feel confident with the whole game plan.
00:40:48And he say, where's that damn OJ Simpson boy?
00:40:52Isn't he supposed to be the best player in the country?
00:40:54He said, okay, hand it to him.
00:40:57Pass it to him.
00:40:59Give it to him any kind of way he can.
00:41:01Detroit Lions won the toss.
00:41:03They elected to receive.
00:41:05Coach, he really respected my building.
00:41:07He really thought I could really throw the football.
00:41:13He said, you had a good preseason, and he got up and started walking around.
00:41:18And finally, he turned around and say, this Sunday against the New York Jets and Joe Namor, I'm going to
00:41:26start you at quarterback.
00:41:27All we prayed for was a chance.
00:41:31Finally, my prayer was fulfilled.
00:41:35Called him right after.
00:41:37And he, he shared a tear, you know.
00:41:40He got quiet.
00:41:41I got quiet.
00:41:42He said, damn it to hell.
00:41:44Wait till I see that damn Howard Cosell.
00:41:48Well, I'm real happy and honored.
00:41:52I just hope I can do good.
00:41:55The most important thing to me in starting is my performance.
00:42:00Not just the idea of starting.
00:42:01I mean, like it took Johnny Unitas and Bart Starr and guys like that five and six years before they
00:42:09even got a chance and you're getting it right off.
00:42:11Does that make you nervous or anything?
00:42:13All.
00:42:13Well, I'd be, I'd be nervous either way, whether I was starting or just dressing and coming out to play.
00:42:22For Shaq Harris to be the first black to start at quarterback in a season opener in the league's history,
00:42:28there was going to be a lot of focus on that.
00:42:31And there was going to be a lot of folks who didn't like it because they had never seen it.
00:42:38It was just overwhelming and I was excited.
00:42:41But yet, a piece of me felt a little different for all those guys who had been denied the opportunity.
00:42:53For the second year in a row, the Bills were going with a rookie-studded offense.
00:42:57It was such a big build-up to the game.
00:43:02Everywhere I go, they were talking about it.
00:43:05With rookie James Harris at quarterback, OJ turned on the fire.
00:43:12I didn't play as well as I could at the game.
00:43:15Total effort by the Jets defense that sacked the quarterback four times and dampened OJ's debut.
00:43:25I was kind of frustrated for that.
00:43:33One of my favorite quotes that I've ever read about a black quarterback comes from L.A. Times writer Jim
00:43:38Murray.
00:43:39And he says, look, being a black quarterback is like being a member of the bomb squad.
00:43:44You only get one mistake.
00:43:46From that moment on, he starts only two more times and things go from bad to worse for him.
00:43:54The death threats kind of caught me off guard.
00:44:00Threats about what's going to happen to me.
00:44:03It just started me thinking about our country, you know, and how divided our country is.
00:44:17And then Briscoe came to Buffalo.
00:44:21Marlon.
00:44:22They asked him to play receiver.
00:44:23He's never played it before.
00:44:25He dedicates himself to the position.
00:44:27Him and James Harris are roommates.
00:44:32Marlon's advice to me was mostly not to get caught up in the thought of playing quarterback, you know, like
00:44:39he did.
00:44:40He was better, and rightly so.
00:44:43I was bitter and frustrated with him.
00:44:47Lou Saban takes over for Buffalo in 1972.
00:44:51Briscoe warns Harris.
00:44:54Marlon told me that when Lou Saban came in, that I wouldn't be there at all.
00:45:00Look, this is what happened to me.
00:45:02This is going to happen to you.
00:45:03And sure enough, it happened.
00:45:04But the future belongs to Dennis Shaw, the quick-armed, confident young general of the Bills offense.
00:45:11They ended up starting Shaw as quarterback.
00:45:14And he decided to let me go.
00:45:20It's Briscoe who has his back privately.
00:45:23He talks to him and also publicly.
00:45:28It's him who does the interview, who tells the local media what it's like being a black quarterback.
00:45:34They always have each other's back.
00:45:38We all shared the same dream.
00:45:41All we asked for was an opportunity to play the position and compete.
00:45:50And once again, it just hit me.
