Each week, BV Sports will look back at the top performances by black quarterbacks in each round of the playoffs. This week, we run down the best divisional round performances of all time. Click here for the best wild card performances. 1. James "Shack" Harris, L.A. Rams vs. Washington Redskins, 1975 – The former Grambling star tops the list not for what he did on the field but for the fact he was on the field at all. Harris was thrust into the starting quarterback spot after the Rams traded starting quarterback John Hadl five games into the season. Harris turned a 3-2 start into a 10-4 record and a berth in the 1975 playoffs. Harris’ statistics weren’t gaudy that day, but when he connected for a 10-yard touchdown pass in the first quarter in the first playoff game ever started by a black quarterback, its impact rang well beyond the 19-10 final score. One week later, Harris nearly became the first black quarterback to earn a spot in the Super Bowl, but a 14-10 loss to the Vikings mean that honor would wait 13 years until another Grambling product went storming all the way to the Super Bowl MVP.
2. Daunte Culpepper, Minnesota Vikings vs. New Orleans Saints, 2001 – How far had black quarterbacks come in the quarter century since Harris’ playoff start? Of the six NFC teams that qualified for the playoffs after the 2000, four had black quarterbacks. Three of those, Culpepper, Aaron Brooks of the Saints and the Eagle’s Donovan McNabb survived to the divisional round. None played better than Culpepper. In his first season as a starter (and just his second on the team – his rookie year he threw no passes), Culpepper exploded for nearly 4,000 yards and 33 touchdowns. His first playoff game was no different. The Central Florida star passed for 302 yards and three touchdowns and rushed for another 51 yards in what remains the best playoff performance of his career. Brooks put up a fight on the other side, hoping to turn the Saints’ first ever playoff victory into its first ever playoff win streak. Brooks completed 30 passes for 295 yards and two touchdowns, but his arm was all there was to the Saints offense as Ricky Williams earned just 14 yards on the ground and the Vikings rolled 34-16.
3. Randall Cunningham, Minnesota Vikings vs. Arizona Cardinals, 1999 – Cunningham’s return to the NFL was as successful as it was unexpected. After a full season out of football following the 1995 season, Cunningham returned as a backup quarterback in Minnesota in 1997 and as the leader of one of the most potent offensive attacks the NFL in 1998. With a supporting cast including rookie wide receiver Randy Moss, certain Hall of Famer Cris Carter and All-Pro running back Rod Smith, Cunningham threw for a career-high 34 touchdowns. The aerial show led to a 15-1 season and a divisional round romp of the Arizona Cardinals. Cunningham passed for 236 yards and three touchdowns as the Vikings bounced the Cardinals from the playoffs 41-21. It would be the last hurrah for Cunningham. The Vikings would go on to lose a heartbreaking NFC Championship to the Falcons as Cunningham’s last productive season came to an end.
4. Donovan McNabb, Philadelphia Eagles vs. Chicago Bears, 2002 – McNabb’s emergence from draft day boos to the face of the Eagles was further bolstered in the divisional round after the 2001 season. McNabb followed up his two-touchdown effort in the wild card round with a team-carrying 26-completion, 262-yard, two-touchdown day, upsetting the favored Bears and recording the team’s first back-to-back playoff wins since the team’s 1980 Super Bowl season. McNabb scampered for a third touchdown to lead Philly to a 33-19 win, which would be the last of the season for the Eagles.. It would take two more failed NFC championship games before McNabb would take the next step.
5. Donovan McNabb, Philadelphia Eagles vs. Green Bay Packers, 2004 – McNabb’s season would end in a sour note when the Eagles lost their third straight NFC title game, but not before McNabb recorded his most complete playoff game to date. The Philly quarterback passed for 248 yards and two touchdowns and scrambled for 107 more. But the game would forever be known by a single play, “4th and 26.” With 1:12 left in the fourth quarter and the Eagles trailing 17-14, McNabb hit wide receiver Freddie Mitchell for an improbable first down, setting up David Akers’ 37-yard field goal to send the game into overtime. Akers banged a 31-yard try home in overtime to secure the Eagles win.
6. Warren Moon, Houston Oilers vs. Denver Broncos, 1992 – Four years after Doug Williams became the first black quarterback in Super Bowl history, Moon was poised to live that dream himself. After passing for nearly 4,700 yards in the regular season, Moon led the Oilers into the playoffs and past the Jets in the wild card round. Unfortunately for Moon, that would be the final playoff win of his career. Moon stuffed the stat-sheet against the same team Williams torched in the 1988 Super Bowl, passing for 325 yards and three touchdowns. But like many of Moon’s great playoff performances, the defense didn’t hold and the offense produced just one extra field goal. The Broncos moved to the AFC Championship with a 26-24 win.
