The rise, burden and legacy of Warren Moon
He's one of this sport's true trailblazers. We chat with the the Hall of Famer about paving the way for African American quarterbacks today, fingernail length and mentoring Cam Ward.
A very small group of quarterbacks truly shaped the multi-billion dollar goliath that is the NFL.
Warren Moon is undoubtedly a member of that club. The Pro Football Hall of Famer blazed the trail for African American quarterbacks we all see today and he did it through sheer self-belief. I always love catching up with Moon any chance we get at Go Long.
This week, we caught up for nearly an hour to discuss his inspiring rise. Few had a clue what sort of mental toll being a black quarterback took on Moon every single day through college and the pros. He rarely enjoyed his personal success because Moon knew he needed to succeed for others to get the same opportunity.
We also discuss his mentorship of No. 1 overall pick Cam Ward. They’ve developed a close relationship — Moon sees a lot of himself in the Tennessee Titans quarterback.
Our full conversation is transcribed below.
You can also listen to our chat on the Go Long Podcast feed wherever you pod.
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Dunne: How’s life?
Moon: Life is great, man. I’ve been on the move a lot. I’ve been doing a lot of different things and of course football’s going on, so I’ve kind of intertwined football into all of that as well. And we’ve got the holidays coming up now. So this is one of my favorite times of the year with Thanksgiving on the horizon and Christmas after that. So it’s a good time when you have 11 grandkids. You want to spend these special times with ‘em.
Dunne: What ages are your 11 grandkids?
Moon: They go all the way from almost two years old up to 22 years old. So I’ve got the whole array. I’ve got one that just went to college this year. She’s at the University of Oklahoma as a freshman. She’s 17. I’ve got a 15-year-old junior in high school, another 16-year-old senior in high school.
Dunne: You’re a Pro Football Hall of Famer who revolutionized the sport in a million ways. Obviously, the first true star African American quarterback. You opened up so many doors for everybody that we see today, and that’s what got me thinking about you again in reading Seth Wickersham’s exceptional book, “American Kings.” Your origin story. How you busted onto the scene is a testament to perseverance for anybody in any industry. But what’s a week in the life for you today? I know you were just out there at Michigan checking out the UW game. So you’re all over the place? You’re traveling, doing a little bit of everything?
Moon: I really am. I’m doing a lot of things that mean something to me. I’m on the board of the Rose Bowl, so I was in Washington DC. We were lobbying Congress and Senators for more funding for the Rose Bowl and some of the iconic stadiums around the country to get them up to speed. So I spent a couple of days meeting with all these different congressmen and senators and then I do a lot of speaking engagements for different corporations or companies or meet and greets to motivate their salespeople or motivate their audience that they have coming in, depending on what the theme is. Then I’ve done some golf tournaments for charities. Some of the guys that I’ve known, like Charles Haley who played for the Dallas Cowboys. He had a golf tournament recently. So I went to his golf tournament. He’s raising money for his foundation and just a lot of different things like that.
It’s not one particular thing that I do. I pick and choose the things that mean something to me and those are the things that I go after. And then I’ve had some fun. I went to Las Vegas and saw Rod Stewart, who I’ve been a fan of for many, many years. He’s 81 years old and puts on a fantastic show and I went to the Sphere and saw the Wizard of Oz and that was something that was a big hit to me when I was a kid. Now I’ve got a chance to see it in that type of facility. It was just amazing to see all the special effects and everything they put into it.
I’m at that time in my life where I can pick and choose a lot of things that I want to do. I have 11 grandkids now, so I spend a lot of time in Houston where most of them live and I go there and visit a lot and get involved in their activities. So yeah, I have a full life going on right now.
