For former Broncos QB Briscoe, breaking barriers wasn't easy

By Lynn DeBruin, Rocky Mountain News (Contact)

Published October 2, 2008 at 7:23 p.m.

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Former Broncos quarterback Marlin Briscoe is photographed at the Eastman-Fairfield Boys & Girls Club in Long Beach, California where he is Assistant Director.

Former Broncos quarterback Marlin Briscoe signs a football for a child at the Eastman-Fairfield Boys & Girls Club in Long Beach, California where he is Assistant Director.

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His hair is gray now, and his receivers the young boys and girls he mentors at a club in Southern California.

But 40 years ago, Marlin Briscoe played on the biggest stage there was, at a time when being a quarterback in the pros undoubtedly meant being white.

"I take great pride in that God chose me to be the one to break the barrier," said Briscoe, who made pro football history Oct. 6, 1968, as a member of the Broncos when he became the first black quarterback to start a game. "I was given an opportunity and made the best of it."

Indeed, before flashy receiver Brandon Marshall popularized No. 15 or prolific kicker Jim Turner had it painted alongside his name in the Ring of Fame, it belonged to a determined young man from Omaha simply known as the "Magician."

"He was hard to catch, very elusive and you couldn't get a bead on him because once you did, he was someplace else," Broncos legend Floyd Little said of the 5-foot-11, 177-pound Briscoe. "He would disappear. It's why they called him 'Marlin the Magician.' He had all kinds of moves and he was always appearing and disappearing."

True enough, just like that, he was gone from the Broncos, but not before pioneering the way for NFL quarterbacks such as Doug Williams and Warren Moon.

After setting a rookie record for quarterbacks that stands today (14 touchdowns), Briscoe was jettisoned and never started another game at the position, although he went on to become a record-setting receiver and two-time Super Bowl champion with the Miami Dolphins.

"He could have done a lot for the Denver Broncos had we given him the opportunity to be our quarterback the next year," said Little, who devoted a section of his book, Tales from the Broncos Sideline, to Briscoe.

"He's still a little bit angry, and I don't blame him. He would have been a great one."

Different rock

That Briscoe even got an opportunity is a testament to his perseverance. That he's alive today to talk about it even more remarkable.

Cracking the color barrier in 1968 - it was a year in which Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated and racial tension escalated - was tough. Overcoming a decadelong addiction to cocaine was even tougher.

"I had a natural ability to play the game, but overcoming an addiction, that was the linebacker and cornerback that I couldn't beat," said Briscoe, now 63 and living in Long Beach, Calif.

The Magician, a movie chronicling Briscoe's life and career, is in the works to help tell his remarkable story.

Briscoe had shots fired at him in a seedy part of Los Angeles, was held at gunpoint by drug dealers regarding a debt and had his two Super Bowl rings sold as collateral for a bank loan he couldn't repay.

At one point, Briscoe said, he had sunk so low, he was down to 137 pounds, with sticks for legs and ribs visible, pooling all the change he had at 4 in the morning with former Olympic sprinter Houston McTear to buy a $5 rock of cocaine. It fueled their addiction but left them so humiliated they barely could look at one another.

"I tried to run away from drugs," Briscoe wrote in his book, The First Black Quarterback, which he plans to rerelease. "I ran to Colorado to coach. Bam! The train was there (to take me back to L.A.) I ran to Omaha. Bam! Still there. It was a nightmare. The only way to escape that dark tunnel was to wake up . . ."

Former Raiders coach Tom Flores put Briscoe in drug rehabilitation, but he fell into the abyss again. Only after a second stint in jail, 90 days in San Diego, did he muster the mental strength to come clean.

"Going to jail was the best thing that could have happened to me," he wrote. "Had I not gone to jail, I might still be out there on drugs. Or dead. In jail, every night after curfew, I had time to think. And every day, while I was pushing a broom or scrubbing the bathroom, I had time to think. I'd have flashbacks of the man I used to be. I'd hear the applause."

Briscoe drops to pass . . . He fires it off . . . Touchdown!

Rock bottom

Reliving those memories behind iron bars proved to be rock bottom.

But to pull himself out of the nightmare, Briscoe first had to walk the walk.

The man smart enough to negotiate a three-day tryout at quarterback with a Broncos team that drafted him as a defensive back in the 14th round admitted the toughest journey he ever made was the walk from jail through San Diego's drug haven after his release in 1990.

