This is a word, a podcast from Slate. I'm your host, Jason Johnson. It's football season

and in America's most popular sport, the most important player is arguably the quarterback.

After decades of essentially being shut out of the role, more African American quarterbacks

are shining on the field.

A black quarterback had not even been drafted in the first round until 1978. If you're a

team owner, if you're a general manager, if you're a head coach, you no longer can

ignore someone at that position because of the color of your skin.

The rise of the black quarterback coming up on a word with me, Jason Johnson. Stay with

us.

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earn you mythical status or get you a nickname like Mad Dog or Dragon's Breath. It's hot,

good hot. The kind of hot that boosts taste nothing else. The ultimate spicy meatball with

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Welcome to a word, a podcast about race and politics and everything else. I'm your host,

Jason Johnson. For football fans, it's the most wonderful time of the year. We're wrapping

up the NFL's preseason and we're just about a week away from the teams taking the field

for real. And when they do, many of them will be led by black quarterbacks, just a few

decades ago, African Americans rarely have the opportunity to play in that position. And

while great strides have been made on the field, less than a third of quarterbacks are black

in a sport where 70% of the players are African Americans. Joining us to talk about it is

Jason Reed. He's the author of the new book Rise of the Black Quarterback, What It Means

for America. He's also the senior NFL writer for ESPN. Jason Reed, welcome to a word.

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