Dunne: Take me back to 1975. That’s when you went to Washington. We’ve talked a lot about the old war stories from pro football on one of our Zoom Happy Hours a couple of years ago, but I don’t think we really got into your origin story and how you really rose up at UW, CFL, NFL. But in 1975, you go out there to Seattle. That was a leap of faith at that time and it didn’t really hit me what the Seattle sports scene is like then, right? The Mariners and the Seahawks are just being born. The SuperSonics hadn’t won a championship yet. It’s rainy. It’s dreary. And Warren Moon decides to go out there to play college ball. That decision, you probably know at that point you’re attempting to do something that nobody’s really done in terms of being a star quarterback that’s an African American. James Harris was before you, and I’m sure he was an inspiration in many regards. But the decision to go to Washington first, what went into it?
Moon: I was looking for a big-time school that was going to look at me as a quarterback. Most of the other schools that recruited me out of high school wanted to change my position to defensive back or wide receiver, and I wasn’t having any part of it because I had been a quarterback from the time I started playing organized football when I was 10 years old. So I thought I had done a pretty good job at all the different levels that I played at, and it was just a matter of somebody giving me an opportunity to do it. And I wanted to play big-time football. I got recruited by a lot of smaller schools, Cal Poly Pomona, people like that, and then a lot of schools to play in a wishbone offense or a veer offense that ran the option. And I wasn’t a running quarterback. I was a good athlete, but I wasn’t a runner, so I didn’t want to go to any of those types of schools. That’s why I went to junior college for a year after high school because nobody would recruit me as a quarterback and felt like if I had another good strong year at the junior college, they would maybe give me a few more offers.
So that’s the way it turned out. And the University of Washington, Don James was coming into that program. That was his first year coming from Kent State. And he felt like I could be a big-time college quarterback. So he recruited me and I took a chance to come up to Seattle, Washington. I would be the first African American quarterback to start there. And I knew it was going to be probably difficult at times, but I was willing to take on the challenge because it was going to give me the opportunity to play a position I’ve always wanted to play in college. I came up to Seattle and we weren’t a very good football team at that time. They were 2-9 the year before we got there. So Don had to recruit and bring in the talent that he needed in order for us to be successful in a conference with USC and all these power teams that were already there. So it took us a few years to get it turned around, but during that time I took a lot of abuse from fans. A lot of it wasn’t just because of my play. A lot of it had to do with the color of my skin and a lot of the different comments that I heard.
I knew that stuff was probably going to happen, I just didn’t know to what degree and I didn’t know how I’d be able to deal with it because I had never had to deal with anything like that before. But I made it through by talking to my Mom on the phone and through my Godmom, who I met when I was up in Seattle. She was a therapist and she really helped me through a lot of it after games. She knew when I needed some therapy time. And then through me just compartmentalizing things and putting stuff in the back of my brain and not dealing with it and forging forward trying to become a better player. So eventually things turned around and we became a Pac-8 champion, we became a Rose Bowl champion, and I became Pac-8 Player of the Year and Rose Bowl Most Valuable Player. So it took a while to get to that, but perseverance will get you through everything.
Dunne: But what does that look like day to day? Fans are writing to the athletic department saying they’ve got to play the white backup. And that’s happening repeatedly. And I think you had also heard the N-word for the first time. Is that true? What does it look like day-to-day that you’re dealing with behind the scenes as Washington’s quarterback?
Moon: Yeah, those are the things that I never really talked about to too many people because I never wanted anybody to worry about me. I was one of those guys that wanted everybody to always think everything was fine with me. And that was part of the position, too. As a quarterback, you want to be the cool, calm and collected one. You want to be the one that everybody looks to when things are in despair. You look to your quarterback. And if he’s calm and if he’s OK, everything’s going to be okay. And that’s kind of the cape that I tried to wear as much as I could. But it damaged me inside. There’s no question about it over those years. Being able to come out of it at the end made it better. There was still some bitterness in there, but again, I kind of understood. That’s what made me understand more about society in general — you’re not going to please everybody. There’s going to be a percentage of people out there that just don’t like you because of either who you are or what the color of your skin is. Your race. Or your religion. There’s just people out there that are like that and there’s nothing you can do to change their mind. So once I figured that out — that I can’t please everybody — you just have to try and please the people that are going to support you and be behind you and that’s what makes you look more inward, look more to your family, look more to your friends, look more to your spirituality. Those are the things that are going to help you get through.
