By NICK DERISO
The (Monroe, La.) News-Star

"The significance," said Doug Williams, "stands out more than it did 15 years ago." Less than six minutes of game clock had elapsed under the San Diego skies. Washington, once down by 10 to Denver, had run just 18 second-quarter plays - but scored 35 unanswered points.

Game over. The Redskins, powered by that offensive outburst from an African-American quarterback, would go on to win, 42-10. Williams was named the game's Most Valuable Player.

Remembered today as a moment of redemption for black signal callers, Williams' California dream was made possible with a down payment by local hero James "Shack" Harris - the first African American to start at quarterback in the NFL.

But Williams, in one of the countless interviews he gave as the anniversary loomed this week, said you couldn't call that day a dream. It's not that simple.

With dreams, he said, you'd have to at least visualize that such an eye-popping opportunity could happen for an African-American.

The legendary figure who coached both Harris and Williams at Grambling State University has a different idea about the historical significance of it all.

"The thing we are most proud of is that they graduated from college," says Eddie Robinson, who was succeeded as Grambling coach by Williams.

They took that piece of paper into a league locked up tight with misconceptions about an African-American's ability to master the complex strategies of an NFL offense.

Harris cracked the door with his Pro Bowl MVP performance in 1975. Williams knocked the thing off its hinges that day in 1988.

The record books relate Williams' four touchdown passes - in one quarter of play. He also set a new mark for passing yards in the Super Bowl. It was, then, Williams' personal redemption too - after years of struggles in his first job at Tampa Bay, then a stint in the now-defunct USFL, and finally getting back to the NFL only as a backup the now-forgotten Jay Schroeder at Washington.

Robinson, who was in San Diego that day, went down on the field to remind Williams of the support he always had back home.

"I talked to him a long time after the game," says Robinson. "I told him how proud the people were - in our community and our churches."

The Super Bowl returns to the site of Williams' greatest glory on Sunday. Moreover, we find Tampa - the expansion team that drafted Williams, after opening with a 2-26 record - finally playing in its first championship game.

(Williams picks his old team to win, saying they have "more heart. It's about the way they play and how they play the game.")

But the Buccaneers' success is the least of what has changed in this league since Williams was forced into retirement by a bad back.

This year's playoffs included not one black quarterback struggling against years of wrong-headed assumptions, but three (Michael Vick, Donavon McNabb and Steve McNair) who are routinely accepted as league superstars. African Americans are regularly seen under center - including the Saints' Aaron Brooks.

Then there's Harris, who was named vice president of player personnel for the Jacksonville Jaguars on Thursday. Williams praised the Monroe native this week, saying: "I would line up Shack's football mind with that of anybody in the league."

Harris had been pro personnel director for Baltimore since 1997, a stint that included the Ravens' 2000 championship season.

"It makes you feel really fine that they can go out and do those kind of things," says Robinson - who retired as the first football coach to notch more than 400 victories. "It just makes you know what our school can do - and what our students can do."

Tellingly, Williams says his sense of the importance of that Super Bowl win continues to grow. He says strangers still stop to talk about what it meant to blacks. Seeing it through his children's eyes also gives Williams a clearer perspective than even the passage of time did.

Meaningful history will do that.

"I can enjoy the fact that my kids can watch what happened and say: 'My daddy accomplished this and that,' " Williams says. "I wasn't to the point that I could realize 15 years ago what a great, great feat it was."

Turns out, the revolution in football was, in fact, televised. And on Super Bowl Sunday, no less.

Return to Bengals front page...