RGIII will narrate Doug Williams piece for ESPN

DarthMonk · Post by **DarthMonk** » Thu Jan 31, 2013 10:38 pm

WP~

Like many of you, I was of the opinion that too much was made of Robert Griffin III’s race during his rookie season. For a team that so recently marketed itself around Jason Campbell, and then around Donovan McNabb, the Redskins handing their offense to a Heisman Trophy winning QB who happened to be black didn’t seem like a huge deal.

The Doug Williams situation, though, was quite a bit different. The Post’s lead story after Williams won a Super Bowl 25 years ago Thursday — written by Bill Gildea and Leonard Shapiro — included Williams’s race in the fourth paragraph.

“In a game that focused on the quarterbacks — Williams because he was the first black to play the position in the Super Bowl, and Denver’s John Elway because of his overall brilliance — Williams staged one of pro football’s greatest big-game performances,” they wrote.

In his postgame remarks, owner Jack Kent Cooke extended his congratulations, “not just to a black quarterback, but to a great quarterback.”

And a U.S. Senate resolution praising the Redskins later that week noted that in “ignoring injury and throwing brilliant passes, [Williams] led the Redskins to a record four touchdowns in the second quarter that sealed the Super Bowl victory and shattered one of the worst racial barriers in sports.”

The racial angle, in other words, was right there in the forefront. And when ESPN decided to revisit that moment on its Super Bowl Sunday edition of Sunday’s NFL Countdown — focusing on how Williams changed the perception of black quarterbacks — they asked RGIII to provide narration. He agreed; the seven-minute piece, with Griffin’s narration, will air this weekend.

“Having the opportunity to play and win the Super Bowl 25 years ago, and to have Robert Griffin lll narrating this piece on me for ESPN, wow what a blessing!!” Williams wrote to the network, when told that RGIII was participating. “Thanks, and Hail to the Redskins.”

DarthMonk · Post by **DarthMonk** » Fri Feb 01, 2013 5:36 pm

Preview:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NdCbiXkTNEU

WP~

Obviously Robert Griffin III was going to do a terrific job narrating ESPN’s Sunday NFL Countdown piece on Doug Williams, because Robert Griffin III does a terrific job of everything.

(And take that, people who say I’m overly critical of everything Redskins.)
Anyhow, based on this preview of the piece that ESPN posted on Thursday, he is indeed a natural.

“When we do stuff like this, we’ve always used celebrity voices,” said ESPN.com senior writer Greg Garber, who worked on the piece and wrote the script. “So you’re kicking around for this one Denzel Washington, Jay-Z, Samuel L. Jackson, James Earl Jones, the usual suspects. You want a real legendary voice. And the more we thought about it, we thought, ‘Well, there is a guy who plays the same position for the same team 25 years later….”

So Garber’s team reached out to RGIII’s agent, who directed them to Redskins PR guy Tony Wyllie, who brokered the arrangement. Garber sent nine tracks, a producer and a sound guy to RGIII, who was rehabbing his knee injury. The quarterback did three takes of every track, and “in many cases, the first was just as good as the last,” Garber told me.

“It’s a wonderfully appropriate thing for him to do, and he did a wonderful job,” he said. “We worry about guys who haven’t done this professionally before, but as my producer said, RGIII is ridiculously good at anything he does.”

In addition to the RGIII narration, the piece includes interviews with Williams and his son, Warren Moon, Randall Cunningham, John Elway, Al Sharpton, Joe Gibbs and Darrell Green.

funsho2 · Post by **funsho2** » Sat Feb 02, 2013 5:49 pm

Espn is revisiting this because colin kaepernick is in the superbowl.....if he wins...he will become the 2nd african american to win the superbowl

Deadskins · Post by **Deadskins** » Mon Feb 04, 2013 1:50 am

funsho2 wrote:Espn is revisiting this because colin kaepernick is in the superbowl.....if he wins...he will become the 2nd african american to win the superbowl

Is Kaepernick black? If anything, he looks to be of Arab decent.

ACW · Post by **ACW** » Mon Feb 04, 2013 6:36 am

Deadskins wrote:
funsho2 wrote:Espn is revisiting this because colin kaepernick is in the superbowl.....if he wins...he will become the 2nd african american to win the superbowl
Is Kaepernick black? If anything, he looks to be of Arab decent.

Half-black.

langleyparkjoe · Post by **langleyparkjoe** » Mon Feb 04, 2013 11:21 am

That is real cool that they'd reach out to RG3 to do it.

Deadskins · Post by **Deadskins** » Mon Feb 04, 2013 12:36 pm

Is there a link to the full piece anywhere?

langleyparkjoe · Post by **langleyparkjoe** » Mon Feb 04, 2013 1:33 pm

Deadskins wrote:Is there a link to the full piece anywhere?

http://www.csnwashington.com/football-w ... ms-feature

there you go bro

... edit... Ok that's weird there's nothing there. lol

Deadskins · Post by **Deadskins** » Mon Feb 04, 2013 2:23 pm

langleyparkjoe wrote:
Deadskins wrote:Is there a link to the full piece anywhere?
http://www.csnwashington.com/football-w ... ms-feature

there you go bro

... edit... Ok that's weird there's nothing there. lol

And that is still referring to it in the future tense, so the only video would be the 1:30 minute clip I've already seen. I want to see the full piece, but haven't been able to find it at ESPN or YouTube.

ACW · Post by **ACW** » Mon Feb 04, 2013 8:52 pm

Found it on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XyYdWw6f4Pw

Deadskins · Post by **Deadskins** » Tue Feb 05, 2013 7:12 am

Low tech, but thanks. At least I got to see it.

DarthMonk · Post by **DarthMonk** » Tue Feb 05, 2013 10:34 am

Deadskins wrote:Low tech, but thanks. At least I got to see it.

Yeah, you'd think ESPN might have a high def vid online being the "world wide leader" and all.

SMH