It’s an afterthought for many at this point in the story of football, and that adds to its significance, too.

Did you realize that three of the first four picks of the 2023 NFL Draft were Black quarterbacks? Maybe not until reading this, and that’s more than OK. It is noteworthy, though, and for all the right reasons.

We’ve been bombarded lately with the confusing messages of America’s culture wars, but pointing out this significant achievement by the NFL as historically meaningful isn’t some form of subversive indoctrination that should be erased from text books. Talking about it isn’t going to harm anyone either, and neither is celebrating the achievement.

For generations, sports in America have led the country down a path of undeniable social progress. What do cultural milestones look like in this era of manufactured and forced social division? Football showed us the way on Thursday night in Kansas City with an enormous statement of fact that went larger unspoken. Black quarterbacks came off the draft board with picks one, two and four.

It was Bryce Young of Alabama to the Carolina Panthers, C.J. Stroud of Ohio State to the Houston Texans and then Anthony Richardson of Florida to the Indianapolis Colts.

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This is only the second time in the draft’s history that three Black quarterbacks have gone in the first round. The first was in 1999, and the NFL didn’t have a Black quarterback at No.1 overall until Michael Vick in 2001. Now there have been two over the past five years (Kyler Murray, 2019 to the Arizona Cardinals).

It’s not that Black quarterbacks are suddenly more worthy of high draft picks. What’s different is that the people making the picks are a reflection of undeniable progress. I’ll take that as a win no matter how anyone wants to frame it, spin it or use it for their agendas based in bad faith. Trust me, NFL front offices aren’t concerned with making statements of social justice. The NFL is just worried about winning games, and teams are investing their money in the people they think can get it done best of all.

Black quarterbacks were negatively stereotyped for a long time in the NFL. These latest draft picks aren’t proof that we’re racing towards some grand utopia of American equality, but it certainly feels like a major American standard bearer of conservatism, the NFL, is at a place where results are all that most anyone sees when breaking down game film of quarterbacks. For example, Will Levis never really proved he was a great passer while at Kentucky, and so it wasn’t really surprising for anyone other than ESPN that his name wasn’t called on the first night of the 2023 NFL Draft.

This isn’t the end for Levis, and hopefully his wait will end on Friday. Plenty of undervalued quarterbacks drop out of the first round. Just look at Jalen Hurts.

The concerns teams had for Hurts in 2020 were valid, too, although incorrect. Earned merit, fair and square, is all anyone has ever wanted.

What the talent evaluators of the Carolina Panthers saw this draft cycle was an undersized quarterback from the University of Alabama whose ability to outthink defenses outweighed his physical limitations. Anyone who watched college football for the last two years knew that Alabama’s Young was the best player in country, and so the first No.1 overall pick in the NFL Draft for Alabama in 75 years was a Black quarterback from Southern California.

Young was also the first No.1 overall draft pick ever for Alabama coach Nick Saban, who is the college football king of the NFL Draft. Since leaving the Miami Dolphins for the Crimson Tide in 2007, Saban has put 44 former players into the first round of the NFL Draft. Young was one of three Alabama first-rounders this draft. Defensive end Will Anderson Jr. went third overall to Houston and running back Jahmyr Gibbs went 12th overall to the Detroit Lions.

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Now you’re asking how in the world did Alabama miss the College Football Playoff in 2022 with the NFL Draft’s top quarterback, top defender and a first-round running back. That’s a different column for another day, but it is worth pointing out that Alabama’s two losses last season came against teams with Black quarterbacks (Jayden Daniels of LSU and Hendon Hooker of Tennessee).

The NFL gets all the headlines, but perhaps the most significant sign of progress is this. The SEC featured 13 starting quarterbacks who were Black throughout the 2022 season, including eight players who started most of their team’s games. That’s over half the league, and it’s actually easier to list the teams in the SEC that didn’t start a Black quarterback in 2022: Georgia, Ole Miss, Mississippi State, Missouri and Texas A&M.

The first Black quarterback to start in the SEC was Condredge Holloway in 1972. He was a trailblazer, and so was Walter Lewis, who became the first Black starting quarterback for Alabama in 1984. Lewis was the final starting quarterback for Alabama coach Paul Bryant, and it was Bryant who famously scheduled USC for the 1970 season knowing the fully integrated Trojans would likely undo his Crimson Tide. The next season, defensive end John Mitchell broke the color barrier for Alabama when he started against USC. Alabama won the 1971 rematch 17-10 at USC’s Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum.

Mitchell was being recruited by coach John McKay for USC in 1970, but Bryant flipped the Alabama-born junior college defender for the Crimson Tide. Some 49 years later, a phenom quarterback from famous Mater Die High School in Santa Ana, California, chose to play at Alabama over USC. It was Young, diminutive but deadly, and the 5-10 quarterback then set passing records at Alabama in 2021 for yards (4,872) and touchdowns (47) on the way to becoming the first quarterback at Alabama to win the Heisman Trophy.

And now Young’s status as the No.1 overall pick of the 2023 draft is a source of pride for the University of Alabama for reasons that transcend the game of football. It was only a few years ago that Hurts became the first Black quarterback from the University of Alabama to play in the NFL. Incredible but true.

More recently, Hurts led the Philadelphia Eagles to the Super Bowl and then signed a contract extension making him the highest paid player in the history of the NFL. Hurts famously left Alabama for Oklahoma in 2019 to gain playing time as a starter. He was drafted in the second round, and the knocks against him were based on his ability to read defenses. Maybe that was true of Hurts early in his college career, but hard work and perseverance have pushed him to greatness.

In February, Hurts squared off against Patrick Mahomes of Kansas City in Super Bowl 57. It marked the first time Black quarterbacks started against each other in the history of America’s biggest game. These days, this nation of privilege passes its time arguing over how to interpret the facts of its history. It’s a silly exercise of spoiled brats. Meanwhile, it is our all-important games that push the country forward in ways that can’t be stopped by those who might deny a universal truth.

It all took way too long to now be ignored or denied.

Joseph Goodman is the lead sports columnist for the Alabama Media Group, and author of “We Want Bama”, a book about togetherness, hope and rum. You can find him on Twitter @JoeGoodmanJr.