The Commish
youknowhatimsayin?
As Moon walks to podium, think of those who never got chance
Aug. 3, 2006
By Gregg Doyel
CBS SportsLine.com National Columnist
As always, this year's Pro Football Hall of Fame induction is a time for celebration. Six men are being enshrined, and so forth and so on, so you go ahead and watch the ceremony on Saturday and see their happy tears. You join them. Get sappy. Be happy.
Me? I'm ticked off.
I'm looking at 2006 Hall of Fame inductee Warren Moon, but I'm thinking about Tony Dungy and Eldridge Dickey.
Before he became one of the top coaches in the NFL, Dungy played three seasons as an NFL defensive back. Before that he was a college quarterback who broke nearly every passing record at the University of Minnesota. When he graduated in 1976, he was No. 4 in the Big Ten for career total offense. That's a pretty good league, the Big Ten.
Maybe Dungy wouldn't have become the next -- or rather, the first -- Warren Moon. But definitely Dungy was robbed, and we were robbed with him, of the chance to find out.
The year 1977 was no time to be a black quarterback with aspirations of playing at the highest level. To that point, exactly one black quarterback had ever been drafted in the first round; the AFL's Oakland Raiders took that man, Eldridge Dickey, in 1968 with the intent of switching him to receiver.
You've never heard of Eldridge Dickey. He was an All-American at Tennessee State with then-perfect size for an NFL quarterback: 6-feet-2, 200 pounds. Those who saw him say he could run and throw as well as the white quarterback Oakland took in the second round in 1968. We'll never know. Dickey played parts of just two seasons with Oakland, never at quarterback, and then was gone. He died of a stroke in 2000. He was a minister. In college his nickname was "The Lord's Prayer."
The white quarterback the Raiders took in the second round in 1968 was Ken Stabler. He could run, too, but he wasn't drafted to play anything but quarterback. Stabler would play 15 seasons in the NFL. He went to four Pro Bowls. His nickname was "The Snake."
We'll never know what kind of NFL quarterback Eldridge Dickey or Tony Dungy could have become because the white men who ran the NFL didn't want to find out. Hell, the same thing almost happened to Moon. If not for his world-class stubbornness, nobody would be celebrating his Hall of Fame career this weekend in Canton, Ohio.
Moon put up gaudy passing numbers out of high school in Los Angeles, but no Division I school wanted him unless he would switch positions. Washington is credited with being the first school to offer him a scholarship at quarterback, but the Huskies didn't make that offer until the following year, after he'd thrown for mass acreage at West Los Angeles Junior College. Moon rewarded the Huskies by leading them to their first Rose Bowl in 15 years.
The NFL rewarded Moon by ignoring him. The draft had 12 rounds in 1978. All told, 334 players were picked. Not Moon. In the weeks leading up to the draft, several teams told Moon they would draft him if he would switch positions.
Understand the subconscious bigotry in that request. When Dungy was moved to safety, NFL people told him he had the athletic ability and smarts to play quarterback, but lacked the arm. Fine. But then along comes Warren Moon, with more arm strength and athletic ability than most NFL quarterbacks. So what was missing? The smarts? And on what did NFL teams base that decision? The color of his skin?
Moon knew better. He went to Canada, where he threw for more than 21,000 yards and 144 touchdowns in six years, winning five Grey Cups.
The NFL relented. It was 1984. Doug Williams was in the USFL, but before that he had led the Bucs to the playoffs. Vince Evans also was in the USFL, but he too had been playing at a high level in the NFL. UNLV quarterback Randall Cunningham was a year away from entering the league. The NFL was starting to come around.
From 1984-2000 Moon threw for 49,325 yards and 291 touchdowns in the NFL, No. 3 and No. 4 all-time when he retired. He made eight straight Pro Bowls, a quarterback record. His nine 3,000-yard passing seasons were third all time. All of that, despite being denied a huge chunk of his NFL career.
In baseball that happened to Joe DiMaggio, Ted Williams and Bob Feller, Hall of Famers who lost years of their prime to World War II or the Korean War. The difference, of course, is that DiMaggio and Co. lost years while fighting for their country. Moon lost years of his NFL prime while fighting -- by putting up black-and-white numbers in the CFL -- for racial equality.
The fight's over. Huge, athletic Vince Young wasn't asked to switch positions by the University of Texas, nor by the Tennessee Titans before going No. 3 in the 2006 draft. Young will play in the NFL, and he will play quarterback, and at some point this season he'll probably start. So will several other black quarterbacks around the league.
Indeed, the fight's over. Warren Moon won. To the NFL's betterment.
