5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A Defining Piece Of Pro Football History, January 22, 2007
This review is from: Third and a Mile: From Fritz Pollard to Michael Vick--an Oral History of the Trials, Tears and Triumphs of the Black Quarterback (Hardcover)
With all the hype that will now surround the Super Bowl, I urge you to take a step back from it all and read this important oral history that was compiled by author William C. Rhoden.
From Fritz Pollard to Willie Totten, Willie Thrower and Marlin Briscoe, to Leon Jackson III and Marvin Burroughs, more than 80 individuals - players & their family members, coaches and media members - are interviewed for this comprehensive exploration in the grudging acceptance of the black quarterback in professional football. Racism has had no out-of-bounds line in America's Game.
The text is built around the recollections of The Field Generals - James Harris, Marlin Briscoe, Doug Williams and Warren Moon - who started a non-profit organization dedicated to teaching and preserving the history of the black quarterback.
From a 1971 comment from Fran Tarkenton - an Al Campanis-styled look at the quarterback's "evolutionary" role on a team - to a hateful comment by Otto Graham to one outstanding collegiate quarterback, the sordid past and present is shown as it really was then and the ugly games that are still being played today.
Let us not forget the pre-draft smear campaign waged last year against Vince Young on his allegedly not testing well on an exam used by NFL teams to determine if a player has "what it takes" to lead a team at quarterback.
Particularly interesting are the lists that contain the collegiate Division I lettermen quarterbacks through 2006 and every quarterback who attempted at least eight passes in the NFL and AFL.
Like all the major sports, the NFL has been reluctant to admit its full culpability in the institutionalized practice of racism on and off the field. Third And A Mile is a real defining history of pro football and shows yet again how sports is a mirror-image of society not only in its practice of racism, but how attempts to conveniently forget the past means it will remain stuck in the morass of hate in the present & future.
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
History that's more than worth knowing, February 4, 2007
This review is from: Third and a Mile: From Fritz Pollard to Michael Vick--an Oral History of the Trials, Tears and Triumphs of the Black Quarterback (Hardcover)
Hear about the battles fought straight from the warriors themselves. Rhoden provides intellectual narrative while the players and their teammates, coaches, and peers provide insight into what was once a very dark world for the African American quarterback.
Read about what happened to Joe Gilliam after he was denied the opportunity to continue starting at QB, about Doug Williams big day in Super Bowl XXII, about the effects the trials left on these men, and the harsh words that fans and even highly regarded players had to say against the idea of an African American playing the central position on the football field.
Easy to read, hard to stomach. Next time you see Donovan McNabb or Vince Young out on the field, think about those who came before them and appreciate what they went through to give their successors an even field and a fresh set of downs.
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6 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
A very ambitious project, but misses quite a bit in several respects..., March 29, 2007
This review is from: Third and a Mile: From Fritz Pollard to Michael Vick--an Oral History of the Trials, Tears and Triumphs of the Black Quarterback (Hardcover)
Either the author, the respected W. Rhoden is
completely ignorant of the Canadian Football
League (which has black QBs since the 1940's)
and the Arena Football League or he's just
plain lazy with his research. [...]the NFL pages to see what
he missed. I have always considered the black
QBs that I have seen, as well in many other
non-NFL leagues to be every bit the equal of
the much more hyped NFL ones. Example: Rhoden
completly missed that Willie Thrower of the
Chicago Bears played in the CFL first. The
only thing that Rhoden mentions,or his'guest'
authors, RE: the older CFL (it predates the
the NFL by 11 years!), is of course Warren
Moon, though Chuck Ealey, who helped Hamilton
win the 1972 Grey Cup, thus becoming the 1st
black QB to win a Pro Football League Champ-
ionship, gets to chirp in on several spots
of commentary, which I was glad to see. Joe
Gilliam, Sr., plain and simply a black racist
(note his idiotic remarks v. Terry Bradshaw,
one of the greatest QBs of alltime - 4-0 in
Super Bowls), is the low point. Hey Joe, Sr.,
your son Joe,Jr. was lousy and a drugee,that's
why he croaked at age 50! Rhoden missed a bunch
of fine black QBs like Johnny Walton, Eagles,
Rams, USFL and WFL was a star that deserved a
lot more than just being on the list for his
Eagles days. Rhoden is emblimatic of the brain-
washed "The NFL is God" among the Pro Football
Leagues mindset which is why he doesn't get into
the other Pro Leagues that never thought black
QBs were only just 'athletic' and had no other
good QBing traits. I would rate the book, des-
pite the fine vintage pics of even Fritz Pollard
[half black / half german], as a B-/C+ book. It
could have been better with CFL/Ar.FL coverage
but this ambitious project is still timely and
overdue. Kudos to Rhoden, though I could have
done better. I was about to undertake such a
project once also, despite the fact that I
am not black, but I don't look at QBs as 'black-
QBs' or other-type-QBs.
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