June 27, 2002

SO LONG RANDALL: Quarterback Randall

SO LONG RANDALL: Quarterback Randall Cunningham announced yesterday that he plans to retire from the National Football League. Cunningham first arrived on the NFL scene as the Philadelphia Eagles' young, gunslinging QB in the late '80s, later wearing out his welcome in Philly, retiring, and then improbably making a comeback with the 15-1 Minnesota Vikings in 1998, who he led to within a chip-shot field goal (fuck you, Gary Anderson) of Super Bowl XXXIII. Cunningham's primary legacy will be that of a trailblazer: he was the first quick, mobile, African-American quarterback to prove to coaches that QB wasn't merely a white guy's position- in the early '90s Randall and Warren Moon were the NFL's only prominent black quarterbacks, and now there's at least one on almost every team.
Randall McDaniel, the future Hall of Fame lineman on that '98 team, also recently retired, meaning that of the group of four players that included three Randalls and two McDaniels (John Randle, Randall Cunningham, Randall McDaniel, and Ed McDaniel), only John Randle remains active in the league.

Posted by Stephen Silver at June 27, 2002 03:37 AM
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