Third and a Mile: The Trials and Triumphs of the Black Quarterback: An Oral History

Long after Jackie Robinson broke baseball’s color barrier and after Texas Western beat Kentucky to shake up the basketball world. America’s African-American quarterbacks found themselves trapped on football’s sidelines, unable to play the game they loved unless they moved to wide receiver—or Canada. A collection of voices young and old, William C. Rhoden’s Third and a Mile chronicles for the first time the heroic struggle to topple the sports world’s staunchest racial barrier. Filled with personal anecdotes and firsthand recollections, the book includes testimony from NFL greats such as Warren Moon, Doug Williams, Vince Evans, James Harris, Martin Briscoe, Donovan McNabb, Steve McNair, Daunte Culpepper, and Michael Vick.William C. Rhoden has been a reporter and sports columnist for The New York Times since 1983. Prior to that, he worked at The Baltimore Sun and Ebony magazine. He is also the author of Forty Million Dollar Slaves: The Rise, Fall, and Redemption of the Black Athlete. In the late 1960s, he studied black quarterbacks up close as a starting defensive back on Morgan State University’s football team. He lives with his wife and daughter in New York.