00:45:53At that time, there was no blacks in the league again.
00:45:57And then Joe Gilliam came in.
00:46:00Jefferson Street Joe.
00:46:03Some day, some day, some day, some day, some day, some day.
00:46:2115 seconds there.
00:46:23Standby all cameras.
00:46:25Standby video tape.
00:46:25It's funny.
00:46:26Certain things should stay with you no matter how old you get.
00:46:28And I can still remember vividly rolling around on the living room floor, watching a grainy black and white TV.
00:46:41And seeing the Pittsburgh Steelers on Monday Night Football.
00:46:45And Joe Gilliam trotted out at quarterback.
00:46:51This young man, number 17, Jefferson Street Joe Gilliam from Tennessee State.
00:46:57Black quarterback.
00:47:01Even as a child, I was glued to the TV watching it.
00:47:07I was seeing a black man go out and play quarterback on national television in a primetime game.
00:47:14Joe Gilliam getting his shot in the wake of all the talk through all of the years about black quarterbacks
00:47:20in the National Football League.
00:47:22When you talk about Joe Gilliam, you're talking about superior skills.
00:47:27Joe Gilliam put up all kinds of yards at Tennessee State.
00:47:32Joe is coming out in the draft.
00:47:34The Steelers already have Terry Bradshaw.
00:47:36But the draft goes on.
00:47:38It's round six.
00:47:39It's round seven.
00:47:39And now it's the ninth round, tenth round.
00:47:42So Coach Knoll says, if we're drafting on talent, we're going to take him.
00:47:45Whenever a black quarterback came in the league, you knew one thing.
00:47:50He had great ability.
00:47:56If you ask any veteran player there who was the most talented guy, who was the most accurate, who had
00:48:02the arm strength, Joe Gilliam, those guys talked about him like he was something from outer space.
00:48:07I'll take Joe Gilliam over Terry Bradshaw, over Terry Henry, over any other passer I'd ever call a pass from,
00:48:14and all my college, professional, and high school days.
00:48:17The first game of our first Super Bowl season, 1974, Joe Gilliam is the starting quarterback and Terry Bradshaw is
00:48:26the backup.
00:48:27That's how good Joe was.
00:48:30The way that he commanded, the huddle, presence on the field, he had style.
00:48:36When he's starting, he goes 4-1-1.
00:48:40There's no way the Pittsburgh fans shouldn't have supported him.
00:48:43But the white fans are relentless.
00:48:47Pittsburgh's in the middle of a busing crisis.
00:48:52Where they're trying to force white kids and black kids to go to school with each other.
00:48:58And when the racism comes, he's really not prepared for that.
00:49:02He gets more than 100 pieces of hate mail.
00:49:05When his family's in the stands, they're hearing it too.
00:49:08Next thing you know, Bradshaw was back in.
00:49:10He never had a shot after that.
00:49:13We end up going back to Terry Bradshaw, winning four Super Bowls.
00:49:16And you can't deny the talent that Terry had.
00:49:18But Joe Gilliam had that same type of talent.
00:49:21We didn't get to see it all.
00:49:24There's no doubt that you were subject to racism in the form of incidents and hate mail.
00:49:30And the Steeler organization received it too.
00:49:32But do you think race had anything to do with the decision to remove you as the starting quarterback?
00:49:37Because someone could argue, hey, Gilliam was good.
00:49:40Bradshaw was better.
00:49:43Again, I'm not going to buy that.
00:49:46But, yeah, he won four Super Bowls.
00:49:49And he was the quarterback.
00:49:52But he wasn't any better than me.
00:49:55I know it.
00:49:56He knows it.
00:49:57I thought that he was the quarterback now and in the future of Pittsburgh.
00:50:04I actually looked at him and saw a guy that I thought was better than me.
00:50:07I've never thought that.
00:50:08And I actually thought that of Joe.
00:50:10He's really the example of the problem with American racism in 1974.
00:50:18Keeping the position white and safe in this blue-collar town of Pittsburgh was, I think, priority number one.
00:50:25The NFL and the league, the coaching staffs, the fans, the media, I'm quite sure that this was not something
00:50:34they wanted to happen.
00:50:35That's just putting it bluntly.
