Demographics of the First 31 Super Bowls

footballenthusiast

footballenthusiast

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I decided to take a look at the number of White starters in the first 31 Super Bowls. It can be an interesting way to track the development of the caste system and measure the decreasing prominence of White players in the NFL, albeit in a microcosmic way. I've also included a few interesting notes and observations at the bottom. The winning teams are in bold. I organized the info in a minimalistic way for ease of reading.

Super Bowl 1 (1966):
GB - 9 offense + 5 defense = 14/22
KC - 8 offense + 5 defense = 13/22

Super Bowl 2 (1967):
GB - 9 offense + 5 defense = 14/22
OAK - 8 offense + 8 defense = 16/22

Super Bowl 3 (1968):
BAL - 9 offense + 9 defense = 18/22
NY - 8 offense + 8 defense = 16/22

Super Bowl 4 (1969):
KC - 7 offense + 3 defense = 10/22
MIN - 8 offense + 7 defense = 15/22

Super Bowl 5 (1970):
BAL - 7 offense + 6 defense = 13/22
DAL - 6 offense + 7 defense = 13/22

Super Bowl 6 (1971):
MIA - 8 offense + 10 defense = 18/22
DAL - 8 offense + 7 defense = 15/22

Super Bowl 7 (1972):
WAS - 7 offense + 7 defense = 14/22
MIA - 7 offense + 10 defense = 17/22

Super Bowl 8 (1973):
MIA - 6 offense + 10 defense = 16/22
MIN - 8 offense + 7 defense = 15/22

Super Bowl 9 (1974):
MIN - 7 offense + 6 defense = 13/22
PIT - 7 offense + 4 defense = 11/22

Super Bowl 10 (1975):
PIT - 7 offense + 4 defense = 11/22
DAL - 5 offense + 6 defense = 11/22

Super Bowl 11 (1976):
MIN - 6 offense + 6 defense = 12/22
OAK - 7 offense + 4 defense = 11/22

Super Bowl 12 (1977):
DEN - 7 offense + 5 defense = 12/22
DAL - 5 offense + 5 defense = 10/22

Super Bowl 13 (1978):
DAL - 4 offense + 6 defense = 10/22
PIT - 6 offense + 6 defense = 12/22

Super Bowl 14 (1979):
PIT - 5 offense + 3 defense = 8/22
LA - 3 offense + 7 defense = 10/22

Super Bowl 15 (1980):
PHI - 7 offense + 3 defense = 10/22
OAK - 5 offense + 5 defense = 10/22

Super Bowl 16 (1981):
CIN - 6 offense + 4 defense = 10/22
SF - 7 offense + 2 defense = 9/22

Super Bowl 17 (1982):
WAS - 6 offense + 5 defense = 11/22
MIA - 7 offense + 7 defense = 14/22

Super Bowl 18 (1983):
LA - 4 offense + 6 defense = 10/22
WAS - 6 offense + 5 defense = 11/22

Super Bowl 19 (1984):
SF - 7 offense + 3 defense = 10/22
MIA - 5 offense + 7 defense = 12/22

Super Bowl 20 (1985):
NE - 5 offense + 1 defense = 6/22
CHI - 7 offense + 3 defense = 10/22

Super Bowl 21 (1986):
NY - 7 offense + 3 defense = 10/22
DEN - 6 offense + 5 defense = 11/22

Super Bowl 22 (1987):
DEN - 4 offense + 5 defense = 9/22
WAS - 5 offense + 2 defense = 7/22

Super Bowl 23 (1988):
SF - 5 offense + 3 defense = 8/22
CIN - 4 offense + 4 defense = 8/22

Super Bowl 24 (1989):
DEN - 4 offense + 3 defense = 7/22
SF - 4 offense + 3 defense = 7/22

Super Bowl 25 (1990):
NY - 6 offense + 2 defense = 8/22
BUF - 5 offense + 4 defense = 9/22

Super Bowl 26 (1991):
BUF - 6 offense + 3 defense = 9/22
WAS - 6 offense + 2 defense = 8/22

Super Bowl 27 (1992):
DAL - 4 offense + 0 defense = 4/22
BUF - 7 offense + 4 defense = 11/22

Super Bowl 28 (1993):
BUF - 7 offense + 3 defense = 10/22
DAL - 5 offense + 0 defense = 5/22

Super Bowl 29 (1994):
SF - 3 offense + 1 defense = 4/22
SD - 3 offense + 1 defense = 4/22

Super Bowl 30 (1995):
PIT - 4 offense + 1 defense = 5/22
DAL - 3 offense + 0 defense = 3/22

Super Bowl 31 (1996):
GB - 4 offense + 0 defense = 4/22
NE - 4 offense + 1 defense = 5/22

Interesting notes:

Chiefs fielded the first majority black starting team in a Super Bowl in 1969

Steelers fielded the first all-black starting defensive line in a Super Bowl in 1974

Raiders fielded the first all-black starting secondary in a Super Bowl in 1976

Broncos fielded the last White outside cornerback to start in a Super Bowl in 1977

Rams fielded the first majority black offensive line in a Super Bowl in 1979

By the late 1970s, the number of White starters in the Super Bowl had noticeably declined since the 1960s.

