Warren Moon was playing in Reggie Jackson’s celebrity golf tournament in West Palm Beach, Fla., eight days ago. He watched the second of two conference championship games unfold from inside a restaurant, sitting with two other retired NFL luminaries, Jerome Bettis and Mark Clayton. The Eagles having already toppled the 49ers earlier that afternoon, they all wondered the same thing.
If the Chiefs beat the Bengals, that would mean that Patrick Mahomes and Jalen Hurts would start at quarterback in Super Bowl LVII. “Has that ever happened before?” Moon asked the group. “Two Black quarterbacks starting in the Super Bowl?”
It turns out, no. Sunday’s clash will carry that historical significance. And it was made possible by men like Moon, who endured insults and threats from the worst of society just to throw footballs so well that he made the Pro Football Hall of Fame. He fired off a tweet. Within minutes, it had something like 800,000 views. Reporters began calling, as did old teammates, other Black signal-callers and everyone else he knew who understood what this moment would mean, but especially to Moon.
His mind spun with thoughts. (1) It was cool that Super Bowl LVII would be held during Black History Month. (2) Others might not consider the totality of two Black men, in 2023, starting at quarterback in a Super Bowl. It is important because it has never happened before. Because quarterbacks like Moon had to go to the CFL just to prove their worth. Moon was part of a generation that faced down stereotypes: that he wasn’t a leader, that his teammates wouldn’t listen to him, that he wasn’t smart. “Now,” he says, “you’re gonna have two guys who are not even 27 years old lead their franchises into the biggest sporting event in the world.”
Mahomes and Hurts are all the things that Moon was: smart, natural leaders, franchise cornerstones. For Moon and other trailblazers, the historical significance of LVII gets complicated. Mahomes was drafted in the first round; Hurts went in the second. Neither had to go to Canada for to prove themselves. Moon is happy for them—and yet, he cannot help but consider what might have been if he had the same chance early in his career. How many Super Bowls might he have won?
“I don’t think they played with the burden of responsibility that we played with,” Moon says. “It’s all been done now. They’re accepted for who they are and how good they are. We were trying to prove ourselves, just to get a chance. And that’s a tough burden to play with. You think about it all the time. If we didn’t have that extra responsibility, we might have been even better players. They’re not judged like we were.
“I would go into the Black community and people would say, . Everywhere around the country. That’s something you never sign up for when you start playing quarterback. But that became part of it. And that’s just something you had to deal with.”
Moon began to count over the phone: Doug Williams (1988, the first Black QB to start in a Super Bowl), the late Steve McNair (2000), Donovan McNabb (’05), Colin Kaepernick (’13), Russell Wilson (’14, ’15), Cam Newton (’16), Mahomes (’20, ’21, ’23) and Hurts (’23). That makes 11 Super Bowl starts for Black quarterbacks, in 57 iterations of the game. That’s ridiculously backward. But this, the first pairing, is also progress—significant, critical progress.
“I don’t know if it has taken longer than I thought, but I knew it would eventually happen,” Moon says. “And who knows if it’ll ever happen again. But I have a feeling it will. Both of these guys are probably going to win a couple. Lamar Jackson, once he gets healthy, he’s another guy I think can get this far.
“And for those who don’t think that’s significant, fine. But I’ve been on the journey, so I know what the importance is. Hopefully it won’t even be talked about anymore, going forward, because everything has been done now.”
