Doug Williams (quarterback)

College career

Williams played quarterback for the Grambling State Tigers from 1974 to 1977. In his first two seasons, he played on the same team as future NFL receiver Sammy White. Williams guided the Tigers to a 36–7 (.837 winning percentage) record as a four-year starter, and led the Tigers to three Southwestern Athletic Conference Championships. Williams was named Black College Player of the Year twice.

In 1977, Williams led the NCAA in several categories, including total yards from scrimmage (3,249), passing yards (3,286), touchdown passes (38), and yards per play (8.6). Williams finished fourth in the Heisman Trophy voting, behind Earl Campbell, Terry Miller, and Ken MacAfee. Williams graduated from Grambling with a bachelor's degree in education, and began student teaching while working on his master's degree before the 1978 NFL draft.

Despite the success that he enjoyed on the field, Tampa Bay Buccaneers offensive coordinator Joe Gibbs was the only NFL coach who visited Williams to work him out and scout him. Gibbs spent two days with the 6 ft, 220 lb quarterback, reviewing play books, film, and going through passing drills. Impressed by his poise, work ethic, and studious nature, Gibbs rated Williams as the best quarterback in the draft, writing in his scouting report that Williams had "a big-time arm with perfect passing mechanics" and was "a natural leader...very academic and extremely prepared...football smart," and recommended that the Buccaneers select Williams with their first-round draft choice.

Professional career

Tampa Bay Buccaneers

Following the recommendation of Gibbs, Tampa Bay drafted Williams in the first round (17th overall) of the 1978 NFL draft. Williams became the first African-American quarterback taken in the first round of an NFL draft. In a 1979 game against the Chicago Bears, Williams and Bears quarterback Vince Evans made history by making it the first NFL game ever to have a black starting quarterback on both teams. Tampa Bay, which had won just two games in the first two years of the franchise, went to the playoffs three times in five seasons with Williams as starter and played in the 1979 NFC Championship game. During his time in Tampa Bay, Williams improved his completion percentage each season.

Williams was the only starting African-American quarterback in the NFL at that time, and dealt with racism from the fans, and even his own coaching staff. In his book Rise of the Black QB, author Jason Reid cited an incident in the 1978 Tampa Bay training camp, in which quarterbacks coach Bill Nelsen began berating Williams in what was described as going beyond coaching and becoming a personal attack. "I think Coach Gibbs knew that it wasn't a matter of being coached hard," recalled Williams. "I mean, I played for Eddie Robinson at Grambling, so he knew I could handle that. But he (Gibbs) immediately sensed that something else was going on." Gibbs, who was at the opposite end of the field, sprinted over to Nelsen and confronted him. Gibbs threw his clipboard down, pointed his finger in Nelsen's face and said, "Don't you ever talk to him like that again! Is that clear?" According to Williams, Nelsen never confronted Williams in that manner again.

During his tenure with the Buccaneers, Williams was paid $120,000 a year, the lowest salary for a starting quarterback in the league and less than the salary of 12 backups. After the 1982 season, Williams asked for a $600,000 contract. Bucs owner Hugh Culverhouse refused to budge from his initial offer of $400,000 despite protests from coach John McKay. Feeling that Culverhouse was not paying him what an NFL starter should earn, Williams sat out the 1983 season.

Oklahoma / Arizona Outlaws

After a year away from football, Williams signed with the Oklahoma Outlaws of the upstart United States Football League. The Outlaws briefly called Hall of Fame coach and quarterback guru Sid Gillman out of retirement as director of football operations, and Williams was Gillman's highest-profile signing. Williams signed a $3 million contract with a $1 million signing bonus, making him easily one of the highest-paid players in all of football. Years later, he recalled that he was won over when Outlaws owners William Tatham Sr. and Bill Tatham Jr. "treated me as a human," rather than "a piece of cattle in a stockyard."

In 1984, Williams led the Outlaws of the USFL in passing, completing 261 out of 528 passes for 3,084 yards and 15 touchdowns. However, he threw 21 interceptions, ending up with a passer rating of 60.5 during a 6–12 season. In 1985, the team moved to Arizona and merged with the Arizona Wranglers to become the Arizona Outlaws. Williams showed some improvement, completing 271 out of 509 passes for 3,673 yards with 21 touchdowns and 17 interceptions.

