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Doug Williams is a well-known American football quarterback.
Williams was the 1st pick of the 1978 draft, chosen by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. He led them to 3 playoff appearances and 1 NFC title game from 1978 to 1982, but an acrimonious contract dispute with the team owner led Williams to leave the Bucs and the NFL to play in the United States Football League. In 1986, Williams returned to the NFL, joining the Washington Redskins at the behest of Redskins coach Joe Gibbs, who had been the quarterbacks coach at Tampa Bay when Williams was there.
Initially Williams served as the backup for starting quarterback Jay Schroeder, but after Schroeder became injured, Williams ended up starting many of the games during the 1987 regular season. When the Skins made the playoffs, Williams was chosen to be the starter. He led the team to Super Bowl XXII, becoming the first black quarterback to play in the Super Bowl. Facing Broncos quarterback John Elway, Williams helped engineer a 42-10 rout, in which the Redskins set an NFL record by scoring 5 touchdowns in the second quarter. Williams completed 18 of 29 passes for 340 yards, with 4 TD passes, and was named Super Bowl MVP.
That was the high point of Williams's NFL career. He suffered from several injuries the following season, and was released by the Redskins a year later. Unable to get a position on another team, Williams ended up retiring from football.
Williams became the head football coach at Grambling State University in 1998, succeeding the legendary Eddie Robinson. He led the Tigers to 3 consecutive Southwestern Athletic Conference titles from 2000-2002, before leaving to rejoin the Tampa Bay Buccaneers as a personnel executive.
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