NFL keeping watch on return of HBCUs to national prominence
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By DAVE SKRETTA
AP Sports Writer
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — An uptick in national prominence for programs at historically Black colleges and universities has caught the eyes of NFL evaluators. During the 1960s, the Kansas City Chiefs realized quicker than any team in the AFL or NFL that players coming out of HBCUs were really good. So they drafted them, and Buck Buchanan and Emmitt Thomas and the many others helped to form the backbone of two Super Bowl teams. That’s why it made some poetic sense when Kansas City used a fourth-round pick last April on defensive back Joshua Williams. It was the highest pick of any team in several years used on an HBCU player.