The Year of the Black Quarterback : The New Yorker: The masterful satirist Richard Pryor, during a skit on his television variety show, in 1977, played a black president holding a press conference. Subdued in tone, clad in a gray suit, Pryor as chief executive tries to field all the questions without losing his composure. He answers the journalists’ queries about tensions in the Middle East, the neutron bomb, and the unemployment rate. Then, about four minutes along, a reporter wearing the beret and fatigue jacket of the Black Panthers and identifying himself as Brother Bell, of Ebony magazine, stands up to say, “I want to know what you gonna do about having more black brothers as quarterbacks in the National Football Honky League. Right on!”
Pryor responds, his voice gradually rising: “I plan not only to have lots of black quarterbacks, but we gonna have black coaches and black owners of teams. As long as there gonna be football, gonna be some black in it somewhere!” By now, he is jabbing the air with his hand and widening his eyes. “I’m tired of this mess that’s been goin’ down,” he shouts.
