Tag: Reporter Bob Kravitz

Washington quarterback Doug Williams made history 35 years ago

Remember the question Doug Williams was asked ahead of Super Bowl XXII?

Remember during Super Bowl week when Washington QB Doug Williams was asked by a reporter, “How long have you been a black quarterback?”

It was Jan. 1988, and Washington had defeated the higher-seeded Chicago Bears in freezing Soldier Field, then came home to RFK, beating the Vikings to advance to Super Bowl XXII.

That week, Doug Williams was hit with a plethora of questions regarding his being the first black quarterback in a Super Bowl.

But the one question we continue to hear about to this day was, “How long have you been a black quarterback?” Williams himself, to this day, has commented on it many times.

Yet, strangely, this actually never happened.

That’s right, Doug Williams was not actually asked by that reporter, “How long have you been a black quarterback.”

Andy Pollin was working at SB XXII and he too confirmed again this week, as a guest on the Kevin Sheehan podcast that it indeed did not occur the way most often expressed for three decades.

Also the first source I ever found on this story told it this way.

Butch John, a reporter for the Jackson Clarion-Ledger was heard by Bob Kravitz, a reporter for the Rocky Mountain News to have asked Willliams, “Doug, obviously you’ve been a black quarterback your whole life. When did race begin to matter to people?”

Williams, in the front of the room, apparently misunderstood the question because he replied with his own question to the room, “How long have I been a black quarterback?” Before the week was completed, it had been reported all over the country as a fact but was not a fact.

Williams got it wrong that day regarding what he was asked, but Washington fans can enjoy recalling that he certainly had a great Super Bowl XXII and was voted the MVP in Washington’s 42-10 romp over the Denver Broncos.

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