Before the kickoff of Super Bowl LVII at 5:30 p.m. Sunday Feb. 12 occurs, I will have become weary of articles, commentaries, “hot takes,” and Stephen A. Smith waxing poetic about Black quarterbacks.
For now, Patrick Mahomes of the Kansas City Chiefs and Jalen Hurts of the Philadelphia Eagles should be celebrated for guiding their respective teams to AFC and NFC championships.
Their talent, grit, determination, and intelligence have taken the football world to a place it has never traveled before: Black quarterbacks will start against each other in the Super Bowl.
As was the case when head coach Tony Dungy’s Indianapolis Colts faced Lovie Smith’s Chicago Bears in the Super Bowl, a Black man is going to win.
This is already driving some people crazy.
Mahomes, playing with a painful high ankle sprain, overcame the loss of three receivers during the dramatic 23-20 victory over the trash-talking Cincinnati Bengals.
He displayed everything you want in an NFL quarterback, passing for 326 yards, two touchdowns and no interceptions. He willed his team to win that game, plain and simple.
Yet, the highest trending hashtag following the game was “NFL rigged.” Apparently, the NFL wanted Mahomes and the Chiefs in the Super Bowl so badly it had the referees cheat against the Bengals. There were questionable calls that went against the visitors but credit should be given where credit has been earned.
Earlier on Sunday, Hurts’ Eagles blasted the San Francisco 49ers 31-7 in the NFC Championship game. From the opening drive, it looked as though the Eagles were the better team. Hurst, an MVP candidate, didn’t come close to a Mahomes’ type performance but he did not have to.
He finished a modest 15 of 25 passing for 121 yards with no turnovers. The Eagles, including to playoff wins, are 14-3. Hurts missed a pair of games with injury, and his record is 12-1.
On Monday morning, several NFL pundits and Twitter experts said Hurts was along for the ride during the championship game and several games during the regular season.
“If 49ers quarterback had not been hurt on the first series of the game…” was the top trending question on the internet among sports fans.
The refs gifted Hurts and the Eagles with a reception on Devonta Smith’s one-handed 29-yard catch on a fourth-and-3 that set up the Eagles’ first touchdown. The Eagles hurriedly ran a play before replay showed the ball came loose when Smith hit the turf.
“The game would have been different if the refs got that call right,” goes a narrative that seems reserved for Black quarterbacks.
The upcoming Super Bowl will give the NFL a chance to trumpet its diversity at the quarterback position. It will also provide cover for its shamefully small number of Black head coaches.
As the late Richard Pryor said during a routine in the late 70s, “Be happy for any Black man doing anything.”
I’m certainly happy that two excellent Black quarterbacks will share football’s biggest stage. They deserve the recognition and the accolades that will come their way. But I wish the game was Sunday, and could be spared 10 days of MSNBC vs. FOX News instead of game discussion.
The Reid Roundup
After taking themselves out of the AFC Championship game with respective injuries, and watching Patrick Mahomes play in intense pain, Kansas City Chiefs wide receivers Kadarius Toney, Juju Smith-Schuster, and Mecole Hardman need to show the same toughness and play in the Super Bowl…Jayson Tatum should have been whistled for a foul and LeBron James should have shot two free throws with four second left in Saturday’s L.A. Lakers at Boston Celtics game. The score was 105-105 when the refs missed the call, and the Celtics prevailed in overtime 125-121. The NBA referees union said a mistake was made and called it “gut wrenching” in a statement…The Houston Astros have hired Dana Brown, previously the Atlanta Braves‘ vice president of scouting, as their new general manager. Brown becomes Major League Baseball’s only Black GM…NBC NFL analyst and Hall of Fame member Tony Dungy is facing heavy criticism for a recent tweet including the absurd claim debunked claim that some schools are putting “litter boxes in the school bathrooms for students who identify as cats.” He later deleted the tweet and issued an apology. Dungy’s anti-LGBTQ statements from years past have also come up this week.