He had $500 in his pocket thanks to Hall of Fame receiver Lance Alworth and a ride awaiting him to Los Angeles, where he had plans to teach again and start anew.

But he had to pass through an area infested with drug dealers and women who knew his name and were offering the "rock" he so craved.

"With the kind of money I had in my hand, I knew I could have stayed high a long time. Not stopping was the most difficult thing I've ever done," he wrote.

Signs of change

These days, Briscoe looks back and finds it hard to believe the drug addiction ever happened. But he need only look at the TV to see how far the world has come since 1968.

The movie The Express, about Ernie Davis, the first black to win the Heisman Trophy, is set to be released Oct. 10. And Barack Obama is the Democratic Party's nominee for president.

"I did an interview with The Washington Post, and they asked me to comment on what I did in '68 and how it parallels to what Obama is going through in this historic moment. And the parallels are right up there with each other," he said.

A black man as field general of his team; and a black man running this country.

"I firmly believe that he has been chosen as the one to do that, and I believe, after 40 years, somehow I was chosen to do that," Briscoe said. "Even though I played the position one year, it was significant that I succeed in order for the African-American quarterbacks playing today to get an opportunity."

Ahead of his time

Like other black quarterbacks of that era, Briscoe first had much to overcome.

There was the broken neck in college, an injury doctors at first said meant he'd never play again.

Then, even after a college career in which Briscoe earned NAIA All-America honors, the Broncos drafted him with no intention of playing him at quarterback.

Briscoe, knowing training camp would be open to the public and the media, insisted on a three-day tryout before making the switch to cornerback.

When starter Steve Tensi was injured before the season and his replacements proved to be disappointments, coach Lou Saban turned to Briscoe.

"I knew that failure was not an option, because if I hadn't proved that a black man could think, throw and lead, it would have been years before another black man would have been given an opportunity," Briscoe said.

Briscoe completed his first three passes in a relief role and nearly pulled off a comeback against the Boston Patriots in the third game of the season.

But he lost his job after an erratic performance in his historic start the next week against Cincinnati, then regained it when Tensi was hurt against Oakland and finished the 5-9 season as a starter.

His numbers weren't great (93-for-224, 1,589 yards, 14 touchdowns, 13 interceptions), but they were comparable to Hall of Famer John Elway in his rookie season (123-for-259, 1,663 yards, seven touchdowns, 14 interceptions) and good enough that he finished second in Rookie of the Year voting.

Plus, there were some highlight-reel moments, including one against Buffalo that Little said saved his career in Denver.

Miracle play

Little had just been "fired" by Saban after his last-minute fumble seemingly had cost the Broncos the game. And he was headed to the showers believing he never would play another down for the Broncos.

Instead, he barged back into the huddle, flipped a foul finger at his coach and told the rookie quarterback to throw it as far as he could.

"In the South Stands if you want. I don't give a (darn). I'll go get it," Little said.

Briscoe obliged.

The result was a 69-yard completion with 5 seconds left that set up a decisive field goal in a 34-32 win.

"Miracle throw. Miracle catch. The rest is history," Little said.

While Little went on to lead the Broncos in rushing seven consecutive seasons and earn a spot in the Ring of Fame, Briscoe would have to learn a position he never played, with a new team.

Briscoe spoke of clandestine quarterback meetings without him as an indication he wasn't going to get another opportunity at quarterback with the Broncos.

"I was labeled a malcontent because I wanted to compete in '69 at quarterback," Briscoe said. "I felt I deserved it and I'll go to my grave with my stand on that."

Little said he was told Briscoe wanted more money.

But Doug Williams, who was given an opportunity as a black quarterback in the NFL 10 years later with Tampa Bay, said Briscoe simply was ahead of his time.

"His success put them in a bind. They either had to keep him and let him play or get rid of him," said Williams, the Most Valuable Player in the Redskins' 42-10 win against the Broncos in Super Bowl XXII and now a key member of Tampa Bay's personnel department.

"I don't know how much the idea of giving an African-American quarterback an opportunity to play was in their head back then. Sometimes it's hard to bust open a skull."

After seeing Briscoe highlights, Williams is convinced of one thing.

"Today, Marlin Briscoe would be something to watch in the NFL," he said. "It ain't about who you are now; it's about who can get the job done."

Telling his story

Briscoe is hoping the movie about his life will show that and provide inspiration, just as he tries to do as an assistant director of Eastman Boys & Girls Club in Long Beach when he talks to kids about the pitfalls of drugs.

