History: Baltimore Ravens believe they are first NFL team with all-Black quarterback room
The picture could represent history because it shows something the NFL has likely never witnessed before.
In the picture, seen above, are five men, all members of the Baltimore Ravens. They are assistant quarterbacks coach Kerry Dixon, quarterback Tyler Huntley, quarterback Lamar Jackson (maybe you've heard of him), quarterback Josh Johnson, and quarterbacks coach Tee Martin.
Why is this photo, and moment, so important? It's because the Ravens say this group is the first all-Black quarterback room in league history.
It's difficult to tell exactly if what the Ravens are saying is accurate but it's highly probable it is. Why? For so long, NFL teams refused to roster Black quarterbacks, or hire Black quarterback coaches. The reason the Ravens are likely correct is because of those sheer numbers. Racism in the NFL would have prevented a previous all-Black quarterback room.
How much do NFL players care about their Madden rating? A lot, actually.
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Thus as the NFL season begins and we do silly things like make our Super Bowl picks and set our fantasy rosters, we should take a second to appreciate this serious moment, because it represents tremendous progress.
"We definitely are standing on the shoulders of people in the past," said Martin. "I do think it’s a step forward for people like us, but we’ve got to do a good job."
And remember how we're defining quarterback room. It's the way teams (including the Ravens) have defined it for decades. It's namely players and positional coaches. The literal picture the Ravens provided is their quarterback room. Notice there's no coordinator or head coach pictured.
Much of the credit for the historic room goes to coach John Harbaugh. He was one of the few NFL coaches who saw the true potential of Jackson and gave him the freedom to become one of the most explosive players in the sport. He's also the person who has two Black quarterback coaches on his staff. That doesn't happen by accident.
The league has traditionally shunned Black quarterbacks because of the racist belief that they weren't smart enough to run an offense.
Black quarterback coaches were also discriminated against for essentially the same reason. That's still happening.
"That’s what you might call positional segregation," Cyrus Mehri, co-founder of the Fritz Pollard Alliance, a nonprofit organization that champions diversity in the NFL, told USA TODAY Sports in 2022.
"Just as we had a long march for breaking barriers on the field, breaking through with the 'thinking person' positions, we’re still seeing coaching segregation," he said.
The landscape is still not good for Black coaches. As the Ravens show it's getting better but it's still not good.
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"Let me say that a few years ago there was two Black coaches who led their team to the Super Bowl: Tony Dungy and Lovie Smith," Doug Williams, the first Black quarterback to start in a Super Bowl, told NPR. "At that particular time, I really thought that the league would have looked at that from a standpoint and said, 'You know what? We need to get more Black coaches who can lead our team, because they certainly led their team.' But it didn't happen the way I thought it would happen …"
The landscape for the quarterbacks themselves is also shifting (slowly). Some of the game's biggest stars now are Black quarterbacks. Kansas City's Patrick Mahomes and Philadelphia's Jalen Hurts represented the first time there were two Black starting quarterbacks in Super Bowl history.
What's also fascinating about the Ravens' quarterback room is how so many of the people in it come from different places but with similar life experiences. Huntley was once mocked on social media in what was a racist post that went partly viral, leading to the NAACP, teammates and even Huntley's mom publicly defending him.
Bill Polian, a former general manager, said that Jackson should switch from quarterback to wide receiver. Josh Johnson once talked about the impact of race on him both as a Black man and a Black quarterback. Martin, a former quarterback at Tennessee and in the NFL, once spoke about the importance of Black role models.
"I wanted to make sure as a Black quarterback I represented my community well both on and off the field and in the classroom. I knew young people were looking up to me and I had something to prove, for myself and for them," Martin said in 2019.
Now, they are all here, in this moment. An historic one.