|
|
|
Last Updated: Oct 21st, 2007 - 09:55:08 |
 |
Before I get into the significance of two African American head coaches reaching the Super Bowl, let me begin by saying…Yeaaahhhh Booooyyy!!! I’m so excited and I just can’t hide it! Yeah Baby…Yeah! Say it loud! I’m Black and I’m proud! Papa's got a brand new ba...
Okay, I digress.
The pro football world has just been catapulted out of the Stone Age and into the future with Lovie Smith and Tony Dungy becoming the first African Americans to lead their teams to the NFL’s biggest game of the year—the Super Bowl. But before we start singing praises to the NFL, let me share a bit of history about this league as it relates to African Americans.
The National Football League began in 1920 as the American Professional Football Association (APFA) and changed to its current name in 1922. In 1921, before the name change, Frederick (Fritz) Pollard, a Negro (what they called us then or the n-word), became the first head coach of the Akron Pros in the APFA. He has also the first Black man to lead the same team as a quarterback to the 1920 championship. Then something strange happened when George Preston Marshall, the openly racist owner of the Boston Braves and Washington Redskins, entered the league around 1932. Blacks were segregated out of the league for about 12 years, not returning until the mid-1940s. One quick note boys and girls, Marshall--who was forced by the federal government to add a Black player to the Redskins-- was the last owner during this era of the NFL to have a Black player on his team roster.
As league owners began to realize how many talented and athletic African Americans there were, they began to use that talent but with unwritten limits on the number of Blacks on a team and the positions they could play, meaning no Black quarterbacks, centers or middle linebackers. The American Football League (AFL), a rival league to the NFL that emerged during the 1960s, began drafting Blacks in all positions. Quarterbacks, middle linebackers and centers, it didn’t matter. They just saw talent. The AFL became the first league in modern history to have the first Black starting quarterback with Marlon Briscoe of the Denver Broncos. They even had the audacity to have African Americans not just as players but also as assistant coaches. But when the two leagues merged in 1970 it was back to the ol’ boy network.
In 1989, Art Shell became the first African American in the modern era to become a head coach, of the Los Angles Raiders. He compiled a winning record of 54-38 and was the AFC coach of the year in 1990, leading his team to the AFC championship. After a 9-7 campaign in 1994, a winning record by the way, he was fired by the owner Al Davis who later said he regretted the move. Later during the 1990s two African Americans were hired as head coaches, Dennis Green and Tony Dungy. Dennis Green had a successful campaign with the Minnesota Vikings’ and Tony Dungy had an equally successful one with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Both reached the NFC conference championship during their tenures and both had winning records as first-time head coaches.
Tony Dungy took a franchise that was a perennial loser and guided his team to the playoffs three times, winning its division in 1999. Unfortunately he, like Green, was fired for not reaching the ultimate prize by getting to the Super Bowl. If this is a prerequisite for winning, a majority of the White coaches in the NFL should have been fired.
In 2002, the late Johnnie Cochran and Cyrus Mehri commissioned a report called “Black Coaches in the National Football League: Superior Performances, Inferior Opportunities,” which was critical of the hiring practices regarding minority head coaches in the NFL and threatened the NFL with a possible lawsuit. The study, conducted by Dr. Janice Madden of the University of Pennsylvania, compared five African Americans head coaches to their White counterparts between the years 1986-2002 with the Black coaches averaging 1.1 more wins per season than the White coaches. Comparing their playoff appearances, the White coaches made it 39 percent of the time compared to 67 percent of the time for Black coaches. According to the study, despite the success of some Black coaches, they are the first to be fired.
Not wanting to be looked upon as a racist regime, a committee of NFL owners established the “Rooney Rule,” based on the findings of Cochran and Mehri, which required each team to interview at least one minority candidate for any head coach opening or be fined by the NFL. Of course this does not force them to hire a person of color but at least the brother-man has a chance of getting his foot inside the door.
Now, what was once considered wishful thinking or a fleeting thought has become a reality. Two African American head coaches, two brothas, are coaching the biggest single game of the year—Super Bowl XLI. The last football game of the year (oh boo-hoo) has now become a game of social historical importance. Tony Dungy and Lovie Smith have forever sealed themselves not just in NFL history but in the history of this country.
So enjoy the game as my esteemed colleague and my brother, Bo’ Tyler says, the first ever and hopefully not last, “Soooouuullll Bowl.” I don’t know about you but the future looks Black to me…
Postscript:
Proud to be…
As I sat there and watch the last official football game with family and friends I had a feeling of being proud. Proud of the fact that both head coaches’ were black and making history. Proud the Super Bowl game was scheduled on my brothers’ birthday and the mother of the Civil Rights Movement, Rosa Parks. Proud that the half time show featuring Mr. Purple Rain himself Prince and the Florida A & M marching band electrified a sold-out crowd in the rain and even my 80 year old father. Proud to see teacher, pupil, two black coaches’ embrace at the end of the rain soaked game in the center of the field for all the world to see.
I was proud to be hanging with a bunch of black folks singing, laughing and feeling good about our selves who in their own right are making it in today’s society. And as my brother blasted “The God Father of Soul” James Brown on the box during breaks during the game I thought about how proud I was about our ancestors who struggled and sacrificed to lay down the foundation for us to witness this historical night. Maybe JB said it best “Say it loud, I’m Black and I’m proud.” Damn proud…--Robby Brown
© Copyright 2006 SeeingBlack.com
Top of Page
|
|
|
|
