Shannon Sharpe took issue with Russell Wilson’s characterization of the impact he’s had on Black quarterbacks in football. And Wilson is responding back. Taking to Twitter early Saturday morning, Wilson called out the need to build each other up while providing additional context of his comments.
Though he didn’t mention Sharpe by name, it’s obvious he listened to or read about the criticism from Sharpe’s latest episode of his Nightcap podcast. Sharpe believed Wilson was trying to take sole credit for paving the way for Black quarterbacks of today.
Here’s what Wilson tweeted.
“Let’s start building each other up!!!
The Evolution of Black QBs in the NFL has been one of the coolest experiences in my to be a part of.
Full context is always important!
Grateful for those before me.
Those with me.
And those after.
God is Good!”
Wilson’s tweet includes highlighted snippets from his Essence article, where Wilson’s quotes and Sharpe’s response stemmed from. It includes a passage that references Black quarterbacks before him, Warren Moon, Randall Cunningham, and Michael Vick, names Sharpe believes weren’t mentioned.
“I just don’t know what he was hoping to accomplish. By saying what he said,” Sharpe said on his show. “He opened doors? Huh? No, it was the guys who came before you who had success who opened doors for you.”
There is no direct quote in the article from Wilson mentioning those names but he referred to the quarterbacks who opened the door for him, a light high school recruit who became a third round draft pick and eventual Super Bowl champion. It’s doubtful that history, especially someone studious like Wilson, was lost on him. Wilson now joins a Steelers’ team full of key black history in the NFL. Joe Gilliam was among the first Black quarterbacks in NFL history while the first, Chicago’s Willie Thrower, was a Western PA native.
In 1933, Pittsburgh rostered just one of two Black players in the league, OL Ray Kemp, who spoke highly of how Art Rooney Sr. and the team treated him. Kemp and Chicago Cardinals RB Joe Lillard would be the only two Black players in the NFL until RB Kenny Washington in 1946. Pittsburgh wouldn’t reintegrate until 1952, a topic we explored in recent years.
As we wrote about in our first article highlighting Sharpe’s comments, there didn’t appear to be any selfish intent from in his comments. A point co-host Chad Johnson made, pointing out Russell Wilson is a face of a younger generation who didn’t grow up watching Doug Williams and Moon and others. Sharpe made the point losing sight of that history still isn’t justified but the full context of Wilson’s quote offers a nod to that prior era.
We’ll see if Sharpe addresses Wilson’s response in the next episode of his show.