Washington Redskins

After the USFL was shut down in 1986, Williams returned to the NFL, joining the Washington Redskins. He was reunited with his former offensive coordinator, Joe Gibbs, who was now the team's head coach. Initially, Williams served as the backup for starting quarterback Jay Schroeder, but after Schroeder got injured, Williams stepped in and led the Redskins to an opening-day victory against the Philadelphia Eagles in the 1987 season. Williams and Schroeder had a somewhat chilly relationship, stemming from Schroeder ordering Williams to get off the field when the Redskins thought Schroeder had been injured in the 1986 NFC title game and sent Williams in to substitute for him. It would be one of three times in 1987 that Williams substituted for Schroeder and led the team to victory (the other two were November 15 against Detroit and December 26 at Minnesota). Williams only started two games, September 20 at Atlanta and November 23 against the Rams. While both starts were losses, at the end of the season, when the Redskins had qualified for the playoffs, Williams, with his 94.0 passer rating, was chosen as the starter. He led the team to Super Bowl XXII in which they routed the Denver Broncos, becoming the first black quarterback to both play in and win a Super Bowl.

According to legend, Williams was asked this question on Media Day: "How long have you been a black quarterback?" He supposedly replied, "I've been a quarterback since high school, and I've been black all my life." On February 1, 2013, Williams was interviewed on the Boomer and Carton show, and he was asked by the host Craig Carton if the question ever happened. He replied that it was true. Williams said he thought the reporter was a little nervous and the question may have come out the wrong way and that no ill will was meant towards him.

On the day before Super Bowl XXII, Williams had a six-hour root canal surgery performed to repair a dental bridge abscess. On January 31, 1988, he engineered a 42–10 rout over the Broncos, who were led by quarterback John Elway. Williams completed 18 of 29 passes for 340 yards with four touchdown passes. He was named Super Bowl MVP for his efforts, making him the first African-American quarterback to both win a Super Bowl and be named its MVP. He broke the Super Bowl single-game record of 331 passing yards set in 1985 by Joe Montana, who broke Williams' record the following year with 357. Williams tied the Super Bowl single-game record for passing touchdowns set by Terry Bradshaw in 1979, which Montana surpassed with five in Super Bowl XXIV. Williams' 80-yard scoring pass to Ricky Sanders tied the Super Bowl record for the longest pass, set by Jim Plunkett's throw to Kenny King in 1981; it was broken in 1997 by Brett Favre's 81-yard pass to Antonio Freeman for the longest Super Bowl play from scrimmage.

Williams suffered from injuries the following season and was outplayed by Mark Rypien, who eventually won the starting job. Despite competing for the same starting job, Williams and Rypien were so supportive of each other that T-shirts were sold with the caption "United We Stand", depicting the two quarterbacks as cartoon characters with Williams saying "I'm for Mark" and Rypien saying "I'm for Doug". Williams would play one final season in 1989, as Rypien's backup, during the latter's first Pro Bowl season.

Finances played a large part in Williams' departure from the Redskins, with Williams slated to make $1 million in 1990 as the team's backup quarterback. The Redskins were able to sign former New York Giants quarterback Jeff Rutledge for the backup role for substantially less money, making Williams expendable. Williams received scant attention from other teams following his waiver by the Redskins – a situation which he flatly attributed to racism. Williams retired with a 5–9 record as Redskins starter (8–9, counting playoffs) and a 38–42–1 record as a regular season starter (42–45–1, including 7 playoff starts). He had 100 passing touchdowns and 15 rushing touchdowns in 88 NFL games.

Coaching and executive career

Following his departure from the NFL, Williams worked on television in 1990 as a college football analyst for Black Entertainment Television (BET). Despite enjoying the change of pace, Williams longed to return to football and when a high school head coaching position opened up in 1991 at the new Pointe Coupee Central High School in the unincorporated Labarre area of Pointe Coupee Parish, Louisiana, Williams applied for the job and was hired for the position. Williams led the 35-player team to a 5–5 record in the season, including an upset of the second-ranked school in the state.

In 1992, Williams was able to move on to coach at his former high school in Zachary, now renamed Northeast High.

