And for all of you saying Russell isn't black, read this statement.
http://articles.philly.com/2014-01-31/sports/46874097_1_russell-wilson-super-bowl-xlv-doug-williams
NEW YORK - Nine years ago in Jacksonville, an African-American quarterback started for a Super Bowl team, marking only the third time that had happened in 39 Super Bowls. It was a big deal.
Doug Williams - still the only African-American QB to win the NFL championship - talked then about how he was pulling for the Eagles' Donovan McNabb, at a Super Bowl week meeting of The Field Generals, a group Williams founded to preserve the legacy of early black quarterbacks. That week, McNabb recalled being 11 years old and watching Williams win with the Redskins, McNabb realizing then that he, too, could quarterback a Super Bowl team, he said.
This Sunday, Russell Wilson, the great-great grandson of a slave, will quarterback the Seahawks in Super Bowl XLVIII, and nobody much cares, it seems, or notices.
"It will be known, if he wins," McNabb predicted yesterday from his NBC Sports seat along radio row in the Super Bowl media center. McNabb said he spoke with Wilson about that very fact a few days ago, but McNabb agreed the matter is not as relevant to society as a whole as it was in 2005, or in 2000 when the late Steve McNair quarterbacked the Tennessee Titans to the brink of Super Bowl XXXIV victory, and certainly not as relevant as in 1988, when Williams made history.
It does matter to Wilson, the Seahawks' second-year QB said yesterday.
"I don't know if people notice it as much anymore or not. It is something that's real, though," said Wilson, who also is of Native American ancestry. "
I used to hear so many stories from my grandfather - my grandfather was president of [historically black] Norfolk State for a long time, which was rare. My dad graduated from Dartmouth, went to [University of Virginia] law school, graduated as president of his class. During those times, being African-American, that was hard to do. That was rare.
"It's becoming less rare to be an African-American quarterback in the National Football League, which is changing the game in a way, which is awesome. I want to be one of the African-American quarterbacks to win. That's a real thing, that's a good thing - to let different ethnicities know that it doesn't matter what you look like, as long as you believe in yourself and put the work in, most of all, and take advantage of your opportunity."
Black excellence. I salute my nikka Russell Wilson.
