Opinion: Don't know Marlin Briscoe? Too bad. You owe him if you're an NFL fan
He played 11 games, started five and threw 14 touchdown passes, a Broncos rookie record. But in the offseason, the Broncos held quarterback meetings without him. He was eventually traded to Buffalo in the offseason, where he was switched to wide receiver.
Briscoe never played quarterback again.
It will always be a sore spot, but he recognizes his role in history. Every football fan in America should recognize his role in history.
He was able to make progress that eluded Wilburn Hollis and Onree Jackson and Eldridge Dickey.
“Born too soon,” Harris said of all of them.
Briscoe played well enough in 1968 that Harris was drafted in 1969. Five years later, with the L.A. Rams, Harris became the first black starter to win a playoff game. A little more than a decade later, the team he beat, Washington, won a Super Bowl with Doug Williams.
Today, the NFL has Kyler Murray, Lamar Jackson, Dak Prescott, Deshaun Watson, Jacoby Brissett, Patrick Mahomes, Russell Wilson, Jameis Winston and Dwayne Haskins.
Briscoe got it all started.
“We all came from different generational situations,” Briscoe said. “One influences the other until we get to this point.”
You owe Marlin Briscoe.
ASU’s Jayden Daniels embodies football’s acceptance of black quarterbacks
Jayden Daniels and Dwayne Haskins leaned back against the couch that was situated on the right side of the stage inside the Phoenix Art Museum.
The two young quarterbacks — Daniels became Arizona State’s starter as a true freshman last season, Haskins was the Washington Redskins’ first-round pick in the 2019 draft — had met earlier in the day and clicked immediately, Daniels said. Now they sat silently, listening to the four men to their left: Marlin Briscoe, James “Shack” Harris, Warren Moon and Doug Williams.
For two hours Thursday night, as part of the Journey of the Black Quarterback symposium put on by Arizona State’s Global Sport Institute, the men talked about the opportunities they were denied and the racism they encountered as black NFL quarterbacks.
Don't know Marlin Briscoe? Too bad. You owe him if you're an NFL fan.
You owe Marlin Briscoe. Especially if you’re a fan of the Arizona Cardinals, the Baltimore Ravens, the Dallas Cowboys, the Houston Texans, the Indianapolis Colts, the Kansas City Chiefs, the Seattle Seahawks, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers or that team in Washington.
Or if in the last 50 years you’ve rooted for the Atlanta Falcons, the Buffalo Bills, the Carolina Panthers, the Chicago Bears, the Cincinnati Bengals, the Cleveland Browns, the Denver Broncos , the Detroit Lions, the Green Bay Packers, the Jacksonville Jaguars, the L.A. Rams, the L.A. Chargers, the Miami Dolphins, the Minnesota Vikings, the New Orleans Saints, the New York Giants, the New York Jets, the Philadelphia Eagles, the Pittsburgh Steelers, the San Francisco 49ers, the Tennessee Titans, the Houston Oilers or the wherever-they’re-from-now Raiders.