From Sunday's TIMES and NEWS-STAR
Butch
John, an old friend who died Tuesday, was probably quizzed with an old and
dusty question by St. Peter at the gates:
“So,
YOU’RE the guy who asked the dumbest Super Bowl Question of All-Time?!”
And
I suppose Butch shook his head and said, “You heard it wrong too? YOU?!” Either
that, or, “I thought things were supposed to be perfect here?...Sigh.”
They
say if the legend is better than the fact, print the legend. I hope it doesn’t
really work that way in eternity, though.
Truth
is, Butch never asked Doug Williams this question: “How long have you been a
black quarterback?” But since Media Day of the 1988 Super Bowl, that’s been the
legend. It sounded better – or worse – than what really happened. So that’s
been the story. Orlando Sentinel columnist Mike Bianchi said it was “the
question that plagued (Butch) throughout his journalism career.”
A
long time ago when Butch covered LSU for the Clarion-Ledger in Jackson, Miss.,
and Bianchi covered Florida’s Gators in Gainesville and I covered LSU in New
Orleans, we wound up in the same press boxes often. But at the 1988 Super Bowl in
San Diego when Williams, a former first-team All-America quarterback at
Grambling, was named MVP and his Washington team drilled Denver, 42-10, I
wasn’t there. Butch was.
A
main pregame topic was Williams being the first black quarterback to start a
Super Bowl. This is how The Question Fumble began, as recalled by Bianchi, who
asked Butch about it in 2007 before a Super Bowl that, like the one in ’88,
produced a race-related storyline: Tony Dungy of Indianapolis and Lovie Smith
of Chicago’s Bears were the first head coaches to oppose each other in the
title game.
“For about 20 minutes, reporters pelted Williams with
questions about the historical significance of being the first black
quarterback to start in the Super Bowl,” Bianchi wrote then.
“It was clear Williams was getting a bit tired of the
questions, so John thought he would approach the topic another way. He recalled
something Williams had said earlier in the season about how being a black
quarterback hadn't even been an issue until he got to the NFL. That's when John
asked his real question:
"The question I asked was this," John says now.
"I said, 'Doug, it's obvious
you've been a black quarterback all your life. When did it start to matter?'
“Not a dumb question at all. In fact, quite a profound one.
Except Williams didn't hear it correctly, did a double-take and repeated what
he thought he heard: ‘What? How long have I been a black quarterback?’
“And that was that. The misheard question was too good to not be true, at least in
the memories of those who were there and those who sustained the urban legend.”
Though several reporters backed up
Butch’s story, local papers printed what became an NFL and Super Bowl myth.
Butch was well-schooled in hype: to fight back was futile.
But more than 25 years later, that
question is still “a thing.” In an otherwise legitimate argument he recently
made about prejudice, ESPN reporter Scott Van Pelt erroneously cited that 1988 “question”
and said it really happened. Which would be true if it weren’t false.
Butch retired years ago and worked
sparingly because of a degenerative spine condition. He had long ago left sports
to write news and feature pieces, ending in Louisville, Ky., where he passed
away at 60. Though “The Question” was a pest, physical issues trumped all that.
“Well, I have a brain tumor…two of
them actually,” he wrote in June on his Facebook page. “The final pathology report
is not in yet, but it's definitely malignant. We are still in the hospital
after having the biopsy surgery yesterday. Tomorrow more doctors are supposed
to come by and talk to us about the treatment…All I want to do is go home to my
cats. Thanks for all the good wishes.”
The
Super Bowl story is funny, even though it’s not true. But in real life, I’d
rather this week it had been the myth that died, and not Butch.
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