Black College Sports Review sssss
Totten has
By ROSCOE NANCE
. Review Columnist
WHOEVER SAID the more things
change the more they remain the same
must have had an eye on Draft Day '86
in the National Football League.
TU. MP!?I.? L-J I -*
i iic nrL uaa imu a iung msiory 01
shunning black quarterbacks. It did it
once again this year, bypassing
Mississippi Valley's Willie Totten.
It was a crime against nature.
If Totten's records were laid end to
end,v they would stretch from the
Mississippi Valley campus in Itta Bena
to Commissioner Pete Rozelle's office
in the heart of New York. At 6-2 and
200 pounds, he has the size the pros
covet, and he played in a pass-oriented
offense.
/
So why did everybody look the other
way on draft day?
"It's ama7ing " caiH Mmminri,
_ _ ^ | W ? ?
Valley Athletic Director Chuck Prophet.
''Everybody said he wouldn't be
a first-round pick. I could understand
that; I thought he'd be a fifth- or sixthround
pick."
That it didn't happen that way is incredible.
"I'm not an authority to say who the
NFL should draft," said Valley Coach
Archie 4'Gunslinger" Cooley. "But
any time an individual owns all the
records, Division I-AA or what, there's
something good about him. For him
A
noi 10 oe oraitea is a slap in the face."
No, coach. It's more like a blow
below the belt. But it's nothing new. It
seems to always happen to quarterbacks
from historically black schools.
They are either not drafted, drafted
Page 4-May, 1986
ln?? *f "III' ^ ** ?
T^~???-hS
- 1
it
B I
I Willie Totten: That he was n<
P (photos by Mark Gail).
and put at another position or brought
to camp and forgotten.
You won't get any of the NFL's 28
teams to say Totten was shafted.
They'll tell you it was purely a coincidence
that he's a black quarterback
from a historically black school.
?i if r.ii * ? - -
ii yuu ion ior uiai, mayoc you'd nice
to buy a bridge for sate out in San
Francisco. There's no way there were
333 college football players better than
Totten.
No matter what the NFL highbrows
say, they still see the quarterback position
as the front of the bus, and blades
are not wanted there. For the few who
have been allowed up front, it's been a
whirlwind ride.
Ask Doug Williams.
Even though he led the Tampa Bay
Buccaneers out of obscurity to the
brink of the Super Bowl, they saw fit
>tell NFL wf
WL m
H I
:
01^fc;>:* ^-Zi&i&t:'"3 * is
J?* ^Km
?Hfcg|g
jot drafted, period, is inexplicable
not to sign him when he became a free
agent. And even though everybody and
his brother in the NFL seems to be in
need of an experienced quarterback,
no one has given him a call.
Then there was James Harris. He led
the league in passing with the Los
Angeles Rams, only to lose his job tohometown
hero Pat Haden. And what
about Joe Gilliam, who led the Pittsburgh
Steelers to a 6-0-1 record and
was benched?
The list goes on and on. Now you
can add the name of Willie Horace
Totten.
"I'm prejudiced in my thinking,"
said Cootey, "but there has to be
someunng gooo aDout him. When
things like this happeriV-it makes you
wonder if ail the things they've said are
true. They say my system is not a great
system and my quarterback is tibt a
====w=^=
great quarterback. Why were we so
successful?
"If nothing is right with us, what's
wrong with the people we're playing?
* Again, I'm not an authority. People
draft what they need. There's got to be t
something wrong."
What's wrong is that the people who
count still have their heads in the ~
wrong place. They have yet to accept
the fact that blacks from small schools
can play quarterback in the big time.
"Quarterbacks . from small black
schools are looked on different," said
Cooley. "They can never satisfy the
parties. They always find something
wrong."
Totten does have flaws. What player
coming out of college doesn't? But his
are the kind that can be corrected
through coaching. If it's perfection
they want, why even bother with the
draft?
Some scouts knocked Totten
because of his throwing motion. They
sav he throws sidearmed instead nf
over the top and that, in effect, makes
him shorter than 6-2 when he tries to
get the ball over the outstretched arms
of defensive linemen.
Let's not quibble about style. Y.A.
Tittle didn't throw over the top, and he
won for the New York Giants. Pat
Sullivan would wind up like a baseball
pitcher, but he won a Heisman Trophy
and was a No. 1 draft pick.
But then, Tittle and Sullivan weren't
black.
Results, not style or race, should be
the issue.
Some scouts questioned Totten's
arm and wondered if he could throw
deep 7
Totten's arm strength should be
above question. He averaaed 40 oasses
a game in his college career, practiced
twice a day and never had a sore arm.
As for throwing deep, there was no
need for him to do it. Valley's offense
was predicated on timing and precision
passing, not the bomb.
Besides, other than the Los Angeles
Raiders, how many NFL teams throw
deep?
TTiat's a cop-out.
It appears that a predraft smear
campaign might have hurt Totten. A
couple of weeks before the draft, word
that Totten had given Cooley some
nrnhlmc -??J
r. wmua duuvmi illmuil^ uic iuui1u3
No one knows from where the rumor
emanated, and there's no way to determine
how much damage it did.
But it's safe to say that being labeled
a bad actor didn't help.
1 "He's not the kind of Idd to argue
.with a coach," saidCooley. "His mannerism
is not that. He is not fiery. That
Please See Page 15
1