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A total of 10 Black quarterbacks were scheduled to start.
Year after year after year throughout N.F.L. history, Black players were dissuaded from playing quarterback. Perceived as lacking the requisite leadership or smarts to play the position, they were urged to become receivers, running backs, defensive backs instead.
No longer.
Black quarterbacks are commanding our attention every week, and to an unprecedented degree this season. In all, 10 Black quarterbacks started — or are set to start — in Week 1, most in an opening week in league history, according to The Undefeated.
The record-setting week began, fittingly, with the dynamic young stars Patrick Mahomes of Kansas City — the youngest player to have won an M.V.P. Award and a Super Bowl — and Deshaun Watson facing each other on Thursday night.
The early slate Sunday featured Black quarterbacks at every stage of their careers, from the second-year pro Dwayne Haskins of Washington to the electrifying M.V.P. Lamar Jackson of Baltimore, the resurgent starter Teddy Bridgewater in Carolina to the underappreciated star Russell Wilson of Seattle.
Not to mention Cam Newton, who represents sort of a bridge between this generation of Black star quarterbacks and the last. Newton told reporters last week that he grew up in Atlanta idolizing Michael Vick, but also Donovan McNabb and Daunte Culpepper.
Newton on Sunday became the first Black quarterback to start for New England in Week 1 and only the second to start for the franchise since its inception in 1960, behind Jacoby Brissett in 2016.
“It’s a big deal, it’s really a big deal,” Newton told reporters. “I understand who I am. I understand being an African-American in this time, we have to be stronger and sticking with each other more than ever now. This is a great feat to achieve, but at the end of the day we have to make sure we’re using our platform for positive reasons, and that’s what I want to do.”
Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/09/13/sports/football/nfl-scores.html