Williams moved to the collegiate coaching ranks in 1994, when he was hired as the running backs coach for the football team of the United States Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland. He worked as offensive coordinator for the Scottish Claymores of the World League of American Football early in 1995 and as a scout for the NFL's Jacksonville Jaguars during the 1995 NFL season.

Williams began his collegiate head coaching career at Morehouse College in 1997. He was named the head football coach at Grambling State University in 1998, succeeding the legendary Eddie Robinson. He led the Tigers to three consecutive Southwestern Athletic Conference titles from 2000 to 2002, before leaving to rejoin the Tampa Bay Buccaneers as a personnel executive.

At the conclusion of Super Bowl XLII, on the 20th anniversary of being named Super Bowl XXII MVP, Williams carried the Vince Lombardi trophy on to the field for presentation to the winning New York Giants. Williams was named the director of professional scouting for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in February 2009. He was relieved of this position on May 11, 2010.

Williams was subsequently hired as general manager of the Norfolk expansion franchise in the United Football League, now known as the Virginia Destroyers. On February 21, 2011, Williams resigned from the Destroyers to begin his second stint as the head football coach at Grambling State University. He was fired from this position on September 11, 2013.

In February 2014, Williams rejoined the Redskins as a personnel executive. The hiring marked Williams' return to the Redskins. Williams was promoted to the position of Senior Vice President of Player Personnel in June 2017. In 2020, following a front office restructure after the hiring of Ron Rivera as head coach, Williams was named the team's senior vice president of player development. The following year he became a senior advisor to team president Jason Wright.

Career statistics and records

USFL career

NFL career

Personal life

Williams was born in Zachary, Louisiana, a town of about 8,000 people located near Baton Rouge. His brother, Mike Williams, was also a quarterback at Grambling State and in the Canadian Football League. Doug's first wife, Janice (Goss), died of a brain tumor in 1983 at age 26. They had one child together, Ashley Monique. His second wife was Lisa Robinson, whom he married in 1987. They had one son together, Adrian. Williams married his third wife, Raunda in 2005. Together, they had 6 children: Jasmine, D. J., Lee, Temessia, Laura and Carmaleta. His sons Adrian and D.J. are both accomplished former collegiate athletes. Adrian played basketball for Brown University until graduating after the 2010–11 season, while D.J. played football for his father at Grambling State University, went on to coach in the NFL, and as of January 2026 was named the quarterbacks coach for the Washington Commanders. His daughter Laura has committed to playing basketball at University of Southern California for the 2024–2025 season. Doug's nephew Johnny Huggins also played in the NFL.

In 2009, Williams and fellow Grambling State alumnus James Harris co-founded the Black College Football Hall of Fame. Each year, several notable football players from historically black colleges and universities are entered in its hall of fame at an induction ceremony in Atlanta. In July 2019, Grambling State honored Williams by naming a street in his honor on the college's campus.

Head coaching record

College

• Williams was fired on September 11, 2013.