Dunne: That’s got to be a tough burden, though. Here you are throwing touchdowns, building a football program from nothing, turning yourself into one of the best quarterbacks in college football. But it sounds like you didn’t really get to enjoy it. You weren’t able to take a deep breath and soak this all in like every quarterback in your position would. What was that burden really like? Was it just more of a relief when you played well? Like, “Uh, I can get a few more people off my back for this week.”
Moon: That’s exactly what it was. It was a relief when we won football games. It was almost like you weren’t able to exhale throughout the week until the game was over. And if you won, then you could exhale and say, “OK, I got through that one. Now, we’ve got another one next week.” And a lot of my career was that way. It wasn’t just in college. But when I got to the NFL as well, it was the same thing. Because when I went to Houston, I dealt with the same type of stuff when I first got there — on a bigger scale. But because I had dealt with it before in college, I handled it better. But at this time now I have a family. I have three kids and one on the way when I go to Houston and now I have to worry about how it affects them because they’re in school and kids can be mean. My wife’s in the grocery store hearing people whisper and all those different things. So now you have to navigate a family through this whole negativity, even though we’re able to live good because we’re making good money and all that. All that doesn’t really matter if you’re uncomfortable everywhere you go. So yeah, it was a tough time for all of us. We banded together and we made the thing work and we became a successful football team — never winning in the Super Bowl, but we were always right there knocking on the door every year. So I always wondered if I didn’t have to play with all that extra burden on me throughout my career, how much better I could have been. That’s something I’ll never know.
Dunne: So that’s something that you felt even professionally in the NFL?
Moon: Oh, no question about it. More so in the NFL.
Dunne: If you could’ve played with a clear mind, what else could you have done?
Moon: Well, you go out there and you’re playing as a quarterback for an organization. So you’re playing for your team, you’re playing for the organization, you’re playing for your fan base in that city. But for me, because I was the only African American quarterback in the league at the time I came in — Doug Williams and all those guys were in the USFL — I was playing with this huge responsibility that I had to be good to give other guys another opportunity to play the position. So I felt that every time I went out, too. And I felt it from people wherever I went. African Americans were telling me, “Hey, you’ve got to represent us You’ve got to represent us well.” And you felt that burden every time you went out there that you had to play at a certain level in order to give the next generation of guys their chances. Otherwise, if I failed, if Doug failed, if Randall Cunningham — the three of us played at the same time — if we failed, who knows if you’d be seeing these 16 guys that are starting right now in the National Football League.
Dunne: I’d imagine that the core of everything is self-belief. You’ve got to know, “Damnit. I can do it. I’m one of the best quarterbacks in the nation.” You have the decorated college career. Rose Bowl. All of that. But still, you’re thinking “Is the NFL going to ask me to play a different position? Am I even going to get drafted? Or do I go to the CFL where I can be a quarterback and play for the Edmonton Eskimos.” I think their draft was before the NFL. You had connected with (agent) Leigh Steinberg. He believed in you. He saw the opportunity for an African American to be an icon, to be a star, to pave the way, and you decided to play the long game. But mostly you decided to believe in yourself. Was it a hard decision?
Moon: It was kind of the same decision coming out of high school. I was not going to play another position. The NFL was saying they were going to change my position — most teams that were scouting me.
Dunne: They’re telling you this to your face?
Moon: Yeah, they were telling my attorney Leigh. But I could tell because I wasn’t being worked out as a quarterback. Teams weren’t sending out quarterback coaches or offensive coordinators to work me out as a quarterback or anything like that. So I knew what was going on and Leigh would tell me as well. But he said there were some teams that were interested in me at quarterback, but it would’ve been like in the 10th or 11th or 12th round. Which that’s what the draft went to back in those days. Twelve rounds.