But Tony Dungy, Eldridge Dickey and scores of others lost. To the NFL's shame.
http://cbs.sportsline.com/columns/story/9583414/1
Aug. 3, 2006
By Gregg Doyel
CBS SportsLine.com National Columnist
As always, this year's Pro Football Hall of Fame induction is a time for celebration. Six men are being enshrined, and so forth and so on, so you go ahead and watch the ceremony on Saturday and see their happy tears. You join them. Get sappy. Be happy.
Me? I'm ticked off.
I'm looking at 2006 Hall of Fame inductee Warren Moon, but I'm thinking about Tony Dungy and Eldridge Dickey.
Before he became one of the top coaches in the NFL, Dungy played three seasons as an NFL defensive back. Before that he was a college quarterback who broke nearly every passing record at the University of Minnesota. When he graduated in 1976, he was No. 4 in the Big Ten for career total offense. That's a pretty good league, the Big Ten.
Maybe Dungy wouldn't have become the next -- or rather, the first -- Warren Moon. But definitely Dungy was robbed, and we were robbed with him, of the chance to find out.
The year 1977 was no time to be a black quarterback with aspirations of playing at the highest level. To that point, exactly one black quarterback had ever been drafted in the first round; the AFL's Oakland Raiders took that man, Eldridge Dickey, in 1968 with the intent of switching him to receiver.
You've never heard of Eldridge Dickey. He was an All-American at Tennessee State with then-perfect size for an NFL quarterback: 6-feet-2, 200 pounds. Those who saw him say he could run and throw as well as the white quarterback Oakland took in the second round in 1968. We'll never know. Dickey played parts of just two seasons with Oakland, never at quarterback, and then was gone. He died of a stroke in 2000. He was a minister. In college his nickname was "The Lord's Prayer."
The white quarterback the Raiders took in the second round in 1968 was Ken Stabler. He could run, too, but he wasn't drafted to play anything but quarterback. Stabler would play 15 seasons in the NFL. He went to four Pro Bowls. His nickname was "The Snake."
We'll never know what kind of NFL quarterback Eldridge Dickey or Tony Dungy could have become because the white men who ran the NFL didn't want to find out. Hell, the same thing almost happened to Moon. If not for his world-class stubbornness, nobody would be celebrating his Hall of Fame career this weekend in Canton, Ohio.
Moon put up gaudy passing numbers out of high school in Los Angeles, but no Division I school wanted him unless he would switch positions. Washington is credited with being the first school to offer him a scholarship at quarterback, but the Huskies didn't make that offer until the following year, after he'd thrown for mass acreage at West Los Angeles Junior College. Moon rewarded the Huskies by leading them to their first Rose Bowl in 15 years.
The NFL rewarded Moon by ignoring him. The draft had 12 rounds in 1978. All told, 334 players were picked. Not Moon. In the weeks leading up to the draft, several teams told Moon they would draft him if he would switch positions.
Understand the subconscious bigotry in that request. When Dungy was moved to safety, NFL people told him he had the athletic ability and smarts to play quarterback, but lacked the arm. Fine. But then along comes Warren Moon, with more arm strength and athletic ability than most NFL quarterbacks. So what was missing? The smarts? And on what did NFL teams base that decision? The color of his skin?
Moon knew better. He went to Canada, where he threw for more than 21,000 yards and 144 touchdowns in six years, winning five Grey Cups.
The NFL relented. It was 1984. Doug Williams was in the USFL, but before that he had led the Bucs to the playoffs. Vince Evans also was in the USFL, but he too had been playing at a high level in the NFL. UNLV quarterback Randall Cunningham was a year away from entering the league. The NFL was starting to come around.
From 1984-2000 Moon threw for 49,325 yards and 291 touchdowns in the NFL, No. 3 and No. 4 all-time when he retired. He made eight straight Pro Bowls, a quarterback record. His nine 3,000-yard passing seasons were third all time. All of that, despite being denied a huge chunk of his NFL career.
In baseball that happened to Joe DiMaggio, Ted Williams and Bob Feller, Hall of Famers who lost years of their prime to World War II or the Korean War. The difference, of course, is that DiMaggio and Co. lost years while fighting for their country. Moon lost years of his NFL prime while fighting -- by putting up black-and-white numbers in the CFL -- for racial equality.
The fight's over. Huge, athletic Vince Young wasn't asked to switch positions by the University of Texas, nor by the Tennessee Titans before going No. 3 in the 2006 draft. Young will play in the NFL, and he will play quarterback, and at some point this season he'll probably start. So will several other black quarterbacks around the league.
Indeed, the fight's over. Warren Moon won. To the NFL's betterment.
But Tony Dungy, Eldridge Dickey and scores of others lost. To the NFL's shame.
http://cbs.sportsline.com/columns/story/9583414/1
