Customer Reviews

Third and a Mile: From Fritz Pollard to Michael Vick--an Oral History of the Trials, Tears and Triumphs of the Black Quarterback

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3 star:		(1)
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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.

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.

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.

As a child growing up in the late 60's early 70's, I rarely saw a BLAK quarterback until James Harris of the LA Rams, Joe Gilliam on television. I always wondered why we were not playing the position since we had/have historically BLAK colleges and universities that were quarterbacked by extremely competent young men. As an alumunus of a BLAK university, I salute the authors research ability at tackling a very tough subject, focusng on only on the NFL and notinclusive of the CFL.

Just as it took america to get to the current place of a culturally intergrated republic several hundred years and it's growing pains, the BLAK quarterback is corrolationally eperiencing those same growth pains as we see in the NFL today. Excellent information for the young person coming up in high school to know what was in order to know what to do to succeed in a non post-racial society.

Great read and always enjoy reading Bill Rhoden's material! I enjoyed it almost as much at 40 million dollar slave. This has more focus primarily and that is the black quarterback in college and pro. Where as the other book ranged from all different kinds of sports from boxing, to jockeying. I learned about who Sandy Stephens was and a few other great players. I thought the 1993 college year could have been mentioned with the top 3 teams had black quarterbacks who didn't go pro and the great quarterback Tommy Fraizer 3 nation championship game MVP's. Charlie Ward's Heisman and a few others could have been mentioned. It's still amazing listening to the media give their slant on the black quarterback even after all these years. I also thought more could have been written about Randal Cunningham, but overall another 5 star well written book. I loved the way it's organized also.

Not too short and not too long. detailed and specific. it makes sense, informative, and entertaining.

Third and a Mile is a great book. I recommend this book to ANY sports fan!

I don't know how often I'm going to be typing that line "and a bit pricey," but a pre-discount price of $25 for a large-type book coming in at just over 200 pages is a bit pricey.

That said, Rhoden writes a generally good book about the history of black quarterbacks, in the NCAA and NFL both.

What's missing, though, is more of the post-retirement retrospectives on how black quarterbacks could, or couldn't, let go of the pressure, the taunts, etc. Also missing is assessment of the black quarterbacks of the last few years and their opinions on where the league is at, even if they needed to speak anonymously.

I'm hardly a football connoisseur by any stretch of the imagination, however THIRD AND A MILE is written in such a manner that captivates the reader from start to finish. As a passerby of sports, just having heard the great names such as Warren Moon and Doug Williams, my interest was initially peaked to see what this book was about. Challenged by an avid sports fan to try it because I might like it, I opened the book with a bit of hesitation. Lo and behold, not only did I like THIRD AND A MILE, I can actually say I enjoyed it. This book is written in an easy, conversant manner that flows. Various sports personalities, both African-American and Caucasian and everyone in between from back in the day to the present moment, were interviewed regarding their personal perspective on the challenges faced by Black Quarterbacks in the NFL.

This book initiated by a group of football greats known as the `Field Generals'. These legendary men are Marlin Briscoe, Doug Williams, James Harris and Warren Moon. Not only does the book highlight the struggles of the Field General's rise to prestigious ranks, it also reaches through the annals of time back to when Frederick "Fritz" Pollard led the Akron Pros to a national championship in 1921. Later, he was the league's first African-American coach.

THIRD AND A MILE is an enjoyable, enlightening read because it is a historical piece that is knowledge-filled and chronicles important moments in history, and not just African-American history. Just because Doug Williams was named Super Bowl XXII's MVP in 1988, his extraordinary accomplishments on the field combined with his overall sense of poise regardless of his situation, led him to be admired and recognized as premier athlete of his time. Let's not forget as recently as 2006, when Warren Moon was the first African-American quarterback inducted into the NFL Hall of Fame. THIRD AND A MILE is loaded with information that these comments only capture a few of the highlights the book provides. Overall, the book is a reminder of the seemingly insurmountable odds these men had to endure by mere consequence of their skin color. Regardless if you're a sports fan, a history buff or just looking for a good read, this book offers a historical perspective that is interesting and well-written.

Reviewed by Nedine
of The RAWSISTAZ Reviewers

A nice compilation of stories & comments illustrating the challenges of becoming a black QB in the NFL over the last several decades.

The Civil War may have earned blacks their "freedom" in the US, but it didn't seem to earn them any respect. 100 years later (5 generations!!!) they were still viewed as 2nd class citizens by many. As black athletes have been able to prove their worth on the athletic field, they demonstrate that they "have what it takes" to succeed elsewhere in life. Sports have helped blacks gain the respect they deserve, however slowly.

I grew up during the period covered by this book. Typically, I found myself cheering for black QBs who were obviously the superior players, but often weren't getting the chance to prove it. But coaches want to keep their jobs, which means they have to WIN. This leads ultimately to more playing time for talented black QBs. Call it evolution if you will.