So I’m looking at my opportunities and Canada’s making me an offer where I’d be like a second-round pick money-wise to come up there and play quarterback. And then I’m looking at all these offers in the NFL that weren’t serious about me really being a quarterback. So I had to make a decision whether I’m going to give up my dream of playing the NFL to go somewhere where I’m wanted. That happened to be in another country. So I chose to go there because of my love for the position and because I knew I could play it and there were people that wanted me. I wanted to go wherever I was wanted and the Edmonton Eskimos wanted me. Hugh Campbell, their head coach at the time, felt like I could be a big-time quarterback — not only in the CFL. He felt I could be a big-time quarterback in the NFL. He was wondering why I wasn’t getting more opportunities to the NFL.
So I went up there and had a really good career and did a lot of winning. I did a lot of playing. I got a chance to really improve my game as well at the same time. It’s one thing to go in and be a backup somewhere and you don’t get a chance to play and it’s another to go up somewhere and play and experience all the different situations and games. That’s how you get better. You’ve got to play. So I enjoyed my whole career up there and I never felt anything racially or anything like that. If we went to an opposing team’s stadium, we got booed like anybody else. But I never heard anything negatively towards me. And then we played at home. Of course, we were the home team and our fans were amazing. So it was just a really refreshing experience for me playing up there.
I thought at one point I was going to play my whole career there because that’s how much I was enjoying it. But in the back of my mind, I’m still thinking, “Am I good enough to play in the NFL?” Because they had put that doubt in my mind that I wasn’t good enough by all these teams telling me they were going to change my position. That’s what prompted me to start thinking about coming back — all the success I had in Canada. In the back of my mind, I’m like, “Can I really play with these guys? I want to see how good I am against the best players in the world.”
Dunne: You’re watching NFL games. You’re seeing what these guys are doing. From 1978 to 1983, you’re in Canada.
Moon: Our season was over at the end of November if we won the championship. So I’m able to watch all these NFL games the rest of the season, the end of the season, all the way through the Super Bowl. And I’m critiquing quarterbacks. I’m putting myself up against other quarterbacks: “I can do what he’s doing right there. Oh, I can do that. I can do that better.” So yeah, those are the things that made me think I could come back into the league and prosper. And I just never thought I would do the things that I actually ended up doing, but I thought I could compete against these best players. The only way to do it is you’ve got to go out there and prove it to yourself that you can.
Dunne: That’s the beauty of sports. Eventually, it becomes a meritocracy. You force their hand when you’re the MVP twice. You win five Grey Cups. Because by the time you say, “Alright, I’m ready. Let’s give the NFL a shot here,” you had all the leverage. Tampa Bay wanted you, New Orleans, the Giants, Raiders, Seattle and Houston.
Moon: There wasn’t any free agency at that time because we hadn’t went on strike for that. That came in 1987. But, yeah, I had seven teams that were bidding on me as a free agent. So that’s why I came into the league as the highest-paid player in the league. Leigh created a bidding war between all these teams that were interested in me and I ended up going to Houston. But it’s ironic how things turn around. You go from some teams not even wanting you to now they’re paying you the most money that’s ever been paid. So it just shows that if you just stick to your goals, stick to your vision, stick to the things that you believe in — as far as how good you are and your capabilities — good things can happen to you if you’re patient and continue to keep working.
Dunne: Five years, $6 million with the Houston Oilers. That’s the richest contract at that time. So you get paid. A team believes in you. You’re the franchise guy. But what is that first game like? You need to still — like you said earlier — prove it to yourself and know, “OK, I’ve been dominating every field I’ve been on, but now I’m in the NFL.” Was there a throw, a moment where things kind of clicked and you said, “OK, I’m going to be able to do this here with these guys?”
