For Once, "Black Sunday" is a Good Thing: The Success & Continuing Problems of Black Coaches in the NFL

Much of the racial discussion this week has focused on the historical development of a black head coach taking his team to the Super Bowl. Not only is this a first, but both of the teams’ coaches this year are black (Indianapolis’s Tony Dungy and Chicago’s Lovie Smith). It’s not surprising that the media has picked up on this, and the story is getting an appropriate amount of attention. What is not happening, however, is a sophisticated discussion about why a league that has had a disproportionate amount of African American players and (recently) assistant coaches has not had more black head coaches.

In the Chicago Tribune, columnist Rick Morrissey shrugs off the issue and explains his disinterest by boasting about how many black head coaches/managers Chicago teams have hired. He reduces the race issue to individual-level bigotry: “There are too many people around with ugly hearts. But when I look at Smith, I see a coach. And I get the distinct feeling from listening to him that he would like to be viewed that way too. Not as a black coach. As a coach.” We’re sure he would, but we are also sure that both Smith and Dungy are well aware that they are NOT simply viewed that way. Morrissey, like most Americans, claims to be color blind. Impossible. He may not make conscious negative judgments based on his awareness of people’s color, but he cannot and does not fail to notice that these men are black simply because he’s used to having black coaches lead his favorite teams.

To be sure, having race not serve as a barrier to the top coaching spot is a goal for many. John Wooten of the Fritz Pollard Alliance is quoted in an MSNBC story as follows: “After Doug Williams won and Steve McNair and Donovan McNabb played in Super Bowls, Wooten said, ‘We don't talk about it anymore. That's what we want to see happen throughout.’" Part of the reason that’s becoming a reality is the so-called “Rooney Rule,” which requires that National Football League teams interview at least one minority candidate when they have a head coach opening. The rule is named after Pittsburgh Steelers owner and chairman Dan Rooney, whose team just hired only its third coach since the 1960s – Mike Tomlin – who is black.

The plan has had clear results. According to USA Today: “The NFL had a record seven African-American head coaches in 2006 and a record 197 coaches, including seven assistant head coaches. The numbers reflect much progress with diversity in a league where roughly two-thirds of the players are minorities. In 1980, there were 14 African-American assistants in the entire league; Art Shell didn't become the first African-American coach with the Los Angeles Raiders until 1989.”

Why is such an affirmative action plan needed in the NFL, a league where seventy percent of its players are black? After all, the AP reports that the National Basketball Association has much closer proportionality of black players to coaches: [The NBA] currently has 11 black coaches for 30 teams, and there have been 56 in its history. It’s not because of overt bigotry in football. NFL owners are business-oriented people who want to win. They will hire the best coach they can fine, irrespective of race. But Rooney understood what most of the media is ignoring during this historic time: cultural racism drives a wedge between qualified black coaches and owners in an implicit and deeply troubling way. It’s the same barrier that was faced by black quarterbacks for many years. Specifically, there is a deeply rooted cultural presupposition that African Americans are less trustworthy and less intelligent than whites. That is why young black men who were star quarterbacks at their predominantly black high schools were often converted to other “skill” positions when they got to college. It’s what led Jimmy “the Greek” Snyder to absent-mindedly declare that black Americans had superior athletic ability because of purposeful breeding by slave masters. It is these stereotypes of strength over intellect that have led to countless injustices and presumptions in sports, business, academia and every other aspect of society. Black Enterprise magazine’s Alan Hughes sees this as an “evolution” of racial justice in professional sports, paralleling black players breaking color barriers in baseball (Jackie Robinson) and basketball (Early Lloyd).

This historic occurrence is an opportunity to discuss the reasons that it took so long for a black coach to make it to and (now inevitably) win the Super Bowl. Predictably and unfortunately, though, the mainstream media has missed yet another opportunity to raise consciousness, instead relegating the issue to individual-level attitudes and the ostensible end to another historic injustice perpetuated by thoughtless whites who didn’t know any better. Dungy and Smith clearly know that the issue is much deeper than this, but they clearly have their hands full with other matters. To expect them to carry the weight of meaningful addressing of racial injustice is to once again shift the burden of the struggle for racial equality to the folks who have been doing most of the work anyway. We congratulate both coaches on their achievements. Now it’s our turn to shoulder our share of the load.