Super Bowl LVII was a momentous occasion for multiple reasons. The great Patrick Mahomes entered the history books for a quarterback his age, Jalen Hurts displayed his superb rising stock on the biggest stage and the Kansas City Chiefs cemented their place as the NFL’s next dynasty with a 38-35 win over the Philadelphia Eagles.
But it was also a historic moment for much more than that as it was the first Super Bowl in which two Black quarterbacks faced off. For a league where the majority of the players are Black, it was a sign of the on-field progression which has been made over recent years.
A day after Mahomes became the first Black quarterback to win multiple Super Bowl titles and almost exactly 35 years after Doug Williams became the first Black quarterback to start and win a Super Bowl, the 27-year-old superstar spoke about coming head-to-head with Hurts and possibly inspiring those to come.
“It was a special moment. I was glad that the game went the way it went, even though it made me a little nervous at the end,” Mahomes told CNN’s Jake Tapper. “But Jalen played his tail off, man. All respect to him.
“It showed that the Black quarterback, like we’ve always been able to do, can go out and have success on the world stage in the biggest game of them all. We’re standing on the shoulders of Doug Williams, Warren Moon, Shack Harris, all these greats and the guys that didn’t get the chances, they gave us this platform, and hopefully, we can inspire some kids to follow their dream and be a quarterback in the future whenever we’re sitting on the couch watching the Super Bowl.”