Moon: I got a good opening to see how good I was. I was playing against the world champion Los Angeles Raiders my first game of the season at the Astrodome. And we ended up losing to them (24-14). But I threw two touchdowns that day and I got hit a bunch because they had a hell of a front four and we had a very young offensive line at the time. But I felt like I stood in there and held my own. Even though we didn’t win the football game, I felt like I played decent. After that game I’m like, “Yeah, I think I can play in this league. I’ve played against the best team and did pretty well and I’m still standing.”
Dunne: It was a slog early on. But your fifth year, that’s kind of when your streak of Pro Bowls started. You’re a nine-time Pro Bowler. With the “Run and Shoot,” how did everything click and allow you to become one of, if not the best quarterback in football for a time?
Moon: When I first went there, it reminded me a lot of my college experience. We weren’t very good — 2-14 the year before. Building through the draft. A lot of young players. And it just took us a few years to get to the playoffs. I think we went to the playoffs in ‘87 for the first time and it just continually got better after that. And during that time, I had two coaching changes. I had three offensive coordinators. We went through a lot of different offensive changes. So once I finally got into an offense where I could start to master it a little bit, that’s when I started to have success. And I think any quarterback that jumps around with offensive coordinators and offenses that he has to learn every year, he’s never going to be as comfortable or have command the way he wants to. And once I got the command of a couple of offenses that I was involved in, then I took off from there. And one of my strengths was my versatility. I could do a lot of different things. I could throw the ball on the run. I could throw from the pocket. So it didn’t matter what offense you put me in, eventually I was going to get it and things were going to happen.
So even when I went from the Oilers to the Vikings or from the Vikings to the Seahawks. Totally different offenses I had to learn within those times. But I was able to find my groove within those offenses and still put up really good numbers and make Pro Bowls and continue to keep improving. I didn’t ever think I was going to play another 17 years when I came into the National Football League. My biggest goal was to see if I could even just compete at that level. Of course, I wanted to win a championship on every team that I was on, and I know how hard that is to do because we had won five of ‘em and I knew how hard that was in Canada to do. I never got to that Super Bowl, which was one thing that alluded me. But there’s so many other things that I did that I never thought I would do as well. So my career was pretty satisfying except for the fact that I didn’t get to wear that ring.
Dunne: 1990 is when you won Offensive Player of the Year through that run of Pro Bowls. Everybody here in Western New York remembers that certain Wild Card game at Rich Stadium (in the 1992 season). I’m sorry to bring it up, Warren. But that team maybe gets to the Super Bowl, maybe wins it. You had those Bills on the ropes more than any team in the AFC.
Moon: We did. We really did. That was a hell of a football game. And when you have a lead like that, you can’t play cautious in the second half of a football game. And we did that. Not only defensively by playing a lot of zone, a lot of prevent zone that allowed them to get back in the game. We allowed the crowd, the momentum to change in the football game. And then I don’t think we were as aggressive offensively either as we should have been. So we have nobody to blame but ourselves. And I always look at myself as I could have done more in that game to make sure we won it. But I never for one moment in that game — believe it or not — thought we were going to lose the game. On the sideline. I’m just saying, “Why do we have to make things so hard on ourselves?” That was the only thing I said to myself. Because we had some other games like that throughout the year where we got leads and then all of a sudden we let teams kind of make semi-comebacks against us because we took our foot off the pedal. So that was the only thing I said. I didn’t think we were going to lose. But a play here, a play there, and next thing you know you’re losing on a field goal.
Dunne: Man, you were so good that game — 371 yards, four touchdowns. When that pedal was to the metal, nobody did it better than Warren Moon and the Houston Oilers during that period. And I think the lasting image for me of you playing football is how pretty that spiral is. Where did that really come from? Are you born with it? Did you learn it at a young age? Because even some of the greatest quarterbacks ever, even guys that are in Canton with you, they put up really good numbers with a wobbly ball. I know Kurt Warner pretty well. Some of his best throws, the touchdown to Isaac Bruce in the Super Bowl, I could see the ball kind of wobbling. Yours didn’t do that.
