Marc Boerigter was a 6' 3" 220 pound wide receiver with great speed. While major college programs would have been drooling to recruit him if he had had the right melanin, Boerigter instead played at Hastings, went undrafted of course and then went to the CFL, where he tore it up.
After dominating the CFL the Chiefs signed him to a contract for the '02 season and eventually during that season Boerigter began to get some playing time as a backup. All he did was turn 20 catches into 420 yards, 21.0 yards per catch, highest in the league that year for receivers with at least 15 catches, and 8 TDs, tied for 6th best in the league despite his very limited playing time, pretty phenomenal stuff.
But alas, the Chiefs were coached by Dick "Cry Me a River" Vermeil, one of the most doctrinaire Caste coaches in the league, and Boerigter was rewarded for his stellar performance by seeing his production drop to 11 receptions in '03, none in '04, and 8 in '05, his last NFL catches though he continued to bounce around the league for a couple more years, always being among the last training camp cuts. Vermeil said that he regarded Lawrence Phillips -- perhaps the most vile criminal ever to play in the NFL -- like a son, but that sympathy never extended to White players at mostly Black positions.
The early '00s were pretty much an extension of the dark days of the '90s, when White receivers other than Ricky Proehl were completely shut out from being starters. Boerigter should have been a starting downfield receiver, much like Danny Farmer, the tall record-setting UCLA receiver who was drafted in '00 by Pittsburgh and was similarly screwed. There was a slew of others, then as now.
During his brief run of production that rivaled that of any receiver in the league in '02, Boerigter caught a 99 yard TD pass from Trent Green. I found it on this four-minute highlight reel from the Chiefs-Chargers game when it happened. Boerigter's 99 yard catch was just the 9th in NFL history at the time and appears at 1:10. He had an earlier TD in the game that's shown at :38. (Note: The Chargers' QB in this game was a very young Drew Brees.)
After dominating the CFL the Chiefs signed him to a contract for the '02 season and eventually during that season Boerigter began to get some playing time as a backup. All he did was turn 20 catches into 420 yards, 21.0 yards per catch, highest in the league that year for receivers with at least 15 catches, and 8 TDs, tied for 6th best in the league despite his very limited playing time, pretty phenomenal stuff.
But alas, the Chiefs were coached by Dick "Cry Me a River" Vermeil, one of the most doctrinaire Caste coaches in the league, and Boerigter was rewarded for his stellar performance by seeing his production drop to 11 receptions in '03, none in '04, and 8 in '05, his last NFL catches though he continued to bounce around the league for a couple more years, always being among the last training camp cuts. Vermeil said that he regarded Lawrence Phillips -- perhaps the most vile criminal ever to play in the NFL -- like a son, but that sympathy never extended to White players at mostly Black positions.
The early '00s were pretty much an extension of the dark days of the '90s, when White receivers other than Ricky Proehl were completely shut out from being starters. Boerigter should have been a starting downfield receiver, much like Danny Farmer, the tall record-setting UCLA receiver who was drafted in '00 by Pittsburgh and was similarly screwed. There was a slew of others, then as now.
During his brief run of production that rivaled that of any receiver in the league in '02, Boerigter caught a 99 yard TD pass from Trent Green. I found it on this four-minute highlight reel from the Chiefs-Chargers game when it happened. Boerigter's 99 yard catch was just the 9th in NFL history at the time and appears at 1:10. He had an earlier TD in the game that's shown at :38. (Note: The Chargers' QB in this game was a very young Drew Brees.)
