Black coaches in the SuperBowl
Yeah, And?
By Khalid Salaam
Right now I’m blasting Public Enemy’s “It Takes A Nation of Millions” album my favorite record ever, period. When Flav starts his “we gotta black QB in the Super Bowl” ad-lib he reminds me of two things. One Flav was crazy way before VH1 got a hold of him and two that was a really a big deal at the time. There had never been a black man starting as QB in a Super Bowl. Up until then black QB’s were basically non-existent and people really believed in all that bs about them lacking the mental faculties to get the job done. Now we’re here at another “big deal” event, that being, having the first two Black head coaches in the Super Bowl. Meaning we’re guaranteed to have a black man win, and during Black History Month too? Whoa, I’m wearing nothing but red, black and green for the next 4 weeks.
If I had a European inspired name I’d change it just so you know what the deal is. Yeah I’m joking because really I don’t care as much as people think I should or at least as much as others. Yeah it’s a great thing, don’t get me wrong. For all the trials and tribulations that Black men have endured in this country, anytime someone can prove the haters wrong it’s great. But I’m not jumping for joy out this mf, no way. To me what’s a much bigger deal is that the state of Massachusetts recently elected a black man as their governor (how many of you just read that and said to yourself “really?”). Deval Patrick is his name and while he may not be the first black governor ever he is the SECOND and the only one currently in office. That’s huge. And for those that never knew or never cared, Mass is a notoriously racist state. You forget because they always use words like liberal to describe it, which people think means all-inclusive or welcoming. Please, Boston was just as uppity Alabama as recently as 20 years ago and many parts are still off-limits to people like me when the sun sets.
This is much bigger than two Super Bowl coaches. Sure they can hire coordinators and strength coaches of different colors but a governor can enact laws. A governor can reverse jail sentences, build better schools and affect property taxes so more than just the chosen few can afford to buy a house. That matters. When the stakes are high its not like Tony Dungy or Lovie Smith can actually do anything for you. Yeah I know, its an esteem thing, we should feel proud because their accomplishments makes Black people look good and show the world what we are capable of doing when given the chance. We need to get past that. If people can’t see the accomplishments by now then we need to underline them and cram them down the throats of the non-believers. Last week we heard a lot about how this is a landmark event and this week we’ll hear more, meanwhile the world keeps spinning and the big issues are forgotten about. I’m not underestimating what this means but lets be real here. And yeah I know this is a basketball blog but let me live a’ight?
38 Responses to “Black coaches in the SuperBowl”
Jan.29 at 2:58 pm
drew says:
real talk
Jan.29 at 3:02 pm
dez says:
word, son
Jan.29 at 3:02 pm
SteveSmith8fan says:
Boston = “Most underrated racist city in America”
Jan.29 at 3:03 pm
Ryan Jones says:
Khalid, unless you’ve done a lot of shopping in the past month I know for a fact you don’t own enough red, black and/or green sneakers to coordinate four week’s worth of outfits. Liar.
Jan.29 at 3:08 pm
Lang Whitaker says:
Khalid, what will happen when we have a Superbowl with two black kickers facing off?
Jan.29 at 3:10 pm
Sam Rubenstein says:
The song with the black QB line is “She Watch Channel Zero” and the guitar line sampled for that song is “Angel of Death” by Slayer, which as a song was more controversial than anything that’s ever happened in the Super Bowl. Put it this way, I bet it was Professor Griff’s idea to use that sample, if you know what I mean.
Jan.29 at 3:21 pm
Khalid Salaam says:
i’m wearing black and green today ryan. ask sam and lang. it not hard to get a red hat or something
Jan.29 at 3:22 pm
scott says:
Two black coaches in the Super Bowl? Crazy.
Jan.29 at 3:24 pm
Ryan Jones says:
Ah yes, Slayer, the neo-Nazi’s favorite vaguely mainstream thrash band. Russ, I expect you’ll be weighing in… And Khalid, you said FOUR WEEKS. That means you can’t wear your blue cowboy shirt that you think all the ladies love for a FULL MONTH. I just don’t think you’re that commited, man.
Jan.29 at 3:26 pm
Sam Rubenstein says:
Oh yeah, I should also mention that Slayer is one of my top 5 favorite bands of all-time. And that the controversy was a big misunderstanding
Jan.29 at 3:30 pm
Khalid Salaam says:
Ryan, don’t hate
Jan.29 at 3:34 pm
Ryan Jones says:
Sam, does that make you one of those self-hating people I’ve heard about?