References

References

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6. Howard, Brian. (July 10, 2019). "Grambling State to honor Doug Williams". Grambling State Tigers.
7. Garber, Greg. (January 29, 2013). "Doug Williams embraces history". ESPN.
8. His first preseason pass, a 75-yard incompletion that sailed 10 yards past receiver [[Isaac Hagins]], drew a standing ovation from the Tampa Stadium crowd. He was the first quarterback in Buccaneer history capable of throwing long passes downfield.Tierney, Mike. "30 Seasons: 1976–2005. From Sinking Ship to World-Class Cruise. ''St. Petersburg Times''. September 11, 2005
9. "Does race remain a factor in the evaluation of NFL quarterbacks?". National Football League.
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11. [https://thekevinsheehanshow.com/2022/08/04/rise-of-the-black-qb/ Rise Of The Black QB] Kevin Sheehan Show. August 4, 2022
12. Mike Piellucci. (August 17, 2022).[https://www.dmagazine.com/sports/2022/08/jason-reid-dak-prescott-the-rise-of-the-black-quarterback-book/ 'The Rise of the Black Quarterback' and the Men Who Forced a Signal Change in the NFL] ''D Magazine''
13. 1997 season]] 14 years later. Tampa Bay lost ten games in every season but one in that stretch, including 12 in a row from 1983 to 1994. Culverhouse's willingness to let Williams walk away over such a relatively small amount of money was seen as insensitive, especially as it came only months after Williams' wife Janice died of an aneurysm.Scheiber, Dave. "So Who's Laughing Now?" ''St. Petersburg Times''. January 26, 2003
14. Lieber, Jill. (February 1, 1988). "Well-Armed Pioneer".
15. Pearlman, Jeff. (2018). "Football For A Buck: The Crazy Rise and Crazier Demise of the USFL". [[Houghton Mifflin Harcourt]].
16. McEvoy, Colin. (February 9, 2023). "The Ultimate Sibling Rivalry: 8 Sets of Brothers Who Faced Off in Sports Championships". [[Biography (TV program).
17. Tomasson, Chris. (January 26, 2018). "Doug Williams sees 'progress' 30 years after becoming first black QB to win the Super Bowl". Twin Cities Pioneer Press.
18. "Doug Williams leads Redskins to Super Bowl victory". History.
19. (January 31, 2018). "Doug Williams: The Real MVP".
20. Bianchi, Mike. (January 30, 2007). "Dumbest question was never asked". Orlando Sentinel.
21. Mikkelson, David. (January 22, 2004). "Did a Reporter Ask Doug Williams How Long He'd Been a Black Quarterback?".
22. Woods, Mark. "The Question misquoted, but still lives". [[The Florida Times-Union]].
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27. Anderson, Dave. (January 23, 1989). "He Was Typical Joe Cool". The New York Times.
28. Wilbon, Michael. (January 29, 1990). "The Biggest Easy as 49ers Roll, 55-10". The Washington Post.
29. Gados, Ryan. (January 21, 2020). "Super Bowl LV's star quarterbacks have a chance at the single-game passing touchdown mark". Fox News.
30. Kaufman, Ira. (January 31, 1988). "It took Doug Williams less than 15 minutes to...". United Press International.
31. Justice, Richard. (January 27, 1997). "Packers 35, Patriots 31". The Washington Post.
32. Richman, Michael. ''The Redskins Encyclopedia''. Temple University Press, 2007.
33. Deriso, Nick. (August 28, 2002). "Williams makes easy work in following legend". The News-Star.
34. [https://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090203/ap_on_sp_fo_ne/fbn_buccaneers_williams;_ylt=Aq0lRkmipgtOAAMnyE.TBT3IyLQF Bucs Promote Williams, Hire Several Assistants] Yahoo Sports, February 3, 2009
35. [http://www.nfl.com/news/story?id=09000d5d8181312b&template=with-video-with-comments&confirm=true Ex-Bucs QB Williams leaving front-office job after meeting with GM] National Football League, May 11, 2010
36. (September 11, 2013). "Doug Williams fired as Grambling State's head football coach". WJLA.
37. [https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/football-insider/wp/2014/02/10/redskins-hire-doug-williams/ Redskins hire Doug Williams] ''The Washington Post'', February 10, 2014
38. (June 13, 2017). "Redskins Promote Doug Williams To Senior Vice President Of Player Personnel". Redskins.com.
39. Keim, John. (June 13, 2017). "Doug Williams to serve as senior VP of player personnel for Redskins". ESPN.
40. "Redskins Name Doug Williams Senior Vice President Of Player Development".
41. Jhabvala, Nicki. (February 4, 2021). "Doug Williams takes on new role with Washington Football Team". The Washington Post.
42. Rick Snider, "Doug Williams – From Stardom to Obscurity and Back Again," ''Street & Smith's Pro Football 1994,'' pp. 76-77.
43. (January 17, 1981). "Grambling quarterback Mike Williams, the younger brother of Tampa...". [[United Press International]].
44. "Adrian Williams". Brown University Athletics.
45. Geitheim, Eva. (January 14, 2026). "Commanders Hire Son of a Franchise Legend As New Quarterbacks Coach".
46. (July 23, 2024). "Three Standouts Sign On For USC Women's Basketball".
47. "J.J. Huggins". all-xfl.com.
48. "About Us". Black College Football Hall of Fame.
49. Stackpole, Kyle. (July 12, 2019). "Grambling State Honors Doug Williams With Street Name".