College Football has some serious explaining to do
Congratulations to the Pittsburgh Steelers for making a conscious decision to allow qualifications to rule the day in their search to replace long time coach, Bill Cowher. The Steelers have named Minnesota Vikings Defensive Coordinator, Mike Tomlin, as just their third coach in the last 38 years. In case you didn’t know, Tomlin happens to be African American and is the Steelers first as a coach in their storied 74 year history. While the NFL has improved its progressive thinking in this regard, it appears that the NCAA has not.
Sylvestor Croom Turner Gill Ron Prince Randy Shannon Ty Willingham Karl Dorrell
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College Football’s Six African American Coaches
The math in 2006 was pitifully imbalanced: There were seven Black NFL head coaches out of 32 teams (21.9 percent) and five Black Division I-A college head coaches out of 119 teams (4.2 percent). You don’t have to be too smart to know how stupid this looks!! The shameful disparity in these numbers between the NFL and college football is as plain as Black and White. The concern about these numbers will undoubtedly be under a microscope as America will make history when two African American coaches take the sidelines for Superbowl XLI in Miami on February 4th. Tony Dungy and Lovie Smith’s achievement means this is one more barrier broken, one more cultural advancement, one more uncomfortable truth that can transition into past tense.
This year, all 10 teams that played in a BCS game had White coaches. Of the 64 coaches that made it to a bowl game, only 2 were not White. It is these kind of disparaging numbers that causes me to raise painstaking questions and concerns about Division 1A college football. While the pro sidelines have increased their diversity, the college sidelines are caught in a time warp. A profession that so desperately seeks a level playing field offers nothing close to one for the Black athlete who aspires to rise to the pinnacle of the college coaching profession. Plainly and simply, folks, this is discrimination. More precisely, this is one of the last and greatest bastions of discrimination within all of American sports.
If you are reading this you must know how I feel about a sport with roughly 50 percent Black participation at the athlete level, and such poor participation at the head coaching level, it’s a joke! In a place where kids are taught the value of education and are enlightened about our changing world, it seems unreal that college would be a place that struggles with this sad issue. Besides, a college student or graduate is supposed to be reformed and equipped (through his/her expensive education) to lead the way on understanding diversity. It seems a bit hypocritical to teach something that is obviously not practiced on the very campuses this lesson of life is learned. If there is a professor or professional that believes I have this all wrong, I would ask them to explain the numbers.
After one season as an assistant at his alma mater, Minnesota, Tony Dungy went the pro route. He was promoted to defensive coordinator in his fourth year with the Pittsburgh Steelers. Dungy has spent 20 of his 26 NFL seasons as either a coordinator or a head coach, and his regular-season record as the boss is 114-62. Lovie Smith, meanwhile, gave it the old college try. After 12 years at Tulsa, Wisconsin, Arizona State, Kentucky, Tennessee and Ohio State, he was still a position coach. By his sixth season in the NFL, he was defensive coordinator of the St. Louis Rams, and by his ninth season, he was head coach of the Bears. Where he has done fairly well, I might add! Lovie’s record the past two years is 25-9. The career paths of Smith and Dungy show the contrast between upward mobility in college and upward mobility in the NFL. Somehow, the NFL decision-makers saw something in Lovie Smith that the college decision-makers missed. Willfully or not!
Marvin Lewis, head coach of the Bengals, found himself after 11 years working in college, he was still a linebackers coach. After four years with the Steelers, he made the jump to defensive coordinator of the Baltimore Ravens. By his 12th year in the NFL, he was the man in charge.
Why the difference?
The prevailing thought is that you’re usually dealing with one person in the NFL, the owner. The thought is owners are typically about business, and may understand that you hire people based on productivity and what you think they are capable of. Owners are largely not as influenced by others. On the college level, however, there are many more influences. And maybe those influences are not all positive. That’s another way of saying that a Black head coach can sometimes be a tough sell to a bunch of White boosters, who tend to get involved in the hiring process because they tend to write big checks to the athletic department. With the hiring of African-American Randy Shannon at Miami and Cuban-born Mario Cristobal at Florida International, the number of minority Division I-A head coaches has ballooned to seven. Woop-T-Doo! That’s two out of the 21 hires made to date, not enough to appreciably move the needle toward equality.
“What more do I need to do? If you put my resume next to some of these others, with no names on them, mine will look better. Still I can’t get a shot at it.” — Black College Assistant Coach
Charlie Strong continues to do great work as co-defensive coordinator at Florida — anyone see the Gators’ defense utterly crush Ohio State’s offense in the BCS National Championship Game? — but his shot at the big chair never comes. After 21 years as a college assistant, he’s still waiting. UCLA’s defensive coordinator DeWayne Walker, Michigan defensive coordinator Ron English — all their units had fine seasons and notable successes. Walker’s defense shut down USC’s offense and cost the Trojans a national title shot; English turned Michigan’s defense into a top-10 unit in his first season. All of them will be right back where they were again next season.
Maybe it’s time to try the NFL, where they do more than talk about diversity. They put it into action.
That’s how the Big Man sees it
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