Marlin The Magician Briscoe!

 

Marlin Briscoe died the other day. He has that distinction of being the first black starting QB in the NFL thats for sure and he should be in the Pro Football Hall of Fame but aside from all that, he was from Omaha.

Omaha has not that many athletes who make it big. When I was a kid there were the big ones that included Gale Sayers, Bob Gibson, Bob Boozer, Ron Boone, Johnny Rodgers and that was about it. Marlin Briscoe was one who never really thought of with pride by this city until the last few years. Marlin was a starting QB for what was known as the University of Omaha, a commuter college in the heart of the city. It was city run at the time, maybe the last of its kind, and its students were generally older and not really into the athletics. In 1963-67 Marlin Briscoe started for the U of O Indians (to its credit the university changed the name in 1970 to Mavericks way before most other schools with similar slurs did) and quite frankly I was way too young to appreciate anything other than Twins baseball and Gale Sayers running wild for my Bears. Oh what a sight it must have been at the old stadium to the Magician play. 

Briscoe of course started for the Broncos at QB for 5 games in 1968 and statistically was as good as anybody. But of course back then black quarterbacks were thought of as not all that bright, unable to handle the intensity of playing QB and not the face the racists who ran NFL teams wanted to put out there. Now of course if being smart was a qualifier to play QB in the NFL there'd be nothing but a band of Ryan Fitzpatricks out there making everybody 9-8 or 8-9. So Briscoe was sent packing to Buffalo and turned into a wide receiver and later to Miami where he won a couple of rings before the age and the drugs turned him into an ex player.

He later got off the dope and ran counseling centers in California to help others with similar problems. 

Marlin died before he got what he had earned. Hall of Fame status, adoration from his hometown, and a damned movie that has been bouncing around for years and never was made.

For chrissakes, put the man in the HOF, name a building or something at UNO after him, and get the movie made and out there so the whole world knows who this trailblazer was.