Warren Moon: Why he went to the CFL to play Quarterback 

I remember when I was a kid and watched Washington in the 1978 Rose Bowl, and saw Warren Moon, and he was amazing in that game. But he never even got drafted as a Quarterback. So he went to Edmonton. And shined. And the rest is history.

There were black qbs in the CFL long before they were given a real chance in the NFL. In the 70s we had Chuck Ealey,Condredge Holloway,Warren Moon,Jimmy Jones,Matthew Reed and a number of others I can't recall right now. In the early 60s there was Sandy Stephens. The Argos had a black running back and punter named Dave Mann(retired in 1970). During this time I can only recall one black qb of note in the NFL,James Harris of the Rams,usually a second stringer to Pat Haden. Joe Gilliam was a Steeler but a third stringer. There was more money in the CFL too. Bidding wars eventually forced the NFL out of its relative cheapness. Lots of football firsts took place in the CFL. The modern goal posts first appeared in Hamilton. Sure,cable tv helped the NFL enormously;however,the threat of the CFL----admittedly long gone;few people care about it now---helped it succeed too. College football was,for a number of decades,far more popular than the NFL. Sometimes we forget how certain things evolve. Sometimes we don't have any knowledge of the evolution itself.

Thanks for coming to Canada ! A real gentleman and Brilliant player.

Five (5) Grey Cup WINS in a row. I'd take that.

Best QB I ever seen and I saw them all!

Look.....aa a Canadian I am so happy to get to know some of these black players.........always welcome!

Doug Williams got a shot and took TB to the Conference Champion game in 1979. Black QB 's really were treated unfairly. I'm glad Moon had a great career.

Warren is being diplomatic - he finally says it towards the end - the NFL didn't think that blacks could quarterback an NFL team - the NFL in 1978 was only willing to consider him - if he played any other position - so Warren chose the Canadian League - and they were happy to have him

CFL and NFL Hall of Famer! I don't know if there's another.

it was all about race with the NFL and Warren Moon!

cfl filed is 110 yards long and always has been - even tho' canada is metric we used yards for football and golf

I don't know why, but the NFL has seemingly always had a problem with black QBs. Oh sure, you had some who were really good like Doug Williams, Randall Cunningham, Michael Vick, Donovan McNabb and Russell Wilson but none of them compare to Warren Moon and the NFL wanted him to be a WR or DB. Think about how many QBs have played in the NFL and how many were black compared to every other position. The CFL has just never done things that way, it's probably a Canadian thing. I guess that's also why Jackie Robinson had to play with the Montreal Royals, because no American team would take a black player seriously. I guess Canada is the end of the athletic underground railroad as well. It gave Warren Moon the FREEDOM to play the position that he not only loved, but was easily one of the top 10 best ever at the position. Warren Moon's name belongs in the same conversation as Dan Fouts, John Elway, Tom Brady, Dan Marino, Fran Tarkenton, Johnny Unitas, Joe Montana, Roger Staubach and Peyton Manning. How many white Quarterbacks were drafted the year that Moon went to the Eskimos who were allowed to play QB and couldn't even hold a candle to him? The answer: ALL OF THEM. Warren Moon is a class act. He and Doug Flutie are the best ambassadors of Canadian Football in history and they're both American. Go figure.

Edmonton drafted him in the supplemental draft.

We all know why you wasn't giving a chance to play quarterback in the NFL at that time.

Lamar Jackson today..... Only today, Jackson will be drafted

NFL hating on tha Black QB

Man the NFL had a racist view of the quarterback position back in the 90s.