| Racism in the NFL? |
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| Written by Phil Reggio | |||||||
| Sunday, 21 January 2007 | |||||||
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Is the NFL still seen as a black and white sport? Sunday’s NFC and AFC Championship games have provided the NFL with an opportunity to send to the Super Bowl an Africa-American head coach from each league.  Never in the history of the NFL have two black head coaches graced the sidelines of a Super Bowl. Is this a monumental event in race relations? Something that will go down in the books of American history? Up until Sunday morning, I didn’t even know the chance existed. So what does all of this mean? Is the African-American community even taking notice? Does anyone really care? Have we all become color blind and so far removed from the turbulent 1960s that people have moved on to other societal issues? Today, articles on terrorism and the possibility of terrorist threats around the world continually make the front pages of newspapers. Nobody took notice of the two African-American coaches who were fired recently—Art Shell of the Raiders and Dennis Green of the Arizona Cardinals. Of course not even the NAACP could argue for either of the two coaches mentioned. Both teams, the Raiders and the Cardinals, achieved far below expectations and had miserable seasons. However, there was a time when race may have been used to explain the firings. When Doug Williams won a Super Bowl with the Redskins nearly 19 years ago, much was made of his skin color. Now that I think of it, did we celebrate his achievement as a black quarterback, or was Doug just a great quarterback during the biggest game of his career? How did race factor into his performance? Some would argue that color hindered the role of African-Americans in football, most notably at the quarterback position. Yet, if we look at the NFL a decade later, black quarterbacks can be found on many NFL rosters. Donovan McNabb, Michael Vick, and Daunte Culpepper have reached superstardom as the door has swung wide open and opportunities seem limitless.  Historians will tell you that the Untied States is 140+ years removed from slavery and almost 50 years removed from the Civil Rights movement. If we, as a nation, have made little of this weekend’s match-ups involving African-American head coaches, then it is quite possible that our society has achieved racial harmony in football.Barack Obama is running for president, African-Americans own major percentages of sports franchises, and, with an education, anyone can achieve success in American society. Although some things still may be more difficult to attain, color is no longer a barricade for many. I’m not foolish though. Racism most certainly exists in the United States, but it is not present at the shameful levels that occurred in America’s history. As a child of the 1970s, I represent the generation that is, for the most part, colorblind. People are judged based on what is in their hearts and minds but not by the color of their skin. Fortunately, we can now move forward and focus on other ethical issues that pose challenges in American society. Although we have much more to accomplish in the future, for now let’s revel in the fact that the NFL has graduated, much like the NBA and the MLB. Lovie Smith and Tony Dungy might possibly serve as the head coaches of the biggest game in American sports, come February 4. Both men will be proud of their accomplishment as coaches, and both men will have the opportunity to become the first African-American head coach in the NFL to win a Super Bowl. The past serves as a learning experience to help people grow from their mistakes and hopefully prevent them from making the same mistake twice. Some view Sunday’s game as an opportunity to advance the contributions of African-Americans in professional sports. For me, it comes down to one thing, progress.
Greg Gordon
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It's good to see at the professional level two blacm men lead their teams to the superbowl. However, if you take notice at the Divsion 1 level of college football, there have been no major improvements in hiring black head coaches. If I'm correct, there are more black professional head coaches than those at the Divsion 1 level of college football. At the college level, politics plays more of a role in hiring a head coach than a NFl team. He could become the face of the universtiy if he has a successful program. Example, Bear Bryant, Joe Paterno and Tom Ozborne are considered legends and icons at the schools as well as the states where they coached. I seriously doubt, that major Divsion 1 schools want a Black Man to have that type legacy. |
G. Chell
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Racism prevails in college football. They blame it all on the alumni. Strange indeed!! However, college basketball has a number of black coaches, such as Tubby Smith of KY and Caroline Peck of Florida. Then again some schools in the universities such as agriculture are inherently racist with very few minority faculty (not even fitting the stereotypes of Asians teaching quantitative and math courses), and then we have the sciences and engineering where in some cases the majority of the faculty are what one in this country calls people of color. Seems to me that the rednecks concentrate these days in specific areas such as college football and agriculture. |
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