Black History Month will again feature a starting Black quarterback in the Super Bowl on Sunday Feb. 11, 2024.
Barring injury, Patrick Mahomes of the Kansas City Chiefs and Baltimore Ravens QB Lamar Jackson guaranteed this by leading their teams to respective wins in AFC Divisional Playoff games.
Mahomes was masterful in the Chiefs’ 27-24 win on the road at Buffalo. In his first true playoff game away from Arrowhead Stadium in Kansas City, he connected on 17 of 23 passes for 215 yards, and two TD passes to Travis Kelce.
Following the win, Mahomes immediately paid respect to Jackson and the Ravens, who will host the AFC Championship game at 2:30 p.m. Sunday.
“It’s going to take our best effort. Defense, offense, special teams, they do it all. It’s always a great challenge and that stadium’s going to be rocking, so we’re excited for the challenge,” said Mahomes.
While the Chiefs-Bills game came down to a Bills’ missed field goal late in the fourth quarter, Jackson and the Ravens dominated the second half to rack up a victory over the upstart Houston Texans
With the teams knotted at 10-10 after two quarters, Jackson lit into his team with “a lot of cursing” at halftime. The Ravens responded by shutting down Texans’ rookie Black QB CJ Stroud and cruising to a 34-10 victory.
“We was rusty [after a two-week layoff], it was windy, it was cold, everything played a factor. We came out in the second half, and we did what we were supposed to do, put points on the board,” Jackson said following the game.
Jackson, favored to be named the NFL’s Most Valuable Player, certainly was the most valuable in the win over the Texans.
Jackson completed 16 of 22 passes for 152 yards and two touchdowns. He also rushed for 100 yards and two touchdowns on 11 carries.
He noted that Mahomes and the Chiefs are the only things on his mind heading into Sunday’s showdown, not his first trip to the Super Bowl.
“We got to finish, not in the dance yet. But I’m looking forward to next week to be honest. I’m not even thinking about [the] Super Bowl until we handle business,” he said.
This will be the first matchup between Mahomes and Jackson in the postseason.
The Ravens topped the Chiefs 36-35 in Baltimore on September 19, 2021, but faltered early in the playoffs that season while the Chiefs progressed to the AFC Championship game and lost to Cincinnati.
Mahomes has a 3-1 career record against the Ravens, and his playoff record far exceeds Jackson’s, who is 2-3 in the playoffs following last Saturday’s win.
Kansas City or Baltimore fans will be bitterly disappointed should their respective team lose. But as a fan of Black quarterbacks, the contest is a win-win situation.
The Reid Roundup
Green Bay Packers quarterback Jordan Love threw an ill-advised pas that resulted in a game-clinching interception for the host San Francisco 49ers in a 24-21 playoff win on Saturday. He finished 21-of-34 passing for 194 yards with two touchdowns and two interceptions. He called the pass “a mortal sin.” …The NFL has a pair of new Black head coaches. The New England Patriots tabbed assistant coach Jerod Mayo to take over for the departed Bill Belichick and the Las Vegas Raiders removed the ‘interim’ for Antonio Pierce’s title. The hires bring the number of NFL Black head coaches to four, and six positions remained open as of Tuesday morning…Mayo didn’t shy from the fact he is the first Black head coach in his franchise’s history. “You want your locker room to be pretty diverse, and you want the world to look like that. I do see color because I believe if you don’t see color, you can’t see racism,” Mayo said…Coco Gauff progressed with ease at the Australian Open, the first WTA Grand Slam event since Gauff won the U.S. Open in September, until her quarterfinal match on Monday. She dropped her first set of the tournament but held off Marta Kostyuk of Ukraine to reach the semifinal round…Are the St. Louis Cardinals so desperate to sell tickets or appease fans that they re-signed Matt Carpenter?