Jan.29 at 3:35 pm
Ryan Jones says:
You know I’m just jealous, Khalid.
Jan.29 at 4:24 pm
Russ Bengtson says:
I’m not even sure what to say.
Jan.29 at 4:37 pm
William says:
For what it worth, nice article.
Ryan,
Khalid didn’t say that he was going to change outfits.
Jan.29 at 5:06 pm
Chief says:
Yeah this is being blown way out of proportion.
What about the fact that Hilary and Obama are in the race for presidency. Isn’t that big? And for the record, Baron Davis is an ALL-STAR!
Jan.29 at 5:11 pm
Khalid Salaam says:
Its not just Hil and Obama. Dems got other people. Bill Richardson (Gov of NM) is my sleeper.
Jan.29 at 7:48 pm
Boing Dynasty says:
Sometimes i wonder if Asians or Mexicans feel left out when black/white issues are discussed.
Jan.29 at 8:01 pm
AP says:
Black coaches? The NFL drops the ball By Dave Zirin January 28, 2007 THIS YEAR marks the 20th anniversary of former Los Angeles Dodgers
General Manager Al Campanis’ infamous statement that African Americans
“may not have some of the necessities” to effectively manage a team.
The outcomes of two games in the National Football League last Sunday
should have helped bury for good Campanis’ view. But the world of
professional football truly stands apart. In comparison with other
professional sports, the NFL’s progress in diversifying its coaching
ranks has been glacial, and the league’s executive suites are all but
closed to African Americans. There is much to cheer in the ascent of Tony Dungy of the Indianapolis
Colts and Lovie Smith of the Chicago Bears, the first black head
coaches to compete in the Super Bowl. Not only have they “blazed a new
trail,” as the media have breathlessly reported, by leading their
teams to their sport’s premiere showdown, Dungy and Smith don’t come
from the Bobby Knight school of coaching that puts a premium on
humiliating athletes and engaging in histrionics to get the most out
of a team. They treat their charges like adults - not millionaire
juvenile delinquents - and their players respond with unusual loyalty. But the success of Dungy and Smith should not obscure a painfully
obvious truth. In the world of football, both the professional variety
in the NFL and the semi-pro in the National Collegiate Athletic Assn.,
Campanis’ view continues to rule. About 70% of the players in the NFL are black, but out of the league’s
32 teams, only six African Americans are head coaches. The situation
is worse in the executive box - three black general managers. As poor
a record as this is, black representation in the ranks of college
football coaches makes the NFL coaching fraternity look like the
Harlem Globetrotters. Only six of 117 NCAA head football coaches are
African American, according to the Black Coaches Assn. It’s not that black coaches in the NFL don’t win at the same rate as
their white counterparts. The first African American head coach in the
NFL was Art Shell, who was hired in 1990 by the then-Los Angeles
Raiders. He and the seven other blacks who have coached in the NFL’s
modern era have a combined winning percentage of .546 and have made
the playoffs in 29 of their 50 combined seasons. Dungy is the only NFL
coach to have led a team to the playoffs seven consecutive years, and
Smith last year took his Bears, predicted to finish last in the entire
league, to the playoffs, a feat that won him Coach of the Year honors. The recent increase in black coaches in the NFL owes much to “the
Rooney rule” (named after the idea’s patron, Pittsburgh Steelers owner
Dan Rooney), which compels owners to interview black candidates for
coaching jobs. (Rooney practices what he preaches: He just hired Mike
Tomlin, an African American, as the Steelers’ new head coach.) The
Rooney rule was implemented in 2002, after the late Johnnie Cochran
and Cyrus Mehri pressed an antidiscrimination suit against the NFL,
which at the time had only two black head coaches. As columnist Bomani Jones wrote for ESPN.com, “There is nothing worth
celebrating about a league that has to force its franchises to
interview nonwhite coaching candidates and finally has a black coach
in the 41st edition of its biggest game. That’s not a good thing.
That’s a damn shame.” Black representation in the upper ranks of this country’s two other
main professional sports is not an aberration. The first African
American head coach in the National Basketball Assn. was legendary
center Bill Russell, who was hired in 1966 by the Boston Celtics as
player-coach to replace Red Auerbach. Currently, 11 of 30 NBA coaches
are black in a league that is 75% African American. There are also
eight African American general managers and one owner, the Charlotte
Bobcats’ Bob Johnson. Major League Baseball hired its first African American manager in
1975, when Frank Robinson took the helm of the Cleveland Indians.