Moon: A lot of time went into that. A lot of playing catch with buddies of mine on my street when I was growing up. Outside with the streetlights on just throwing the football. Just throwing it and throwing it. And there weren’t a lot of quarterback coaches back in those days to teach you the fundamentals of playing the game. Your footwork and all of that. I didn’t really start learning any of that until I got to college. So I pretty much taught myself to throw the football by watching different guys, by reading books. Reading books mainly from pitchers, believe it or not. I read Nolan Ryan’s book and Orel Hershiser. All these guys that were pitchers that really taught you about throwing mechanics.
And then one of my secrets was my forefinger. If my fingernail length was the right length — and the ball used to come off my forefinger on my right hand — that’s what made my ball spin. So I always had to make sure that fingernail length on that forefinger was right going into a game. And then if it was right? That ball spun like a top.
Dunne: So you’re not biting your fingernails. That was not a bad habit. Or maybe you did to get it just right?
Moon: I had fingernail files on request on the sideline throughout all football games. I’d call timeout sometimes during a two-minute drill just to go over to the sideline and file down my nail because it wasn’t right. And then go back out there and throw the winning touchdown pass. So that’s how much it meant to me.
Dunne: That’s amazing. It is true. On a much smaller scale. I played high school football and I just remember I had one football that I loved. It was wider. And just the way it felt, the way it could kind of come off my fingers, it was right. And there was a game, we’re playing Maple Grove in the rain and the refs made us throw the ball out because I had used it so much in all our games that it was cut up. You could see the black surface of the ball. They didn’t think it was playable. The next game, my Mom had a nail polish that was the same color as that football and she covered up and we were able to use it the rest of the year. A theme in Seth Wickersham’s book is how quarterbacks at all levels are particular. All have quirks.
Moon: I used to let our kickers doctor up our balls because they liked to doctor ‘em for the way they wanted to kick the ball. So I let them doctor the balls up on Fridays before games and then we would use ‘em on Saturday. And I always liked to used balls. I didn’t like brand-new balls out of the box, and I don’t think any quarterback really does because kind of slippery when they’re brand new like that. So I let those guys doctor ‘em up and rub ‘em down and all that. And I made sure that I got a chance to use it the day before. And once I got to use the type of balls that I wanted to use in the game, I was feeling good.
Dunne: Fast forward to today and you’ve developed a pretty good relationship with Cam Ward, the first overall pick there with the Tennessee Titans. You’ve taken him under your wing?
Moon: Yes sir. Cam is somebody who comes from about 40 miles outside of Houston where I played and I followed his career, his journey as far as going from Incarnate Word and then going to Washington State. I watched him when he was playing up here at Washington State, and then he goes to Miami and becomes the No. 1 overall pick. And his whole journey, I really enjoyed it. The fact that his parents took him to all these different camps, trying to give him an opportunity to play quarterback. So it reminded me a lot of the things that I went through trying to play the position back when I was a young kid. And even though I didn’t have two parents that did that type of thing — my Mom was the one who did everything for me, got me involved in sports and all of that. Our stories were similar. And now he goes to the football team, the organization where I came out of Canada to, and he wears the same number as me. So he approached me about wanting to wear that number and I gave it a lot of thought. And I talked to the owner, Amy Adams, about what she thought about it. And then I felt like, “OK, he’s not wearing the Houston Oilers No. 1. He’s wearing the Tennessee Titans No. 1.” It is my number and it is retired, but I felt like he would represent it very well and he had a chance to create his own legacy in that number. So that was one of the reasons why I decided to go ahead and do it.
Dunne: So you’re having conversations with him. There’s probably an initiation process. You’ve got to know what he’s made of. You’ve got to know that he’s going to represent that number that you made so famous, not just with that franchise, but in the NFL. So what else did you really learn about Cam Ward? What stuff is he made of?
