Moon says hello to Hall

CANTON, Ohio — For 12 minutes, Warren Moon danced around the topic as if it were a blitzing linebacker.

He didn't mention race when he talked about his lack of major-college opportunities coming out of high school. He didn't say it was discrimination when he went to the Canadian Football League for six years before coming to the NFL.

The first African-American quarterback to make the Pro Football Hall of Fame didn't say anything at all about that subject until he was more than halfway through an induction speech that was supposed to last eight minutes but ended up going more than 20.

"It's a subject that I'm very uncomfortable about sometimes," Moon said, "because I've always wanted to be judged as just a quarterback."

If only it were that simple for Moon during a professional football career that spanned two countries, five teams and 23 years. If race were not an issue, he wouldn't have had to spend a year at junior college before getting a major-college opportunity from Don James at Washington. If skin color didn't matter, NFL teams would have wanted him to play quarterback after his Rose Bowl victory in 1978.

"Race certainly had an effect on his career," said Marlin Briscoe, the first African American to start an NFL game at quarterback. "But the kind of person he is, he never let it affect his success."

Briscoe played 10 years in the NFL, the first in Denver where he was quarterback. He was at Saturday's ceremony, seated in the section allotted for Moon's 330 guests. It was the first time Briscoe had been to Canton.

"It's amazing and outstanding," Briscoe said. "I feel goose bumps. I have tears in my eyes."

Briscoe is partners with Moon in The Field Generals, a non-profit foundation that offers college scholarships and seeks to educate and preserve the history of African-American quarterbacks. Former quarterbacks James Harris and Doug Williams are part of the group, too, and they were present at Saturday's ceremony.

Briscoe didn't see Moon's induction as a starting point for minority quarterbacks. He saw it as a punctuation mark.

"To finally put the stamp and exclamation point on the topic of race at that position," he said.

It has been a long time coming. The NFL became integrated permanently in 1946 when Bill Willis and three other African-American players entered the league. That was one year before Jackie Robinson was promoted for the Dodgers, but diversity had its limits in football.

"If you wanted to play football, you stood a better chance to play football if you played on the line," said Willis, who made the Hall of Fame as a member of the Browns. "You had the next-best chance if you played defensive [back] or even running back. But to be a quarterback, that was something altogether different."

Willie Thrower was the first African American to play quarterback in the modern era. That was in 1953. No one else got a chance until Briscoe started as a rookie for Denver in 1968.

Others followed over the next few years, but 10 years later, Moon didn't get a single invitation for an NFL workout after his three years at UW culminated in an upset win over Michigan in the Rose Bowl. He saw that no one in the NFL saw his future at QB, so he entered the CFL draft.

He won five Grey Cups in six seasons in Canada, and in 1984 there were 12 teams from three different leagues bidding on him. When he signed with the Houston Oilers, the emphasis wasn't about race, it was results.

"We were trying to win games," said Mike Munchak, a Hall of Fame lineman. "We were thrilled he came in because we heard so many great things about him in Canada. We wanted someone that would come give us that lift, and he was the guy."

The Oilers made the playoffs each of Moon's final seven seasons with the team. One of the beauties of sports is that prejudices tend to dissolve when it's clear they are impediments to success. The yards and wins the Oilers piled up with Moon have been followed by an era of increased opportunities for African Americans at the position.

In 1999, three of the first 12 players selected in the draft were African-American quarterbacks. In 2001, Moon's first year out of football, Michael Vick was picked No. 1 overall.

"I'm just happy that the guys that are playing today are getting so many opportunities to play the game," Moon said Friday.

In that way, Moon set an important example. Washington quarterback Isaiah Stanback met Moon on the sideline at Husky Stadium in spring of 2001. Stanback was a junior at Garfield High School. The two are the same height, but as they shook hands that spring day, Stanback felt a little smaller.

"I was definitely looking up at him," Stanback recalled before his senior year in high school.

Could have been uneven footing that gave Moon a height advantage. Could have been the stature of Moon's career, first at Washington and later as a pro.

Five years later, Stanback is beginning his senior year at Washington — the first African American from a Seattle high school to play quarterback for a Division I-A college.

Stanback's favorite quarterback when he was in high school? Vick. Vick's favorite quarterback growing up? Moon, and he's not alone in that regard.

"Different ones like Donovan McNabb or Michael Vick told me they kind of idolized me as a young kid growing up," Moon said. "Really thanked me for their opportunities they're getting now. That's really nice to hear you are held in that type of regard."

This season, Vince Young was the third player chosen in the NFL draft, picked by the Titans. Hall of Fame quarterback Roger Staubach was comparing Young's ability at quarterback to one of this year's Hall of Fame class. Only it wasn't Moon, but rather Troy Aikman.

Race didn't enter in either the conversation or the equation, which is just the way Moon would prefer it when it comes to playing quarterback.

"If anything, I want it to go away," Moon said after his speech. "I want it to not be something you need to talk about anymore."

And that's why he avoided the subject entirely for the first 12 minutes of his induction speech.

Danny O'Neil: 206-464-2364 or doneil@seattletimes.com