Patriots fielded the first team to be have less than 1/3 White starters in a Super Bowl in 1985

Bengals fielded the last all-White defensive line to start in a Super Bowl in 1988

By the mid-1980s, most White offensive starters in Super Bowls were QBs and OL with a few TEs. By the mid-1990s this still held true but there were even less of them as offensive lines darkened.

By the late 1980s, White defensive starters in the Super Bowl went from dwindling to disappearing. By the mid-1990s, they were practically gone entirely with the exception of a token LB here and there.

Cowboys fielded the first defense to start zero White players in the Super Bowl in 1992.
 
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A lot of good reseach there, FE! It's easy to trace how the league became slowly but steadily blacker over time. The low to mid-'90s remains the nadir, not that things have improved much since then but there's definitely more of a sprinkling of White WRs now, lots of star White TEs, a few White RBs, and more White stars on defense even as the number of Whites starting on D remains absurdly low.

As far as number of White starters in the Super Bowl since the mid-1990s, there's been some years with numbers similar to the early to mid-'90s and some years with significantly more, the Patriots after they started using White WRs and RBs being the most obvious example but there have been others in recent years like the Packers, Rams and Bengals.

One quibble -- the undefeated 1972 Dolphins, according to lore on CF and other places, started ten White men on defense. I just double-checked Pro Football Reference and they did start ten Whites, as did the Super Bowl winning 1973 Dolphins.
 
Don Wassall said:
A lot of good reseach there, FE! It's easy to trace how the league became slowly but steadily blacker over time. The low to mid-'90s remains the nadir, not that things have improved much since then but there's definitely more of a sprinkling of White WRs now, lots of star White TEs, a few White RBs, and more White stars on defense even as the number of Whites starting on D remains absurdly low.

As far as number of White starters in the Super Bowl, there's been some years with numbers similar to the early to mid-'90s and some years with significantly more, the Patriots after they started using White WRs and RBs being the most obvious example but there have been others in recent years like the Packers, Rams and Bengals.

One quibble -- the undefeated 1972 Dolphins, according to lore on CF and other places, started ten White men on defense. I just double-checked Pro Football Reference and they did start ten Whites, as did the Super Bowl winning 1973 Dolphins.
Click to expand...
Thanks, Don. I just checked the 72 Dolphins again and I did miss Tim Foley, counting him would put them at 9. The two remaining players would be Manny Fernandez and Curtis Johnson. Johnson is black. Are you counting Fernandez as White? I read that he was of Mexican descent so I didn't count him. But if you'd consider him White I'm all ears.
 
I'd like to revisit @Truthteller's really interesting post here. I'm thinking there's something to the idea of the Jimmy Johnson Cowboys being a kind of template for the caste system going forward in the 1990s and 2000s. These teams have the typical racial slotting going on that I remember seeing on TV growing up in the late 1990s and early 2000s. A White QB, White FB, White TE, and a couple White OL with no Whites on defense. I'm sure other teams were doing it around the same time in the late 1980s and early 1990s, but it wouldn't surprise me if the Cowboys put it on the map with their popularity and success.

If I'm not mistaken I think it was Don who said that a young Bill Cowher learned this template off JJ and implemented it when he became HC of the Steelers in 1992?
 
Johnson was an important figure as he fielded the first ultra-black teams to win the Super Bowl. Low-class Bill Cowher's Steelers followed suit demographically and were also successful. But when super-black teams do well it usually doesn't last beyond a season or two.

You can imagine how thrilled I was to watch Super Bowl 30 between the Cowboys and Steelers, with a combined 7 White starters between them. I watched with a bunch of mostly DWFs and had to pretend I was rooting for the Steelers when I didn't care about either team. Cowher's Steelers were far different than Chuck Noll's dynasty teams.

Johnson had turned The U into a big-time program by recruiting mostly ghetto thugs and winning with them. When he followed suit in the NFL by winning with super-black teams it gave the rest of the league the go-ahead to follow, being a "copycat league" except when it comes to Whites doing well. Of course not all teams did but Johnson and Jerry Jones are in some ways the godfathers of the Caste System post-1990.

It was really rough watching the league then. The quarterbacks were still White but just about everyone else who didn't play on the o-line wasn't. Ricky Proehl was the only White starting WR for years. There was a 12 year drought with no White WRs or TEs going over a thousand yards, and a 25 year drought for White RBs. Some talented WRs who could have and should have been stars were thoroughly screwed over, like Todd Kinchen, Gary Wellman, Chris Doering and Sean LaChapelle. LaChapelle was a record breaker at UCLA while Wellman played for USC; several years later another UCLA record breaker, Danny Farmer, was also screwed over. There were a large number of other White receivers kicked around as there always are, but those four come to mind off the top of my head.
 
Don Wassall said:
This is what Fernandez looked like nine years ago. Verdict: Looks and sounds like a White man.

​
Click to expand...


Manny Fernandez was one of the Dolphins on the NFL Network's 1972 America's Game episode. He said the Dolphins were interested in him because of Miami's Cuban population, but said, "I don't speak a word of Spanish." Fernandez is very articulate.

When the 1972 Dolphins were invited to the White House when Barack Obama was president, Fernandez declined to go. He said something like, "Let's just say the president and I don't agree on things."
 
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