The story gets repeated each year, regardless of whether it’s true. And it isn’t. Let’s get this out of the way: Doug Williams was never asked the question, “How long have you been a black quarterback?”
Never. Ever. Ever.
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And yet the myth persists. On ESPN on Tuesday — before Clinton Portis came on to remind us that A) he has no beef with Jason Campbell and B) he still wants to play — one announcer kept referring to the Williams question. Dude, get it right already. Many, many published reports debunked this myth long ago.
Even Williams will say he never heard that question. Actually, what he’ll say is that he couldn’t hear most of the questions. And what he told us five years ago was that he could not hear the question fully but took it as inquiring how long race had been attached to the position.
Others in attendance remember a question asked about race. It varies as to what that question was, but longtime Dallas-area writer Mickey Spagnola, who was in this gathering, wrote that his friend Butch John of the Jackson (Miss.) Clarion-Ledger actually asked the question. And it went like this: “Doug, obviously you’ve been a black quarterback your whole life. When did race begin to matter to people?”
Again, Williams couldn’t hear and responded rhetorically: “How long have I been a black quarterback?”
Thus was born one of the biggest myths in sports. Thing is, it was a few weeks after the Super Bowl that people began talking about the supposed question.
According to Sports Illustrated, one query that was legitimately asked, based on transcripts, was, “Doug, would it be easier if you were the second black quarterback to play in the Super Bowl?”
Williams deserves credit for being the first black quarterback to win a Super Bowl. But let’s make sure we get the story right.
