Edge of glory
MAHOMES AND HURTS TRAILBLAZING
TWO men will take to the biggest sporting stage of their lives tonight looking to achieve much more than winning a Super Bowl.
For the first time in NFL history, the ‘greatest show on turf’ will feature two black quarterbacks in the shape of Patrick Mahomes and Jalen Hurts.
And with this groundbreaking moment will also come the greatest chance for America’s game to use the defining event to change its ethos, landscape and future forever.
1988 might seem a like long time ago to some people, but in those intervening years some things have barely changed.
Doug Williams was the first black quarterback to play in – and win – the Super Bowl 35 years ago.
And even this happened by accident, because Williams only played in the showpiece game because someone else got injured.
But if Williams thought he would go on to become a trailblazer, he was sadly mistaken.
Within a few months of landing the MVP award in the biggest game of his life, Williams found himself stuck on the bench the following season as the NFL’s status quo proved it was not for turning.
Since 1968, just six more black quarterbacks have made the Super Bowl and only two of them have lifted the Lombardi Trophy, while only 25 black quarterbacks have ever been firstround draft picks.
The worst kept secret in American sport is that it seems the NFL has failed to embrace equality at the highest level.
Not just with quarterbacks, but also with head coaches, owners and those in positions of power.
Indeed, across all of the major US sports leagues there has never been a black chief executive.
Almost 12 months ago NFL commissioner Roger Goodell, the highest paid, non-playing white man in world sport, insisted his league would review its diversity, equality and inclusions policies.
He fired off a league-wide memo to all club executives and presidents, but it had still taken a bombshell lawsuit filed against the NFL by former Miami Dolphins head coach Brian Flores alleging racial discrimination, for Goodell to finally act.
And now a year later, thanks to a combination of good fortune and the incredible skills of Mahomes and Hurts, Goodell will sit in the posh seats of Arizona’s State Farm Stadium to witness something the NFL badly needed, but never appeared to really want.
It will be the equivalent of two black men playing in the Wimbledon final, or going down the stretch in The Open at St Andrews for the Claret Jug.
It will be a sight sports need to see, but never has. And it has arrived just days after the greatest NFL star of them all, Tom Brady, decided to step aside and allow a new generation to be ushered in.
Talk about a sliding doors moment. This is now the chance for widespread change, so future stars can be inspired to play the game in the belief that black men can be the main protagonists after all.
The moment is not lost on Mahomes, who is preparing for his third Super Bowl at the age of just 27.
He said: “It’s special.
“There’s so many great ones that haven’t been recognised because of the stereotype of the black quarterback not being able to have sustained success.
“I’m glad that I’m able to be on this world stage with another quarterback in Jalen that’s able to play at a high level and prove that we’ve been able to do this the whole time.”