Moon: From everybody I talked to, he’s a really good leader. Very, very hard worker. He is one of those guys that they had to tell him to stop coming to the facility so early in the morning or to go home at night because he was there all the time watching tape and trying to get better. And he’s off to a very shaky start right now. They’re not a very good football team. And that’s usually what happens when you’re the No. 1 overall pick. You go to a team that’s not very well, but I think in time he’ll get things turned around there. And a lot of that is the similarities that I saw for myself when I came to Houston, too. It takes time to build an organization and to build a team, and every No. 1 overall pick is not going to always be successful Day 1. And you can look at Caleb Williams, you can look at guys from the past. Even Peyton Manning. Troy Aikman was that. You go on and on and on. These guys, it took a while to get things turned around. So it’s going to be no different for him. But I think in time he’s going to be a pretty good quarterback in this league.
Dunne: What advice have you given him as a mentor? I remember a report after he criticized his own team and said, “We’re ass,” that indicated you talked to him. What kind of advice have you been giving him through a very turbulent, difficult rookie season?
Moon: I knew that he was frustrated. And there’s nothing wrong with being frustrated. You’re a competitor, you want to win, but you’re also the leader of this football team. You represent this football team and you always want to represent it in a first-class way. So those things that you said to the media, you can say those things to your team and they all understand that because they know who you are, but you can’t say those things publicly because people take ‘em the wrong way sometime and don’t know exactly how they’re intended. So keep all of your public comments as positive as you can possibly be because that’s who you are. You’re the leader and you’re the representative of this organization.
Dunne: I kind of loved it, honestly. We’re always seeking that truth. When he said that, hey, we all see it. It’s ugly right now.
Moon: But everybody wants to turn it around that he directed it only at his team and not himself and all these different things. So if you keep everything positive, you’re not going to be second-guessed all the time about what you really meant.
Dunne: What’s it going to take to turn these Tennessee Titans around?
Moon: It starts on the offensive line on the offensive side of the ball. And then you’ve got to get stability at the coaching position. They just fired their coach, Brian Callahan. And they’ve got an interim coach in place now. So now you got to figure out who’s going to be your coach going forward and how that’s going to affect your quarterback and the rest of the offensive side of the ball. That’s where it starts. First, it’s stability. And then you got to get better players and they’re starting to get some better players, but a lot of ‘em are younger through the draft and with another free agency coming up this year, they’ll be able to get some more players. So I think it’ll take another year or so in order to get it turned around. But as long as you’re moving in the right direction and you have that stability of who your head coach is going to be, who your leader is going to be going forward, you’ve got a chance.
Dunne: And if you’ve got the quarterback, you got a shot, right? If you’ve got somebody that can weather the storm?
Moon: Definitely.
Dunne: You do see some moments. He can rip it. He’s got some RPMs on that fastball.
Moon: He can throw it. He’s very competitive. Very competitive. He has great feet. He can move. Sometimes when you have that movement ability, you fall in love with it. But in this league, these guys are so fast, so big, so strong, you’re not going to be able to do some of the things you did in college. So you’re going to have to pick your spots a little bit more in the pro game as far as when you take off out of that pocket and when you have to stay in that pocket and maybe climb up and not try and move side to side as much.
Dunne: Is there a quarterback that you’ve loved watching this 2025 season when you sit down to consume football on a Sunday?
Moon: Man, there’s so many good ones. Unfortunately, a couple of really good ones are hurt. Joe Burrow is out, Lamar Jackson is out. But I really enjoy watching Patrick Mahomes and I think he’s having a resurgence now that he’s got healthy receivers and his offensive line is better. I love Matthew Stafford and the fact that he’s 38 years old and still spinning it the way he is. Those are two guys that I really like watching right now because some of those other guys are hurt. And then I love the way Josh Allen plays. He’s like a swashbuckler out there. He does whatever it takes. He can throw it. He can run it. He runs with reckless abandon sometimes. He’s starting to get a little bit better at his decision making running the ball, but he still, when the game’s on the line, he’s going to give you everything he’s got. So I love that about him.