"(Mine) was an improbable story, but the story is, 'Never give up,' " said Briscoe, who just hired a director on the project.

The movie also should provide a history lesson for guys such as Marshall, who until this week had no idea who wore No. 15 before him.

"That's no different than in baseball when Frank Thomas didn't know who Curt Flood was," Williams said of the man who paved the way for free agency in Major League Baseball. "It's the same thing. If you're not taught the history, you probably won't know the history."

• October 3, 2008

  10:43 a.m.

  Suggest removal

  twystd1 writes:

  I'll never forget being an 19 year old sitting in the south stands during the 1968 season. Never had so much fun at football games, Mile High was truly nuts back then. We had a pretty bad team, but you never heard a boo (unless directed at the Ref, or other the team), unlike the fair weather "fans" of today. Even penalties on the other team were greeted with WILD celebration, like we scored a touchdown or something!

  Marlin's scrambling ability was truly amazing, really brought it to another level. In the day, Fran Tarkenton was considered the best scrambler, but Marlin took it to another level. He truly earned the magician tag. He and Floyd provided most of the bright spots in an otherwise pretty bad team. However they were our bad team, and we loved them.

  If perhaps Marlin you are reading this, just want to thank you for the really fun memories. I was so sorry to see that you weren't back under center the next year, truly unforgetable.

  twystd1

• October 3, 2008

  1:10 p.m.

  Suggest removal

  incognitoboy writes:

  dang, i've seen the name marlin briscoe in relation to the broncos before, but never knew he was black! guess i never payed enough attention to dolphins history, either, or i might have known from there.

  great story, and i'm glad for mr. briscoe that it has a happy ending. that's a movie i'd like to see!

  just as a humorous side note....i met gilbert brown yesterday in lacrosse, wi.

  said hi, shook his hand. asked him how post-football life was treating him. didn't bother telling him i'm a bronco fan and that i was screaming at him and calling him a blob on the t.v. 10 yrs ago as T.D. was running past him ...... he's still pretty big and i just didn't want to die! ;-)

• October 3, 2008

  3:19 p.m.

  Suggest removal

  shilo writes:

  I can't tell you how fun as a kid it was to watch Malin Briscoe and I can't tell you how much money I've made betting know it alls about who was the first black QB. Thanks Marlin for not only the memories but the extra cash and of course the looks on those guys faces when they find out it wasn't Doug Williams!

• October 3, 2008

  9:13 p.m.

  Suggest removal

  Spider writes:

  I was a 19 year old in 1971 the first time I had the opportunity to watch a game in person at Mile High. So, I only saw Marlin Briscoe play on TV in 1968. I'll tell you one thing though, he was such a gifted athlete he could have played any position he wanted and would rank in the top 10 at whatever position he wound up playing.

• October 5, 2008

  10:35 a.m.

  Suggest removal

  voicewithin writes:

  Briscoe was a lot of fun for all the kids in my neighborhood. We were so excited about him playing Q.B. Tensi was a bust! Briscoe offered hope to the Broncos... I remember talking about Briscoe with friends at Stevens Elementary School as we played football in what used to be the softball field, now a series of garages. One of the kids we played with is dead. He died of drugs. Another was in jail...

  I think about Briscoe every now and then. I hope he has a long good life. If I'm ever in Long Beach maybe I will try to look him up... Thanks Briscoe...

• October 6, 2008

  11:21 a.m.

  Suggest removal

  arvada_mark writes:

  Good piece, Lynn. My dad used to tell me about "this Briscoe guy" who was the first black QB & how he could pretty much dance circles around defenders. I never knew, however, about his drug problems. I bought that Floyd Little book for my dad, I'll have to borrow it from him. The article tries to skate around the issue, but it is too bad our Broncos were apart of that racist BS that seemed to be part of how things worked back then (I was born in '74). I want to be proud that the Broncos were the team to "break the barrier," but at the same time it's disappointing we were also reluctant to play him & only did so in lieu of injury.

  My bright idea of the day: The team store should sell throwback #15 Briscoe jerseys & give the profits to his Boys & Girls Club.

• October 6, 2008

  8:01 p.m.

  Suggest removal

  incognitoboy writes:

  arvada_mark :

  that sounds like a great idea, probably best served around the time the movie comes out. you can contact the broncos thru their website and suggest it, but will they be amenable to sending proceeds out-of-state?

  more likely they would want to donate to rev. kelly's program or the d.will center in denver area.

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