Oddly, The Cleveland Browns Signify The End Of The Plight Of Black NFL Quarterbacks [Op-Ed]

One is unproven. The other is hated by his own fanbase. However, both of them are gainfully employed. To understand just how far Black quarterbacks have come in the NFL, pay attention to Deshaun Watson and Shedeur Sanders in Cleveland.

The Browns have a quarterback problem this season, as usual. According to a recent ESPN report, since the NFL expanded to 32 teams (2002), no team has gone through more Week 1 starting quarterbacks than Cleveland, with 18. This year is as complicated as it’s ever been. 

Last season, the Browns selected Sanders with the 144th overall pick in the fifth round, much to the angst of many of his fans who believe that his marketability and likability should compensate for his lack of on-field success. A few weeks ago, new Browns head coach Todd Monken named Watson the starter for Week 1 just two days after the veteran signal caller was booed by the fanbase in Cleveland.

This controversial decision followed equally contentious remarks from Watson.

“It has nothing to do [with] the performance,” Watson said about the boos. “It’s a little bit personal. I think that’s a disrespectful thing. I’m going to keep whatever I feel with me and my family internally on how I feel about that. Just move on.” 

What Watson didn’t mention is that he’s only started 19 games since he’s been in Cleveland, along with having a fully guaranteed $230 million contract that’s limited the team from adding more talent. There’s also the fact that he served an 11-game suspension in 2022 along with having to pay a $5 million fine after over 20 women joined a sexual misconduct lawsuit against him — and all of this happened after he missed the 2021 season because his former team (Houston Texans) chose to sit him for the entire year due to the toxicity around the situation.

“It’s a mental battle every day. I feel like I get more love in road games than I do home games,” Watson said a few weeks ago. “So if it is my spot and he (Monken) does make me the (starter), maybe it’s 17 away games then.” Watson later apologized for his comments, saying “my emotions got the best of me,” but the damage was already done; he doesn’t seem to understand why people haven’t forgotten that he hasn’t expressed any remorse about the allegations against him.

For decades, the most popular position in all of American sports — quarterback — was designated for white men. And even when it started to change, due to the irrefutable talents of Black men who play the position, there were still hurdles. The sacrifices and discrimination from the past have laid the groundwork for the present and future. We’ve gotten to the point where Watson and Sanders are at the center of a circus in Cleveland, and yet, their skin color hasn’t been discussed.

Ironically, that’s progress.

Last season, a record 16 Black quarterbacks started Week 1 of the 2025 NFL season, as half of the league’s starting quarterbacks were Black. Bryce Young, Caleb Williams, Cam Ward, C.J. Stroud, Dak Prescott, Geno Smith, Jalen Hurts, Jayden Daniels, Jordan Love, Justin Fields, Kyler Murray, Lamar Jackson, Michael Penix Jr., Patrick Mahomes, Russell Wilson, and Spencer Rattler made history. To add even more context, 15 Black quarterbacks led their teams on the field the season prior, which was also a record at the time. That season ended with Hurts and Mahomes meeting in the Super Bowl, making it the first time two Black quarterbacks had faced each other on the game’s biggest stage.

“I said about a year and a half ago, half the league is going to be Black quarterbacks before long. I said probably within the next five years, and it happened before five years,” Doug Williams, the first Black quarterback to win a Super Bowl, told USA TODAY Sports last year.

Williams’ name will be forever etched in the history books for winning the MVP of Super Bowl 22, in the same way that Marlin Briscoe will be remembered as the first Black starting quarterback in modern pro football (1968). In 2001, Michael Vick became the first Black quarterback to be selected as the number one pick in the NFL Draft. Just two years later, the late Steve McNair became the first Black quarterback to win MVP, and in 2006 Warren Moon became the first Black quarterback inducted into the Hall of Fame. However, while what Watson and Sanders are dealing with in Cleveland suggests the plight of Black quarterbacks may finally be over, it shouldn’t be ignored that the fight for equality was still in full swing less than a decade ago.

“I think wide receiver. Exceptional athlete. Exceptional ability to make you miss. Exceptional acceleration. Exceptional instinct with the ball in his hand — and that’s rare for wide receivers,” is how former NFL Executive Bill Polian characterized Lamar Jackson in 2018 before the draft, as he insisted that he should change his position from quarterback to wideout. “The accuracy isn’t there. Don’t wait to make that change,” he declared about a man who has already won not one, but two, MVPs in his young career.

While the overt racism and coded language that Black men who played the position endured for decades appear to finally be over, nothing is guaranteed when it comes to race in this league, or America. Pundits and commentators are no longer deeming them “too athletic,” questioning their IQ levels, or wondering if they can be “leaders of men.” At this point, on the collegiate and professional levels, not having a Black starting quarterback is more of a thing than not having one.

Throughout this season, the Browns will have to figure out what to do with Deshaun Watson and Shedeur Sanders. However, despite what happens next, we already know that Cleveland will be on the hunt for a quarterback in next year’s draft. And the kid that everyone has their eye on currently plays for the University of Oregon. His name is Dante Moore — and of course, he’s Black.

Carron J. Phillips is an award-winning journalist who writes on race, culture, social issues, politics, and sports. He hails from Saginaw, Michigan, and is a graduate of Morehouse College and Syracuse University. Follow his Substack to keep up with more of his work.

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