1st Black QB matchup in Super Bowl history represents progress, despite NFL's systemic barriers

This is a column by Morgan Campbell, who writes opinion for CBC Sports.  For more information about  CBC's Opinion section , please see the  FAQ .

By now we all know how horrible Cincinnati Bengals defensive end Joseph Ossai felt after the last-minute penalty that helped propel Kansas City to the Super Bowl.

His out-of-bounds shove to Patrick Mahomes' back set up Kansas City to hit a game-winning field goal in last Sunday's AFC championship game, and afterward Ossai sat on the bench crying. Later a teammate named Germaine Pratt, stalking into the Bengals' locker room, ripped Ossai in a fit of frustration for which he would later apologize.

And why, in 2023, with corporations throwing big money at diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) initiatives, and the NFL still painting phrases like "End Racism" on end zone turf, does a Black-on-Black quarterback matchup even matter?

Fair question if you're from the generation that has grown up with Black quarterbacks, a handful of Black head coaches, and even a Black U.S. president. You might think we're living in the post-racial future Barack Obama's presidency was supposed to portend.

It's also fair for CFL fans with long memories to wonder why we should celebrate two Black QBs in a title game at this stage in pro sports history. I have a hazy recollection of Condredge Holloway and the Argos facing Roy Dewalt and the B.C. Lions in the 1983 Grey Cup — mostly I remember my parents shouting at the TV and high-fiving when the Argos won. But the first Grey Cup game to feature two Black quarterbacks actually happened in 1981, when Warren Moon's Edmonton Eskimos defeated J.C. Watts and the Ottawa Rough Riders.

Some of you are old enough to have seen that one, and to