00:50:36That breaks him down, right?
00:50:39And that forces him to turn to drugs.
00:50:43He turns to that to numb the pain, numb that mental pain.
00:50:49When you dream, all you're asking is an opportunity to compete.
00:51:04Joe and I would talk every Monday night.
00:51:07He got real frustrated that I think it kind of affected his preparation.
00:51:13Whereas, for me, my commitment to prepare in spite of was a little different.
00:51:24I went back to D.C. where I was living, working for the Department of Commerce.
00:51:29I went out and throw every day after work.
00:51:31I'd go out and throw.
00:51:32And this went on for weeks.
00:51:35And I got to the point where this is over.
00:51:40And I got a call from Coach Robinson.
00:51:43They were going to bring me to LA.
00:51:48I was excited getting another opportunity.
00:51:52They had drafted Ron Jaworski.
00:51:54I grew up in Buffalo, New York, just outside of Buffalo, in Lackawanna, New York.
00:51:59So, you know, I followed the Bills.
00:52:00I rooted for the Bills.
00:52:01I had the pom-poms.
00:52:02You know, I was kind of that kind of guy, you know.
00:52:03So, to actually get to spend time with Shaq and be teammates with Shaq, it was meaningful.
00:52:09Hayler won the MVP that year.
00:52:11Most valuable player.
00:52:12Came back the next year and got off to a slow start.
00:52:15The offense continued to sputter.
00:52:17And the Rams lost to Green Bay 17-6.
00:52:20Coach Knox sent for me.
00:52:22And he told me that we're going to start your quarterback.
00:52:26Chuck Knox makes a huge decision.
00:52:28I'm going to sit the guy who was the MVP of the league the year before.
00:52:34I'm going with this black guy.
00:52:36Then came new starting quarterback James Harris, who exploded with dazzling effectiveness.
00:52:42And it worked out incredibly well.
00:52:46Give me what you say.
00:52:47Give me a thing.
00:52:49Oh, my.
00:52:50Give me a thing.
00:52:53I feel good because we had a good team.
00:52:55We had good players.
00:52:56Hello again, everyone.
00:52:58I'm Howard Cosell.
00:52:59And it is the typically wind-blown, candlestick park, James Harris.
00:53:05Back in 1969, it was an eighth-round draft pick of the Buffalo Bill.
00:53:09He had some talent in Buffalo.
00:53:11He had never left Buffalo.
00:53:12You know, it wasn't him.
00:53:13He was ripping it.
00:53:14The Rams are laying it all on the line.
00:53:16They say, this is our man that will take us all the way.
00:53:22Ball at the 42.
00:53:29I was known throughout the black community.
00:53:32During that time, I was a news story.
00:53:36I was a major news story.
00:53:44Then, ultimately, he's taking them to the playoffs and winning a playoff game.
00:53:49James Harris has guided these Los Angeles Rams to the brink of the championship game of this conference.
00:53:55The clock looks down to three, two, one.
00:53:57The game is over.
00:53:59The Los Angeles Rams are in the finale.
00:54:01The black fans really supported me.
00:54:06And there were, you know, white fans that supported me.
00:54:10And there were some who preferred I not play.
00:54:17Shaq and I were also roommates.
00:54:19We stayed at the Beverly Hilton Hotel, which is pretty sweet.
00:54:24And so we'd go to the check-in, go to the room.
00:54:28And Shaq would always have a bunch of mail with him.
00:54:30He said, Ron, look at this.
00:54:32Look at this.
00:54:33He'd show me this letter.
00:54:34So I read this thing.
00:54:36There was a letter from a guy, and he says, I'm going to shoot you on the way to the
00:54:39stadium tomorrow morning.
00:54:42That was enlightening, that what he had to deal with, that people would actually have that type of feeling toward
00:54:48him,
00:54:49that they would actually write a letter that, I'm going to shoot you on the way to the stadium, is
00:54:53sickening.
00:54:57How do you deal with that every day and then go into a locker room and command it,
00:55:00and then go onto a football field and do that with all this other stuff?
00:55:05The other players don't have to deal with that.
00:55:07They don't even know what it's like.
