'First Matters': Williams Earns Another Honor

PHOENIX - Forty years ago, he saw crosses burning on his street in Zachary, La.

Twenty years ago, for 15 minutes on a January night in San Diego, he was the greatest quarterback who ever played.

On Sunday night in Glendale, Ariz., they'll hand the Vince Lombardi Trophy to the champion of Super Bowl XLII.

Doug Williams will do the handing.

"Ain't that a kick?" Williams said. "That's a long way."

Fifteen minutes of fame?

"Well, I guess they keep saying, 'Give him another 15 minutes.'"

The National Football League is remembering the man and deed by letting Williams do the honors Sunday.

Man and Deed have echoed into the new millennium.

Guys can simply be quarterbacks today, not African-American quarterbacks. Doug Williams, a Bucs personnel executive, is a guy who helped make that possible.

He was the first black quarterback to play in a Super Bowl, to win one, to be named Most Valuable Player.

"There ain't no doubt I understood what was at stake," Williams said.

He wasn't Martin Luther King, Jackie Robinson or Rosa Parks or ...

"It's amazing you should say Rosa Parks," Williams said. Whenever Bucs secondary coach Raheem Morris and Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin see Williams, they say, "Hey, Rosa Parks." Williams laughs.

"That's what they call me, Rosa Parks."

Seriously, "You have that kind of company, you can't be embarrassed."

For one night, everyone rode up front with Doug Williams.

In the blink of an eye, he threw four touchdowns and led the Washington Redskins to a victory over the Denver Broncos in Super Bowl XXII.

Giants receiver Amani Toomer and his teammates meet the Patriots on Sunday. Toomer was 13 when Doug Williams won the Super Bowl.

"I was the biggest Doug Williams fan you could be," Toomer said.

"Doug was the man," Patriots defensive lineman Richard Seymour said. "He was first. First matters."

We'd like to say that the night before the game, Williams sat and thought about making history. Instead, he sat in a dentist's chair.

"I woke up Saturday morning in excruciating pain," Williams said.

The team found a dentist, who told Williams he needed a root canal, back and to the left. Four hours of it, fully anesthetized. All better.

"I did my routine thing I do the night before the game," Williams said. "I ate a bag of Hershey Kisses. When I woke up the next morning, I felt like new money."

'Pain Didn't Matter'

On Super Bowl Sunday, Denver's John Elway threw a touchdown pass on the first play from scrimmage. The Broncos led 10-0 after one quarter.

Not only that, Williams hyperextend his knee.

No matter.

"That was one of those situations where pain didn't matter," he said.

Fifteen minutes.

He threw four touchdowns in the second quarter. The Redskins scored five touchdowns. They led 35-10 at halftime.

Super Bowl XXII was over.

After the game, the great Eddie Robinson, who coached Williams at Grambling, found his guy.

Williams said: "Coach Robinson after the game, he walked in the dressing room, he told me, 'You won't understand until you get older,' he said. You know what, that was just like Joe Louis knocking out Max Schmeling to him."

First matters.

Hope And Pride

Williams brought his 15-year-old son, D.J., with him to Phoenix.

"I think it's big and I think he needs to be part of it," Williams said. "Years from now, he's going to say it's been 40 years since my daddy did this."

Last year, D.J.'s daddy watched Tony Dungy become the first black head coach to win a Super Bowl. Now he's watching a black man making a great run at being president.

"It's about hope and pride," Williams said.

That was that night 20 years ago.

People always remember. Players from other teams come over when they see Williams on the sideline before a Bucs game. Or it can be anybody. People recognize him and smile.

Bucs General Manager Bruce Allen said, "When you walk through an airport with Doug Williams, you are walking with Santa Claus."

Last weekend in Washington D.C., the Redskins threw a 20th-anniversary party for Williams at a downtown hotel.

"And you know something?" he said. "There were more white people than black people."

It's about hope and pride.

Those 15 minutes will never be up.