Dunne: As I was watching that Thursday Nighter last week with Joe Flacco and Aaron Rogers in their 40s going back and forth, maybe that’s what subconsciously got me thinking about you because you were really the first quarterback well into their 40s to not just play, but play well. It would’ve been ‘97 with the Seahawks at 41, you made the Pro Bowl. You threw for over 3,600 yards and 25 touchdowns and led the league in yards per game. So what’s the key then for these guys to excel at 41, 42, 43?
Moon: I think it’s staying away from major injuries, and both of those guys have done that throughout the course of their career. Really taking care of yourself. And I know Aaron does. He eats some weird type of diet that nobody would probably eat, but it’s all healthy food. He takes good care of himself. And then just the love of the game and what you’re being asked to do. And fortunately for those guys, they’re in offenses that they’ve run before, so it’s not a big learning curve for ‘em. And they feel comfortable being out there no matter what organization they’re with. Joe Flacco goes from Cleveland to Cincinnati and he’s starting four days later. But they run a similar offense, so he’s able to get out there and make it happen. You wouldn’t be able to do that if you were 24, 25, 26 years old, but because you’re 41 and you’ve seen it all, you have a much better experience of what you’re going to do. And like I said, the learning curve isn’t that hard for him. So he goes out there and throws for 250 yards and two touchdowns in his first game and then comes back the next week and throws for almost 350. So more power to those guys. I’m all about the old guys because I was one of those guys at one point. And like you said, I went to the Pro Bowl at 41 years old and I was the MVP of the Pro Bowl at 41 years old.
Dunne: When you guys actually hit each other in the Pro Bowl, right? The kids today will never understand.
Moon: We actually played the game to win.
Dunne: Maybe it’s not complicated. If you have a gun and you’re smart, you can compensate for not be able to move like you once moved. You’ve got to have the O-Line. You’ve got to have the receivers like Flacco has. There’s some other variables at play here.
Moon: What happens when you get to that age, the game really slows down a lot because you’ve kind of seen everything. You know what’s coming before it’s coming. You know where you’re going to go with the ball almost before you take the snap because you can look at the defense and see what they’re going to be in. So it makes the game so much slower. You don’t have to be as fast athletically. You don’t have to have all that twitch that you had when you were younger because the game is more smooth to you at that time. And if you do have to get away from pressure, hopefully it’s not that many times a ball game. I loved playing in my later 30s and into my 40s because the game was so much slower and easier for me.
Dunne: Your legacy, we see it every year. When we see a Patrick Mahomes and Lamar Jackson winning MVPs. Lamar was dealing with some of the stuff even in modern times — is he going to have to change positions? But when these guys have success and then they get drafted No. 1 like Cam Ward, everywhere you look there’s African American quarterbacks changing the game. That’s probably the greatest pride you can take out of your own career, your own rise and everything you did.
Moon: Yeah, it really is one of the things I’m most proud of. The fact that I was able to help make change at that most critical position that there is in team sports, maybe the most critical position there is in sports period. It’s a very difficult position to play because of all the things you’re asked to do. The way you’re representing your city, the way you’re representing your organization, all those different things. To be able to help guys get those opportunities where you had, like I said earlier, 16 African American quarterbacks started on Week 1 of this season where when I came in the league, there was none. It was me. That’s something I’m really, really proud of. And when I watch these guys play — when I watch how they play at the level that they play and how they’re being endorsed, how they’re using their platforms to help make change — all the different things that they’re doing is positive, that really makes me feel proud that I had a little bit to do with that.
Like everyone else, Tyler lets Warren Moon off too easy for his repeated playoff failures. The Oilers scored three offensive points in the second half during Buffalo’s comeback.
The Moon-led Oilers four years in a row coughed up fourth quarter leads in season-ending playoff defeats, consistently letting victories slip through their hands.
Moon’s playoff record was 3-7, and he never made a conference championship game.