Celebrating Black History: Super Bowl Champion Jalen Hurts Becomes Fourth Black Quarterback in Event History
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In an exclusive club of now 35, Jalen Hurts is a part of an even smaller subsection within the club: Black starting quarterbacks with a Super Bowl Championship.
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The first Black quarterback to win a Super Bowl was Doug Williams in 1988. In the 22nd Super Bowl, Williams completed 18 of 29 passes for 340 yards for the Washington team leading to a 42-10 win over the John Elway-led Denver Broncos. The Grambling State University graduate was drafted 17th overall in 1978 by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, and the following year he and Vince Evans became the first two Black starting quarterbacks to play against each other in an NFL game.
When the Bucs organization refused to pay him what he deserved (he was the lowest paid starting quarterback), he left the organization and was not picked up by any other NFL team. In 1986, however, Joe Gibbs, coach for the Washington team and former scout for the Bucs ahead of the 1978 draft, called Williams up to join the team as a backup.
"My whole life, whatever I was, I was 'the first of,' " Williams said in a Sports Illustrated interview prior to the 22nd Super Bowl matchup. Not long after the interview, Williams won the Super Bowl and the MVP.
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Though there were a handful of Black quarterbacks that made it to the Super Bowl, the second Black quarterback to win arrived in 2014 with Russell Wilson and the Seattle Seahawks. Almost 30 years after Doug Williams, Wilson threw 18 of 25 for 206 yards in a 43-8 win over the Denver Broncos in Super Bowl 48. Wilson helped bring the first championship to Seattle and made another Super Bowl appearance the following year in a loss to the New England Patriots led by Tom Brady.
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The third Black quarterback to hoist the Lombardi trophy is a familiar name: Patrick Mahomes of the Kansas City Chiefs. The 2017 number 10 draft pick has entered the GOAT conversation as he dominated the last decade of the NFL. Mahomes became the third Black quarterback to win a Super Bowl in 2020 when he threw 26 of 42 for 286 yards in a 31-20 win over the San Francisco 49ers in Super Bowl 54. Mahomes followed up with making four of the last five Super Bowls and winning two back-to-back in Super Bowl 57 and 58.
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It was only two years ago, for Super Bowl 57, that Jalen Hurts made his Super Bowl debut in the historical first Super Bowl to feature two Black starting quarterbacks. Though Hurts fell to Mahomes in a 38-35 loss, Hurts was a strong contender. In the rematch at Super Bowl 59 earlier this month, Hurts joined the exclusive list of accomplished Black quarterbacks with a 40-22 win over Mahomes and the Chiefs.
In a year that showed an almost 50% rate of Black starting quarterbacks in the NFL, the league continues to grow and make Black History. To learn more about the history of Black quarterbacks, check out Jason Reid’s book The Rise of the Black Quarterback: What it Means for America.
Super Bowl by Barbie
Lauren is a writer, collector, Orlando Magic basketball fan, and artist. Her writing can also be found on Hobby News Daily. You can follow her at instagram.com/laurengoeshere.