The focus at Media Day was more on Steve McNair's toe than his race.

It wasn't until the 19th question Tuesday that Tennessee Titans quarterback Steve McNair's race was first referenced, and even then it was couched in a subtle way. Had McNair taken spiritual nourishment from the performance of Doug Williams in Super Bowl XXII?

"Absolutely," McNair said. "He was injured, and he came out and performed. I just want to try to do the same thing he did. I want to win the game and win the MVP award."

A few hours later, Williams demanded a blow-by-blow account.

"How did he do?" he asked from his Grambling football office in Ruston, La. "It was the 19th question? That's good. No, that's great. That's what he deserves, not to be inundated with that. The bottom line is they didn't get to the Super Bowl because he was black. It was because he was good enough to get them there."

McNair personally ran the Jacksonville Jaguars out of the playoffs, scrambling for 91 yards and a pair of touchdowns in the Titans' 33-14 victory in the AFC title game. That this was achieved with a badly sprained big toe that might have taken some other quarterbacks out of the game has hardly been overlooked. Still, there has been criticism that McNair still hasn't arrived as a big-time quarterback because he doesn't throw the ball down the field with the deft touch of, say, the Rams' Kurt Warner.

In the Titans' three playoff victories, McNair has thrown for all of 76 yards (Buffalo), 112 yards (Indianapolis) and another 112 yards against Jacksonville. That works out to an even total of 300 yards, or 100 per game. By contrast, running back Eddie George has gained 354 yards, or an average of 118.

This, of course, is how Tennessee operates. McNair is rarely permitted to rifle the ball around in the manner of Warner. Which is precisely what irritates Williams. Clearly, he believes there is still an element of racism in these skeptical observations.

"Man, that just pisses me off," Williams said, his voice rising. "Nebraska wins a national championship not throwing the ball, and nobody criticizes them. There are 29 teams sitting at home right now, and no one's saying they didn't get the ball down the field.

"Look, by land or by air, it's still a W."

McNair, who has heard this sort of thing for five seasons now, has a stock answer for the naysayers.

"I'm not putting up big numbers, but I'm winning," he says. "I think it's sweeter for me because of all the things that have been said negatively about me outside the organization."

McNair, who stands 6-foot-2, 225 pounds, looks more like a linebacker, even in street clothes. Just as much as Warner, he represents the future of the NFL quarterback. Maybe more.

"Man, that just pisses me off. Nebraska wins a national championship not throwing the ball, and nobody criticizes them. There are 29 teams sitting at home right now, and no one's saying they didn't get the ball down the field.Look, by land or by air, it's still a W." -- Doug Williams on criticism of Steve McNair

The first round of the 1999 draft might one day be seen as influential as the Class of 1983, when six quarterbacks -- all of them white -- were taken in the first round. This season, the Philadelphia Eagles made Donovan McNabb the draft's second overall pick, then the Cincinnati Bengals took Akili Smith with the third selection. Daunte Culpepper went 11th to the Minnesota Vikings. Ironically, it was Shaun King, taken 50th overall by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, who took his team the farthest, a touchdown shy of Super Bowl XXXIV.

"The future," Williams says. "I call them mobile, agile, with escapability, ala Michael Vick. They are playmakers.

"Kurt Warner is surrounded by playmakers. Steve McNair has more ability to make plays himself."

McNair's presence in this ultimate game has not quite generated the same buzz when Williams arrived with the Washington Redskins in Super Bowl XXII. In San Diego that late week in January, Williams' pigmentation was the subject of enormous scrutiny. How long, he was famously asked, have you been a black quarterback?

That was, incredibly, only 12 years ago.

Williams completed 18 of 29 passes for 340 yards. The Redskins scored 35 points in the second quarter -- four on Williams' touchdown passes -- on the way to a 42-10 blowout of Denver.

"Yeah, I think about what he did," McNair says. "It rarely happens. And when you're a part of it, you're part of history. It's really touching to me."

Williams has passed his cellular phone number to McNair through a mutual friend. Both men say the two will talk this week. Williams will tell McNair to forget about history for a day.

"It's about the game, not the hype," Williams says. "The field doesn't change because it's the Super Bowl. The officials are going to put the same amount of air in the ball.

"I think Steve has matured enough to understand that."

Williams will not be attending the game. As the Grambling head coach he is trying to refurbish the school's program and return it to the glory days of his predecessor and mentor, Eddie Robinson. It's a recruiting weekend, and there are high school athletes to court. By game time Sunday, however, they'll all be on their way home.

Williams will sit down in his Ruston home and watch McNair carry the torch. Just as Williams watched James Harris, just as Tony Banks and Randall Cunningham and Rodney Peete and, perhaps, McNabb, Smith, Culpepper and King watched Williams.

And how many young quarterbacks of color will see McNair in the grandest game of them all? How many will follow his example all the way to the top?

"I don't know," Williams says, "but I plan on being around when they get there."

Greg Garber is a regular contributor to ESPN.com. His column will appear every day during Super Bowl week.