Super Bowl XXII MVP praises Chiefs’ Patrick Mahomes for speaking out on racial justice
Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes fielded a number of questions from reporters in the days leading to Super Bowl LIV, but one subject was never mentioned.
Being a black quarterback in the NFL’s biggest game of the year.
Thirty-two years earlier, Washington quarterback Doug Williams heard that question repeatedly before Super Bowl XXII. That’s because he was the first African American to start at quarterback.
“I knew it was history-making,” Williams told the Denver Post in 2018. “But for me, I couldn’t look at it that way. Everybody else was making a big deal out of it, but I had to look at it as, ‘What is best for (my team).’ ”
Any doubts that a black man could play quarterback on the biggest stage was dispelled by Williams, who was the MVP of Super Bowl XXII as Washington obliterated the Denver Broncos 42-10.
Remember when Mahomes threw four touchdown passes in the second quarter against the Raiders last September? Williams did the very same thing against the Broncos on that day in 1988.
As a trailblazer in the NFL, Williams was impressed to see what Mahomes did last week.
The Undefeated’s Jason Reid wrote a story headlined, “The Power of Patrick Mahomes saying ‘Black Lives Matter.’” In that piece, Williams said Mahomes’ participation was “powerful.”
“Let me tell you something … that (Mahomes’ involvement) was huge,” Williams told Reid. “We’re not talking about a 15-year veteran. We’re talking about a young man who’s not even 25. He has been the MVP of this league. He has won a Super Bowl. Just right there, he’s already made an incredible impact in this league.
“Then he goes and does this (participates in the video) at this time. With all these young people out here marching in the streets and demanding change, it’s a different time right now. You see that there are so many young people leading. It says a lot that he wanted to be involved in pushing for that change. It was very powerful.”
Here is the video with Mahomes and other African American NFL stars.
