As a historic Super Bowl looms just days away, with Tom Brady set to lead the Tampa Bay Buccaneers against the Kansas City Chiefs, and heir supreme QB Patrick Mahomes, we see the fingerprints of Black coaching all over it.
In fact, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers have the blackest coaching staff in the history of the NFL. Todd Bowles, Byron Leftwich Keith Armstrong, Harold Goodman, and on, and on!
Seriously, their roster harkens back to the movie “CB4” starring Chris Rock, which famously featured Allen Payne as Euripides/Dead Mike with the fictitious single “I’m Black Y’all”.
But as the NFL makes its annual churn of soil, as head coaches go, and head coaches come, we find that any pledge to hire highly qualified Black head coaches has got up and left.
Current odds are that current Kansas City Chiefs offensive coordinator Eric Bieniemy is the next head coach for the Houston Texans, but there are many other qualified candidates who will go overlooked.
READ MORE: Eric Bieniemy Is A Master Playcaller
Black GMs seem to only get hired in situations that are akin to a smoldering compost heap. Ok, well the Washington Football Team is a little better than that. Their gutsy playoff performance signifies the “heap” is no longer smoldering. But the WFT is lucky to get Martin Mayhew. He and team president Jason Wright form the first Black GM and team president tandem in NFL history. Basically, they’re there to clean up a crappy environment, as per American history, actually.
READ MORE: Washington Football Team Is Breaking Ground, Hiring Minorities To Leadership Positions
“Get up, a get-get-get down, “the Rooney Rule” is a joke in your town. Get up, a get-get-get down, “the Rooney Rule” sure where’s the late crown!”
Built-in Prejudice
The current talk is about Bucs Defensive Coordinator Todd Bowles, who left the New York Jets with a 24-40 record after starting out a promising 10-6 back in 2015. He was being mentioned for a few of the remaining NFL openings. However, they’re always “talking” about Black coaches, but it’s mostly about firing them, ask Pittsburgh Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin.
READ MORE: Pittsburgh Steelers HC Mike Tomlin Is Elite: It’s Been Proven
He did a remarkable job, as usual, in leading the Steelers into the playoffs with a Big Ben whose skills have deteriorated substantially, particularly on accuracy with the long ball. That’s just something that occurs naturally.
Despite that, and an offense that was further handicapped by an ineffective running game, Tomlin led them to a 12-4 record. He got them to the playoffs, as he does more often than not, and maximized his available talent, which he also did more often, but the annual chatter for his job was at the level of a sonic BOOM after his team’s calamitous loss to the upstart Cleveland Browns.
READ MORE: The Steelers Should Fire Mike Tomlin? Stop The Foolishness Right Now
But, the loss to division-rival Cleveland was only the latest reason needed for critics, who likely are more averse to the skin color of Tomlin than they are for anything his teams have done on the field.
So, the question that ultimately begs to be considered is how can owners who’re constantly catering to the wishes and whims of a largely “conservative”, middle American fanbase, still be of mind to hire the best candidate possible, rather than an individual who simply looks the part?
READ MORE: “You Are What Your Record Says You Are.”- Art Rooney II Dishes On Rooney Rule
Yeah, it’s complicated. That complication was further illustrated when a sitting president waded into private enterprise (the NFL) and dictated that a particular player should never play again because he dared kneel in a silent and peaceful protest against police brutality and institutionalized racism in America.
Context
That player, of course, was and is Colin Kaepernick. You can say whatever you want about how cool Bruce Arians is for having such a diverse coaching staff, but the fact did he did not give Kap a tryout?
Why? Because there is resistance to the “negative” that might befall his team. What type of negative could that be? Why, race-based tantrums and animus, of course.
Now, bringing up Mike Tomlin and Colin Kaepernick during a discussion about hiring Black head coaches in the National Football League is indeed apropos. A similar but far less pronounced resistance is shared between the two.
While they may not be fruit of the same tree, it’s definitely still the same racist ass orchid.
Yet, in “polite” society, individuals are dissuaded from addressing such things head on, so they need supporters and advocates to do it for them.
For every Eric Bieniemy, there are certain to be five more individuals like new Detroit Lions head coach Dan Campbell, whose sophomoric introductory speech was even applauded by a Detroit Free Press headline describing it as “The Most Epic Introductory Press Conference Ever.”
This guy interviewed better than Eric Bieniemy 😂😂
Sounds like Detroit is looking forward to more years of losing pic.twitter.com/PcKc9wMLyZ
— The Shadow League (@ShadowLeague) January 21, 2021
Could you imagine a Black head coach introducing himself with a rambling speech about biting kneecaps?
HA!
You already know.
