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gun had sounded. The storybook perfotmance was history. And many fascinated
eyes were glued to its author, Doug Williams, as he proudly walked off the
field
amid the glitter of the magical moment holding his helmet high in triumph.
Williams had just orchestrated one of the greatest individual feats in NFL
championship game history. He threw for a Super Bowl-record 340 yards and four
touchdowns to earn the unanimous choice as MVP in the Redskins'42-10 demolition of
Denver in Super Bowl XXII on Jan. 31, 1988. Nearly all of his production keyed a 35point, 356-yard second-quarler explosion that is unparalleled in NFL post-season play, a
quafier that represents the most spectacular l5 minutes in Redskins lore.
Statistics, though, failed to tell the whole story of Williams'elation. For years, he had
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heard he was not able, whether because of his perceived lack of quarlerback skills or his
race, to lead a team to an NFL championship. Moreover, many pro football insiders had
written him offnot long before, p"ggitrg the tested veteran as a backup for the rest ofhis
career. Toss in his personal hardships, including an assofiment of injuries and the death
of his frst wife to a brain tumor, and you get a bevy of roadblocks for one to cross.
So Doug Williams, what were you thhking having reached the pinnacle of your
profession?
had a lot on my mind," he said. 'All the obstacles I had to overcome and a lot of
the personal comments that had been made during my career about my ability to play
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the game, all the doubters. And now, just getting to the top of the game. Tomonow
didn't matter to me, yesterday was all history. In pro football, the ultimate is wirming
the Super Bowl. You can't go any higher than that."
The win was also monumental for the NFL. In one quafter, Williams shattered the
ill-conceived notion that a black quarterback could not lead a team to a Super Bowl
win. Afterward, the fabled Eddie Robinson, his college coach at Grambling in
Louisiana, called him the Jackie Robinson of his sport. But Williams, now the coach at
Grambling, is not convinced he should be solely credited with making NFL executives
more receptive to signing black quarterbacks, saying those who dot the pro football
landscape today are not all his doing.
"That's not something for me to say," he remarked when asked about Eddie
Robinson characterizing him as a pro football pioneer. "When Jackie Robinson came into baseball, I don't
think he came in with the idea there would be more blacks; I think he knew it was going to happen. He did
what he needed to do because he had an opportunity to get it done. What I accomplished that day is because I
was put in position to get it done. It was all about opportunity."
With further introspection, he added: "Now, I made a believer out of a lot of folks who probably never
believed that it would happen."
For a time, Williams' so-called "opportunity" appeared to be slipping away. After playing his first five
seasons in Tiampa Bay, where he led the once-anemic Buccaneers to two playoff appearances, including the
NFC championship game in the 1979 season, he spent
two years in the new United States Football League and
posted big numbers. But when the league folded, only
Redskins coach Joe Gibbs. Williams'offensive
coordinator in Tampa Bay, expressed a serious interest in
the 6-4, 2lS-pounder with a rocket arm but a relatively
low career completion percentage. Williams signed with
the Redskins before the 1986 season strictly as a backup
to third-year man Jay Schroeder, who the Redskins were
grooming as their quarlerback of the future.
Williams watched Schroeder toss for a team-record
4,109 yards in 1986. And no role reversal was anticipated
before the 1987 campaign, when Williams was the subject
of trade talks. But no deal was consummated, leaving
Williams, 32 atthe time, relegated to the bench
indefinitely.
Schroeder, however, was injury-plagued and
inconsistent in the strike-shofiened 1987 season, and
Williams proved he still had what it takes. He started two
games and came on in relief to direct three victories,
including a21-24 comeback win over Minnesota in the
season finale that left the NFC East champions 11-4
heading into the playoffs with Doug Williams as the
team's indisputable leader.
"It eventually became obvious that Doug was the guy
who should be startrng," Gibbs said.
The instincts of the ingenious coach were right. [n the first round of the playoffs,
Williams threw two scoring passes to rally the Redskins from a two-touchdown deficit
to a2l-ll victory over the Bears. He also tossed two touchdowns in the NFC
championship game, one being the game-winner in a 17-10 victory over Minnesota that
catapulted the Redskins to Super Bowl XXII in San Diego, their third of four visits to
the NFL's annual spectacle in the glorious Gibbs era.
The drama was set: Williams would be the first black quarterback to play in the
Super Bowl. A media contingent in the thousands fed off the story line, as the Redskins
HAIL TO THE FIEDST<INS
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AFC champion Broncos. Joumalists peppered him with
qu"rtion. about how it felt to play in the Super Bowl' One reporter even asked
Williams said
whether he'd always been a biack quafierback, though, thinking back,
to how long
refening
probably
that reporter,,got caught up in the moment" and was
syndrome'
Williams had been enmeshed in the black quarlerback
the
williams handled the questions with grace and dignity, sffessing his role as
game
was
the
before
"Everything
Redskins,quarterback, not a black quarterback.
your helmet
black," he recalled. "But when the game came, it was time to stlap on
made it."
