Moore: Super Bowl matchup shows progress and problems of NFL diversity
This is one of those ironies that’s so perfect it all but proves the reality of a higher power guiding it to pass.
For the first time, two Black quarterbacks will face off in the Super Bowl, which is being played during Black History Month in a state that infamously lost the big game 30 years ago over its refusal to properly acknowledge Martin Luther King Day.
It shows us how far we’ve come, and how far we have yet to go.
Today, it would take a special type of bigot to make the claims that were all too common a generation back: that Black athletes lacked the natural leadership qualities needed to play quarterback, that scrambling quarterbacks were liabilities and that Black people simply weren’t smart enough to play the position at the highest levels.
Philadelphia’s Jalen Hurts and Kansas City’s Patrick Mahomes are just the tip of a sword that includes Super Bowl champions like Russell Wilson, league MVPs like Lamar Jackson, Pro Bowlers like Kyler Murray, all-time greats like Warren Moon and legends like Doug Williams.
Today, Black parents don’t spend as much time getting their sons ready for the reality that no matter how good they are, if they want to go pro, they’ll have to switch to a new position like Marlin Briscoe, who set a rookie touchdown passing record in 1968 that still stands for the Broncos, but ended up getting traded in the offseason and becoming a two-time Super Bowl champion for the Dolphins — playing wide receiver.
Today, we believe that the best quarterback is the best quarterback, regardless of race. So, you’ll forgive any fans who didn’t notice the historic Super Bowl matchup, right away.
Something similar happened to me a few years ago.
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It was 2019, and the Seahawks came to Glendale to play the Cardinals. Seattle’s starting quarterback was Russell Wilson and his backup was Geno Smith. Arizona countered with Kyler Murray and Brett Hundley. Four Black quarterbacks in the same game!
It didn’t hit me until I was driving home, but this is something that the men who taught me football would never have fathomed possible in the NFL.
And if the goal is to give reasonable opportunities to qualified applicants, regardless of race, it represents a model that others should follow.
It was once assumed (and famously skewered by comedian Chris Rock) that Black people had to be twice as good to get half an opportunity. Rock said that an African American “had to fly to get to something a white man could walk to.”
But if there are Black backup quarterbacks — not just Super Bowl champions, league MVPs, Pro Bowlers, all-time greats and legends — it shows real progress toward equality. Black quarterbacks no longer have to be the absolute best just to get a chance to make a team.
A cautionary example, ironically, also comes from the NFL and the Super Bowl.
Read more: Chiefs rookie Isiah Pacheco showed potential in NFL debut vs. Cardinals
It was 16 years ago that Indianapolis’ Tony Dungy faced Chicago’s Lovie Smith, the first time two Black coaches met to play in the big game. Of course, it’ll be the last time we see such a moment, if things keep going the way they have been, with Kansas City’s Eric Bieniemy and countless others repeatedly getting passed over for head coaching jobs.
Complacency simply can’t be tolerated if winning is the goal.
It couldn’t be possible that only one current Black coach, Pittsburgh’s Mike Tomlin, is able to successfully navigate the highest level of the sport long term. And if somehow it were true, it would be an indictment on our whole society that more Black men aren’t seen as leaders in a sport they’ve been able to dominate on the field since its inception. (Good luck to DeMeco Ryans in Houston, he’s going to need it.)
This brings us back to the 2023 Super Bowl.
If complacency had set in 30 years ago, Arizona might still be the only state without MLK Day.
There are many versions of the story, but the final score shows that the people of Arizona overwhelmingly supported recognizing the federal holiday, making it the only state where voters approved the designation.
One version of the story gives credit to a grassroots movement. Another says civic leaders, the business community, elected officials and a TV newscaster (Frank Camacho) were responsible for keeping up the fight. And there’s even a rendition that says the state would have had the holiday much sooner, but leaders balked at what they considered a strongarm tactic from the NFL to force change and claim credit. (If you want to threaten us with pulling the Super Bowl, go for it. We’ll survive and do the right thing on our own time.)
From here, it took all of that and more.
It took so many people pulling in the same direction to bend the moral arc of the universe toward the right thing, to paraphrase Dr. King, that it all but proved the reality of a higher power guiding it to pass.
Will it take that much for NFL owners and team presidents to be brave enough to see outside of their comfort zones to hire coaches who don’t look or sound like them?
In 16 years, will we be down to just one or two Black quarterbacks?
Or will the NFL be an example of progress and equality, the type that people such as myself still can’t fathom?
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Reach Moore at gmoore@azcentral.com or 602-444-2236. Follow him on Instagram and Twitter @SayingMoore. There's plenty Moore where this came from. Subscribe for videos, columns, opinions and analysis from The Arizona Republic’s award-winning team.
This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Super Bowl: Jalen Hurts, Patrick Mahomes highlight progress, problems
