Focus on the pigskin, not on the coaches’ skin color
On Monday morning this week the first words I heard out of my
radio alarm clock was that
”
For the first time ever two African-American head coaches will
be squaring off in the Super Bowl.
”
Focus on the pigskin, not on the coaches’ skin color
On Monday morning this week the first words I heard out of my radio alarm clock was that “For the first time ever two African-American head coaches will be squaring off in the Super Bowl.”
Those are the exact words that came out of the speaker as my alarm went off. Those coaches that the DJ was referring too are Indy’s Tony Dungy and Chicago’s Lovie Smith.
My question is why is this an issue? Why is this such a huge story? Who cares what color skin these guys have?
In this day and age I thought we’d passed all of that, but evidently we haven’t. We should see both of these coaches for what they have been able to accomplish and for the records and stats that their teams have put up.
Instead, the race issue is now being played in a game that will clearly showcase more black athletes on the playing field than Caucasians, but that’s not a story. And it shouldn’t be.
The real focus should be on Peyton Manning finally being able to beat Tom Brady in a playoff game to advance to the Super Bowl. The focus could be on Indy’s offense and Chicago’s defense, or how long it’s been since both teams have gone to the Bowl.
Why not do a story on Bears’ quarterback Rex Grossman and how he will handle the pressure of going up against Manning, the NFL’s MVP?
The focus should be on key match-ups on the playing field, etc, etc.
I don’t know if it was because Martin Luther King Day was last week or because February is Black History Month. Whatever the case, the media seems to love this type of story. But why is this still going on? African-Americans are a huge part of all sports and have been so for a long time. Heck, without blacks you couldn’t even have an NFL.
Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier in baseball in April of 1947. Marion Motley was the first black player in the NFL, joining the Cleveland Browns in 1946.
Harold Hunter signed the first NBA contract in 1950. Today, 80 percent of all the players in the NBA are black.
Jack Johnson was the first heavyweight-boxing champion of the world from 1908 to 1915.
Black athletes have made their mark in sports now for more than 50 years. Can’t we move past skin color?
The fact that two black head coaches are going up against one another in the Super Bowl should be no more than a sidebar story and a maximum of 10 percent of the coverage leading up to the world’s biggest football game. Instead, it seems like this issue has made the headlines of every major newspaper in the nation.
The story and hype should have ended with Art Shell. Shell became the first black head coach in the NFL in 1989 when Al Davis hired him to coach the Raiders.
What bothers me is this wouldn’t be a story at all if the two coaches were Irish- or Italian-American.
I remember watching Lovie Smith walk off the field after his team got finished routing the New Orleans Saints in the NFC Championship. Instead of asking him about the game, the win, or how it feels to be going to the Super Bowl, the first question out of the reporter’s mouth on the sideline was about Tony Dungy, and whether or not he would be pulling for Tony Dungy since they were both black, friends and had a chance to make Super Bowl history.
To Smith’s credit, he looked at the reporter as if he didn’t even understand his question. Then, after the reporter repeated it again, Smith answered, but was clearly somewhat uncomfortable in doing so.
I say black and white or yellow or orange, what’s that got to do with a touchdown pass, a sack or a huge run? Just focus on the game and the play on the field. And focus on the pigskin not the color of someone’s skin.
It’s 2007, not 1807.
