Publishers Weekly
07/10/2023
This insightful chronicle by former Baltimore Sun columnist Eisenberg (The Longest Shot) examines the discrimination faced by Black quarterbacks in professional football, beginning in 1923 when Fritz Pollard of the Hammond Pros became the first African American quarterback to start for an NFL team. However, as the position grew in esteem over the ensuing decades, white general managers and coaches insisted that only white men could handle the intellectual rigor it required. Aspiring quarterbacks of color were advised to play wide receiver instead, and those who made the cut were sometimes asked to perform demeaning jobs or housed in inferior quarters. Eisenberg traces how the accomplishments of such players as Randall Cunningham in the 1980s and ’90s led front offices to reconsider their racial assumptions, culminating in the Atlanta Falcons selecting Michael Vick as the first pick in the 2001 draft. Eisenberg cautions, however, that progress has been uneven, as seen in the NFL allegedly shutting out Colin Kaepernick for protesting police brutality. Eisenberg’s indictment of the pro leagues is scathing, and he makes clear the personal toll racism took on Black quarterbacks, as when he describes James Harris’s despair after getting passed up for obviously inferior white players in the 1969 NFL draft. It’s an incisive appraisal of how racism has shaped who gets to play the “most pivotal and glamorous” position in football. (Sept.)
From the Publisher
Illuminating.” —Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
“As thorough an examination of the question of both race and the quarterback position in professional football, as can be found anywhere.” —New York Journal of Books
“A vigorously told story of the battle for equity on the gridiron, a battle that is still playing out.” —Kirkus
“Compelling…Eisenberg meticulously chronicles the struggles and success of NFL Black quarterbacks.” —Booklist
“An insightful behind-the-scenes peek at the NFL and its continuing prejudices that negate the concept that the best quarterback should play, regardless of race. Rich with commentary from interviews, this expansive narrative is ideal for football lovers and readers interested in developments in U.S. race relations and the compelling stories behind some athletes’ paths and experiences.” —Library Journal
“An incisive appraisal of how racism has shaped who gets to play the ‘most pivotal and glamorous’ position in football.” —Publishers Weekly
“In Rocket Men, John Eisenberg pulls off a tough but neat trick. He has written a book that offers both a compelling story and a blunt look at the history of race in the NFL through the sport’s most important position. It is written with grace, kindness, and an understanding eye towards the players who endured horrid discrimination, without sparing the perpetrators of that bigotry. Highly recommended.” —Mike Freeman, author of Football’s Fearless Activists
“Rocket Men expertly tells the story of an important evolution in pro football over the course of nearly a hundred years, encompassing everything from the reluctance of teams to play Black quarterbacks Marlin Briscoe and James Harris at the beginning of the Super Bowl era in the mid-'60s all the way to the historic matchup of Patrick Mahomes and Jalen Hurts starting against each other in Super Bowl LVII. As expected, Eisenberg's interviews and research are flawless.” —Gary Myers, New York Times–bestselling author of Brady vs. Manning
“Rocket Men shines a spotlight on the important, yet often overlooked story of Black invisibility in professional football. This comprehensive history reveals that talented African American quarterbacks, whether unjustly passed over, benched, or shifted to different positions, have been hidden in plain sight since the earliest days of the NFL. Moving from the likes of Willie Thrower to Doug Williams to Lamar Jackson, Eisenberg traces pro football’s institutional racism, both on and off the field, with honesty, measure, and eloquence.” —Theresa Runstedtler, author of Black Ball
Library Journal
08/01/2023
Covering more than a century, this book by award-winning sportswriter Eisenberg (The League) exposes the stereotypes and institutional racism that Black people have battled to play as quarterbacks in the National Football League (NFL). Twenty-nine chapters span from Fritz Pollard's October 1923 quarterback role to the 2022 NFL season that included 18 Black quarterbacks—10 starters, eight backups. Through 1985, no NFL season saw more than two Black starting quarterbacks. In fact, the gridiron was white-only from 1934 to 1946, during the NFL's ban of Black players. Backgrounding aspiring Black quarterbacks over the years, the book indicates changes in society and on the field, as franchises, owners, and coaches hindered or helped players of color. The author takes special care to unfold the spike in opportunity in the 1990s that produced the 2000 season's unsurpassed peak of 14 Black starting quarterbacks. VERDICT An insightful behind-the-scenes peek at the NFL and its continuing prejudices that negate the concept that the best quarterback should play, regardless of race. Rich with commentary from interviews, this expansive narrative is ideal for football lovers and readers interested in developments in U.S. race relations and the compelling stories behind some athletes' paths and experiences.—Thomas J. Davis
Kirkus Reviews
2023-06-15
A history of the agonizingly slow acceptance of Black quarterbacks in professional football.
Who recognizes the name Frederick Douglass “Fritz” Pollard? A Black Illinoisan born in 1895, Pollard was taught by his parents “to interact respectfully with whites but also to stand up for themselves when necessary.” As veteran sportswriter Eisenberg notes, he later became “the NFL’s first Black quarterback” as well as “the first Black player to participate in the game that became known as the Rose Bowl…and the first Black head coach in the NFL.” Pollard is not better known because after his time on the field, which ended in the mid-1920s, Black players were frozen out of the game, “and by the time the tiniest trickle of Black players resurfaced after World War II, the quarterback position had evolved, emerging as football’s most glamorous and complex role, deemed so important and challenging that owners and coaches would not dare trust a Black man with it.” That lack of trust was born of pure racism, of course, and the unfounded assumption that Black players lacked the intelligence to captain a team. Eventually, players such as Buffalo’s James Harris proved that assumption wrong—though Harris, a star college player, was selected No. 148th in the NFL draft, “a slap in the face.” Finally, in 1974, then with the Los Angeles Rams, Harris “became the first Black quarterback to start an NFL playoff game.” It would be another decade before two Black quarterbacks faced each other. Two decades after that, when Michael Vick ran afoul of the law, Black players were again effectively frozen out of the position. Now, of course, the situation has changed utterly: Aaron Rodgers, Eisenberg points out, is the NFL’s highest-paid player, but after him come four "Black quarterbacks with contracts worth more than $1 billion combined.”
A vigorously told story of the battle for equity on the gridiron, a battle that is still playing out.
