It's Been a Long Time Coming...

But a change 'gon come....

I know I've never posted about sports but I'm a huge sports fan. I love my Southern Jaguars, the Miami Dolphins and can be cajoled into mild adulation for the LSU Tigers. But today is not about any of those teams. Today I want to speak on the mathematical anomaly that has resulted in NFL Head Coaches, Lovie Smith and Tony Dungee, both taking thier teams to the big dance....THE SUPER BOWL! the NFL only has five black head coaches (out of 32 teams) the chances of two black head coaches getting to the superbowl is...well you do the math...I'll just say highly unlikely). It must be the talent.


I was a kid in 1988 when Doug Williams led the Washington Redskins to a superbowl win. I remember how happy my father was...and I remember people on the radio being so ridiculous, saying that a black man wasn't smart enough to be a quarterback. I was old enough to be offended by that and to celebrate when Doug proved every one of those critics wrong. A few years ago, when Rush Limbaugh, a recovering drug addict, made a few borderline-racist comments about eagles QB Donovan McNabb all the Doug Williams rhetoric came back to me. Some people are just destined to be locked into trying to make the world fit into thier backwards stereotypes. Just last year reports circulated that Vince Young, a national champion winning QB, lacked the QB IQ to play in the NFL---Now Vince is the NFL's Offensive rookie of the year. Most black QB's have been through simular situations, with many of them being coaxed to try a new position to make room for more plyable, yet probably less talented white QB. It seems the tide is just turning. From Warren Moon and Doug Williams to Steve McNair, Donovan McNabb, Mike Vick, Daunte' Culpepper.......to Vince Young, Jamarcus Russell(Sugar Bowl Champ. QB), Chris Leak(BCS National Champ. QB), Troy Smith (Heisman Winner). I always find it funny how being a mobile quarterback is only a good quality when exhibited by a white Quarterback. If a black guy is mobile, it is quickly said that he should stay in the pocket....one Critic of Vick even added, "like a real quarterback". Yet someone like David Carr, of the Houston Texans can stand in the pocket and get sacked 249 times and his O-Line gets blamed. Then, after the team exhausts all other possibilities and lose out on Vince Young, they finally considered the fact that a fifth year QB who couldn't feel the rush coming was a liability. I guess they were just happy he stood in the pocket, like a real Quarterback. He lost like a real quarterback too.

Throughout our history it was said, thought and believed that black men couldn't play baseball, basketball (if you can even believe it) or football for various racist based reasons....and evey one of those stereotypes had fallen except that of the head coach....the strategic thinker...and master planner. Well, now that is a thing of the past too. Recent Hall of Famer, Fritz Pollard was the first black head coach in the NFL in 1921, for the Akron Pros. Another black coach didn't appear until Art Shell took over the Raiders in 1989. Like I said it's been a long time coming. It took 41 years for a black head coach to make it to the superbowl.....but even that has been done in style. Not one but two brothers will run out onto the field in Miami. I don't even care who wins...and I know I'm not the only one.

*Okay, If I had to choose I think the teacher should be the victor....Tony Dungee he's earned it.

-A