Today, there are only two black managers, but this partly reflects the
dwindling African American presence in baseball. Only 8.9% of players
are black, and several teams have no African Americans on their
roster. The league now spends more energy and resources developing
talent on the cheap at their baseball academies in Latin America. As a
result, the demand for bilingual managers of Latino descent has
greatly increased. Five men currently meet that description. This year also marks the 60th anniversary of Jackie Robinson breaking
the color line in Major League Baseball. After retiring, Robinson was
asked to play in an old-timers’ game at Yankee Stadium. He refused,
saying, “I must sorrowfully refuse until I see more progress being
made off the playing field on the coaching lines and in the managerial
departments.” Robinson’s concerns certainly apply to the NFL. Regrettably, if the
history of sports tells us anything, owners of professional teams will
only be dragged toward diversifying their managerial ranks if players
demand change by publicly expressing their desire to have the best
possible head coaches. The amplified applause that accompanies Dungy’s and Smith’s
achievements should not distract us from the reality that this is
still not the case.
Jan.29 at 8:02 pm
AP says:
A Tale of Two Coaches
by Dave Zirin The flop-sweat had not even dried on Indianapolis Colts quarterback
Peyton Manning’s star-crossed brow before what will become the most
endlessly thumped story of Super Bowl XLI hit the wires: For the first
time in history, the head coaches of both teams are black. No question this is a significant milestone. No question Colts
helmsman Tony Dungy and Bears coach Lovie Smith deserve praise for
shattering one of sports’ most formidable glass ceilings. No question
this moment is particularly sweet for Smith, who remains the NFL’s
lowest-paid head coach. But the tenor and tone of the early coverage has provided fuzzy cover
for NFL hiring practices that continue to look like they’re overseen
by Strom Thurmond.
AP sports columnist Nancy Armour praised Dungy and Smith for keeping
their noses down and working hard instead of “whining about life being
unfair.”
Sports Illustrated’s Jeffri Chadiha threw more laurels at Dungy,
saying that what is “impressive about him is the way he’s opened doors
for other minority coaches in the league over the last 11 years.” Even Barack Obama weighed in, using the coaches’ accomplishment to
burnish his own image as America’s Most Unthreatening Model Minority:
“You know, what makes it even better is that they are both men of
humility, they are both men of God…it is a wonderful story, not just
for African-Americans but for all Americans to see men like that who
are good fathers, who are good leaders, who do things the right way,
succeed.” What this kind of cotton candy ignores is that the NFL still has a
long way to go, and the very real achievements of Dungy and Smith
should not be used to obscure this. The fact that this is a story at
all says something about the restricted ranks of the NFL coaching
fraternity. If this year’s NBA finals result in the Dallas Mavericks
(coached by Avery Johnson) facing the Washington Wizards (coached by
Eddie Jordan), no one will even notice. It wouldn’t even rank as a
footnote in Ebony Magazine. This is because the NBA has a very
positive record of hiring black coaches. With almost 70 percent of the NFL populated by African-American
players, only 18 percent of the coaches meet that description. This
year there were seven. Next year, there will be six–although one
vacancy still needs to be filled. In the NFL looking glass, this
passes for progress. In 2002 the late Johnnie Cochran and fellow attorney Cyrus Mehri
threatened a lawsuit against the league at a time when the number of
black head coaches stood at two. To quiet Cochran and company, the NFL
put in place rules that require teams to interview at least one
minority candidate for every vacancy. (This became known as the Rooney
rule, after Steelers CEO Dan Rooney.) But this year, as the yearly
round of coaches hit the unemployment line, the Rooney rule seemed to
be ignored. In Miami, for example, Dolphins owner Wayne Huizenga’s final
candidates were white–with the exception of one Hispanic and one
black man, with the final hire going to Cam Cameron, whose only
head-coaching experience was an 18-37 record at Indiana University.
(And, yes, Indiana does in fact have a football team.)
The Atlanta Falcons hired Louisville University coach Bobby Petrino
without interviewing another candidate. In Arizona, where highly regarded assistant coach Mike Singletary is
employed, the Rooney rule was once again disregarded, and the job went
to Steelers assistant Ken Whisenhunt. Another candidate Arizona
ignored was an Asian-American named Norm Chow. Chow is the genius
offensive coordinator who as a college assistant mentored Heisman
Trophy winners Ty Detmer (at BYU), Carson Palmer, Matt Leinart and
Reggie Bush (at USC). Now he is the offensive coordinator for the
upstart Tennessee Titans. The Cardinals apparently didn’t even
consider him (at least not publicly), even though the quarterback for
the Cardinals is none other than Matt Leinart. Over the next two weeks, expect the NFL and its stenographers in the
press to wrench their arms out of their sockets, patting themselves on
the back for Smith’s and Dungy’s success. Don’t expect anyone to note
that the two coaches’ achievements have come in spite of, not because
of, the NFL.