00:55:08They don't even know what you're going through.
00:55:11What happens, and it's unfortunate, whereas the city should have rallied around him, he is a winner.
00:55:19In 1975, the Rams draft this guy, Pat Hayden, who is this USC superstar.
00:55:27He's a golden boy.
00:55:28Everything, if you're a white American, you want your kid to be.
00:55:33Pat Hayden, who was a very talented guy, but he was the fair-haired Southern California, USC.
00:55:39You know, poster child.
00:55:41And I could see being the Hollywood type of guy Mr. Rosenblum was.
00:55:45He would ask people, what do you think?
00:55:47The owner wants this golden white boy, and that's what happens.
00:55:56I led the NFC in passing.
00:56:00I went to the Pro Bowl and was the MVP.
00:56:05And, you know, we went to the championship game twice.
00:56:08It doesn't matter.
00:56:10They don't want James Harris as the face of the franchise.
00:56:14The owner was persistent, you know.
00:56:16He called and told me that they had made a trade, and I went to San Diego.
00:56:23You know, I think that there were a lot of unhappy people, you know, in the African-American community
00:56:28because of that move.
00:56:29I want to know what you're going to do about having more black brothers as quarterbacks
00:56:33in the National Football Hunker League.
00:56:35Okay.
00:56:36Right on.
00:56:37I plan not only to have lots of black quarterbacks, but we're going to have black coaches and
00:56:41black owners of teams.
00:56:42As long as it's going to be football, there's going to be some black in it somewhere.
00:56:46Right on.
00:56:47Yeah, right.
00:56:48Because I'm tired of this mess that's been going down, you know what I mean?
00:56:51Ever since the Rams got rid of James Harris, I've done my job in the past.
00:56:55You know what I'm talking about?
00:56:56He's going to get down on the case now.
00:56:59Star quarterback is the marquee position in all of American sports.
00:57:07Quarterback is where the focus is and where statements, both overt and subtle, can be made.
00:57:13To allow something other than a process that yields a meritocratic result to influence things
00:57:22is, it's un-American.
00:57:26You know, it's uniquely American as it relates to race, but in a profound way, it's un-American.
00:57:34You would think it would have flipped the switch.
00:57:37Like, wow, they got some guys at these HBCUs who can play.
00:57:40But there was just that thinking, whether it's fear of the fan base, ownership, bigotry, whatever.
00:57:47Like, yeah, it's got to be a special situation for us to give one of those guys a shot.
00:57:54If you put a Black leader in charge of that team, you've given up a white space.
00:58:02And if you concede that Black people can be leaders of those teams, you might be conceding that space forever.
00:58:15There's a long tradition within the African-American community of respectability politics.
00:58:21This idea that the way to convince white people that African-Americans belong, whether we're talking about belong on the
00:58:33playing field or belong in the schoolroom or belong in the neighborhood next to white folk,
00:58:37is to sort of cast this vision and version of very polite, non-threatening, well-mannered Black folk.
00:58:49Now, there's a logic to it, because if you did not, then you were providing those who were hostile towards
00:58:57you the ammunition to continue to discriminate against you.
00:59:01The question became, though, even if you present yourself in this acceptable way, in this respectable way, is that enough
00:59:11to change the hearts and minds of those who were discriminating against you?
00:59:14And in many instances, it clearly was not.
00:59:17And so if doing that is not enough, that raised the question, why the hell are you doing it in
00:59:23the first place?
00:59:24Why can't we be ourselves?
00:59:27I think my greatest achievement in my professional career was to be able to maintain and survive in the NFL
00:59:36when there were no other Black quarterback.
00:59:40Surviving that time with all the challenges, the media, I think that was the thing I'm most proud of.
00:59:47The only thing I can say is that my preparation, the help of Coach Robertson, and my ability to throw
00:59:56the football earned me the right to compete for a starting job in the NFL.
01:00:08The intangible pressures of playing the position is an extension of how we grew up.
01:00:17It parallels how we live in society.
01:00:20It's the same.
01:00:23And the way we deal with it is that we have to try to make it better for those who
01:00:32follow us.
01:00:34And I hope that I represented the opportunity for others.
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