Lev & Stephens return: Steelers dress three African American Quarterbacks to start 2010 season

http://freakonomics.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/09/10/are-the-steelers-the-first-nfl-team-with-three-black-quarterbacks/

In the NFL prior to 1974, there was never an African American starting quarterback. James Harris, who played for the Los Angeles Rams, was the first black quarterback to start a season(Shepherd, 2010). The integration of black athletes into sports was a slow moving process. Even today, black football players are primarily used in the skill positions such as running back, wide receiver, and defensive backs and are not seen in great number in the thinking position such as quarterback and even kicker or punter.

This under representation of black quarterbacks parallel the lack of black coaches and owners. There have been great strides in improving the proportion of black to white quarterbacks as well as coaches. The Rooney Rule makes each team in the NFL have to at least interview one African American candidate for the coaching position if they are looking to hire a new coach.

The Pittsburgh Steelers have been very progressive in improving the proportion of black to white coaches in the NFL. Dan Rooney is a member of the NFL Diversity Committee. After the retirement of Bill Cowher, the Rooney family hired Mike Tomlin, an African American, in 2007. Tomlin made an immediate impact by winning Super Bowl XLIII and being named 2008 Motorola Coach of the Year. Tomlin is the tenth African American head coach in NFL history.

In addition to the hiring of Mike Tomlin, the Pittsburgh Steelers achieved another milestone in breaking down black quarterback representation barriers. This season, Ben Roethlisberger was suspended for the first four games. For the first time in NFL history, an NFL team dressed three African American quarterbacks in Dennis Dixon, Charlie Batch, and Byron Leftwich(Dubner, 2010) . Pittsburgh has had an African American quarterback in Kordell Stewart under Bill Cowher but never has had three play in any one season. Dixon, Batch, and Leftwich all saw time in the first four games of the season and led the Steelers to a 3-1 record. Also, emergency quarterbacks for the Steelers are Antwan Randel-El and Hines Ward, both of African American decent(Dubner, 2010) . Perhaps with this proven availability to win with black quarterbacks, the rest of the teams in the NFL will give chances to African Americans lessening the gap between black and white quarterbacks as well as coaches.