Lovie Smith said he wishes that “this didn’t have to be a big story.”
We still have a long way to go before that is the case.
Jan.29 at 8:08 pm
Boing Dynasty says:
Um..
Jan.30 at 2:16 am
Chief says:
yeah…wow.
Cool story hansel!
Jan.30 at 3:22 am
Froggiestyle says:
Isn’t it right about time for another PE ? There’s been a LOT of hype to not be believed for a while now. Man I miss Chuck and Flav (pre-TV mayhem) - and Ralph Wiley too ;0)
Jan.30 at 3:28 am
Co Co says:
Good article, I’ve never been to Boston, but being from Alabama I can spot a racist more times than not, and I’ve seen some of the necks of the Bostonians, so you might have a point!
Jan.30 at 6:25 am
FLUD says:
Red heads and red necks…. Everyone forgets about Doug Williams man…
Jan.30 at 10:02 am
kdubb says:
I think that the first black president should be David Palmer from 24 - with the writers of the show as his advisors. That guy is the man!! He’s so versatile. Remember him as the crazy voodoo guy in Major League? David Palmer for president!!
Jan.30 at 11:30 am
Ryan Jones says:
Dave Zirin does NOT play. Great sh*t as usual.
Jan.30 at 2:59 pm
Omar says:
Man, two black coaches is cool and all, but really, what’s the big deal? Just cause they black? That’s racism on a whole different level. When they gonna give props to us Latinos. You know half of the people that help build these football stadiums got deported back to Central America. Where’s the love? And trust me, i know Kha. He will find a way to rock red, black and green this whole month. Believe that.
Jan.30 at 4:04 pm
Khalid Salaam says:
Btw, the dude i mentioned yesterday, Bill Richardson is half Mexican. O, check his stats. Not saying he’s the messiah or anything but dude has promise. Used to be ambassodor to the UN and was the Sec of Energy under Clinton. Also, Boing Dynasty i assume other races do feel left out. They have their own issues that need to be debated and discussed just like anyone else.
Jan.30 at 4:38 pm
Detroit1 says:
You know what, Khalid? I actually did read your comment about Mass. having their 1st black governor, and I actually said ‘really’ to myself before reading your next line. That said, you make some good points. They are way overhyping the fact of 2 african american coaches being in the Superbowl. As for Bill Richardson, I think he actually tossed his hat into this race, but he is too much an unknown to get any real support. Shame to, cause he seems like a genuine guy w/ some good ideas…
Jan.30 at 8:26 pm
Daniel says:
GO BEARS!!!!!!
Jan.30 at 8:32 pm
Jake Appleman says:
S-TOY DAY ACK-WHERE-DOH. That’s “I agree,” in phonetic Spanish.
Jan.30 at 10:58 pm
Omar says:
I know Bill Richardson is Latino or half or whatever, but still. Something about dude doesn’t rub me right. Seems like an opportunist almost. I watch alot of spanish news about all these countries political leaders and i’m telling you, that boy is humma stuntin’. And plus his last name is Richardson. How many REAL Latino’s you know are named Richardson. Where’s the Martinez’s, Perez’s, Mazariego’s - Where’s the Z’s, homie?!
Jan.31 at 5:35 am
snyper 48 says:
I feel you O, whre r the Z’s @? They turn Zaire into Republic of Congo
Jan.31 at 5:00 pm
B.Lee says:
That’s what I’m talking about. Change the damn laws so I can afford a house. Shooot.
Feb.15 at 11:48 pm
Dervin says:
As a white guy, I know how easy it is for me, and I’m not surprised two Black coaches are in the SB because to be a Black Head coach - you have to be twice as good, have a better resume, a better personality and a better plan for 1/2 the chance. When Art Shell gets a non Raiders HC job, or Dennis Green gets to go batshait crazy and keep his job. When we can call a Black Coach a Retread. Then and only then will Blacks have a fair shot in Football.
Feb.26 at 10:22 pm
Big Cams 32 says:
Dace Chappelle for president! BYAAAHHH!!!
Feb.26 at 10:24 pm
Big Cams 32 says: