Every February, as another Super Bowl arrives, the football world returns to a game played in January 1988 - the night Doug Williams threw for 340 yards and four touchdowns and became the first Black quarterback to start and win the sport's biggest game.
The significance has only deepened with time. What Williams did in a single record-shattering second quarter opened a path that a new generation of quarterbacks now walks as a matter of course, and he is regularly cited as the figure who made it thinkable.
Williams has embraced the role of connector between eras, speaking about the players who came before him, like Marlin Briscoe and James Harris, and celebrating the ones who followed. He treats the milestone as shared history rather than personal glory.
That generosity is part of why the legacy keeps growing. The record book remembers the numbers; the sport remembers the door he opened - and Williams keeps pointing to who walks through it next.