finally
I
had
and
and do what we came to do. I was there for the game,
Elway,
John
Denver's
The more celebrated of the two stafting quarterbacks,
of 73,300
crowd
the
stunned
grabbed the spotlight early on. The future Hall of Famer
a 56throwing
by
it Jack trturphy Stadium and the worldwide television audience
prepa.red to face the
yardtouchdownpasstoRickyNattielonDenver,sfirstplayfromscrimmage.The
big trouble late in the first
setting
penod. William,, *1.ithing in pain, suffered a..hyper-flexed'' left knee while
uneventful
two
in
for
up in tire pocket. He limped off the fleld, and Schroeder came
bron.o, later went up by
10 points over a squad staring at
20.
piays. Atter a quick Denver possession, the Redskins took over on the Broncos'
given
his
a
no-brainer,
was
would No. 17 retum to the game? To him, the decision
stemmed
perhaps
that
fierce competitiveness and chilly relationship with Schroeder
game like it
from the liFC championship game the year before. "I remember that
Joe Gibbs was
and
was yesterday," Williams said. "schroeder got hit, he was woozy'
we still had
but
17-0,
senalng me on the field. Schroeder waved me off. We got beat
a quarler to go. There was no telling what could have happened'"
in the vanguard this time, Williams once again grabbed the reins' and the
the ball
began. On a play-action pass that froze Denver's defense, he aimed
fireworks
midfield and
down the rigtt sideline to receiver Ric$r Sanders' who caught it around
williams
zone.
end
outraced comerback Mark Haynes and safety Tony Lilly into the
Clark
Gary
struck again four minutes later with a21-yardscoring pass to receiver
found
wlliams
and, after haltback Timmy Smith ran 58 yards lbr a touchdown,
quarler with
Sanders for another score, this time on a 50-yard bomb. He closed the
HAIL T(} THE FIEE}SKIT{S
GIIE,{T NIOT'ItsNTS IN REDSK]NS HISTORY
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WiXliams *u{"f*reel a
kne** injury eerlY in
th* SuPer Be:wl.
[r]*" 55 i* D*nver's
F{ick il*nnisq:n.
an S-yard touchdown pass to tight end
Clint
Didier.
ln less than six minutes of possession,
Williams had led
a
breathtaking display that
transformed the Broncos and their sea of
orange-clad fans into one despondent group. He
set a single-quafier Super Bowl record with221
passing yards and tied Super Bowl marks with
his four touchdown passes and S0-yard TD pass
to Sanders. His surgical accuracy left many in
awe, including Redskins Hall of Fame
quarterback Sonny Jurgensen, who provided
radio color analysis on the game.
"Nobody goes into a game realizing you're
going to be that hot with the ball," Jurgensen
said recently, in reflecting on the quarter. "He
was just in one of those grooves where
everything he threw was on the button and
everybody was playing well around him. He
got into a zone where he couldn't miss
anything."
agree. He remembers Williams'
precision on his 50-yard scoring pass to
Sanders, a play preceded by the quarterback's
Lilly would
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GRE{T MOMENTS IN REDSKiNS HISTORY
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gorgeous fake to Smith on the Redskins'
legendary "counter-trey" run that befuddled the
C
Broncos all game.
"I bit on it hard," said Lilly, who now
teaches broadcasting at West Potomac High
School in Alexandria, Va. "I was five yards
from the line of scrimmage when I reaiized,
'Man, (Smith) doesn't have the ball.' I just
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knew Doug hadn't
remember running down the field in pursuit of Sanders, and I
throwntheballyet.,tltlrememberthinkingis,.overlhrowhim,overthrowhim.
the dime""
overlhrow him.'Then I was like, 'unbelievable... he put it right on
him with encouraging words like
Meanwhile, the Redskins rallied around their catalyst. They showered
Redskins' famed "Hogs" offensive line that toyed
those from Joe Jacoby, the 6-6, 310-pound pillar on the
pass protection and enabled Smith
with the Broncos much smaller defensive fiont, gave Williams airtight
to rush for a Super Bowl-record 204 yards'
man Frank Herzog'
All along, Wittiams was unflappable, said long-time Redskins radio play-by-play
.,you go through a Super gowl week in that type of pressure-cooker, and all those repolters with no stories
players, especially for him," Herzog said last month' "But
t ying"to rnake stutr up, it's a difftcult week for
on the field, and it was just him and the
during the game, repofiers couldn't talk to him. He was out there
'This is my element' this
a solitude to that, almost a retreat atmosphere that says'
guys. There was almost
is what I do, and God, it's great to be doing it'"'
Lombardi
In the euphoric Redskini'locker room, Williams clutched the Vince
trophy,giventotheSuperBowlwinner,andsaid,..Ifeelblessed.,'Redskinsowner
lu.t k*t Cooke extended congratulations "to a great quatterback'"
WlliamsplayedtwomoreseasonsinWashingtonbeforeinjuriesforcedhimto
and continues to
retire. He wai named last year to the Redskins'70 Greatest team
coach the highly-successful Grambling program'
..oougwounaupbeingtherightmanintherightplace,''Gibbssaid.*Y'ouhave
USFL'
guy *ho played great when he filst came out of college' went into the
and is MVP in
turned around and became a backup, then comes all the way back
the Super Bowl. That's one of the great stories in sports history'"
u
(Editor's Note: Michqel Richman is aWashington, D'C'-based writer who
specializes in witing about Redskins history')
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HAIL TO THE FIEDSKINS
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