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Minorities aren’t abundant in coaching or higher offices in the NFL. It’s been a sore spot for the league for years. Hiring of minorities is encouraged, which is a great policy to help their advancement in professional sports. After the Buffalo Bills hired Gregg Williams as their new head coach, the race card showed its ugly head.
Marvin Lewis, who engineered the Ravens’ record-setting defense, got an interview with Buffalo, but didn’t get considered for the other eight openings in the NFL. The league’s policy prohibits coaches from interviewing for other jobs while their current team is still playing. So Lewis didn’t interview for these other positions because he was busy winning a Super Bowl ring. It wasn’t because he’s black. Football insiders expected the New York Giants defensive coordinator, John Fox, to be in the running for the head coaching spots. But he’s still in New York and just for the record, he’s white.
Lewis didn’t make much of a fuss about it, but Tampa Bay head coach Tony Dungy thinks Lewis was snubbed because he’s black. Dungy is one of the few African Americans coaching the NFL. Dungy told ESPN, “It’s difficult to take from my perspective as a minority coach in the NFL. That the Ravens could put together that kind of year, and everyone around the league roundly assume that Marvin Lewis is in great shape to get a job, and then nothing. And that only one team talked to him, that’s just hard to swallow.”
What’s hard to swallow is the race siren sounding because a white coach is hired. The openings were all filled before Lewis could be considered for the jobs, except for the Buffalo job. Lewis got an interview and Buffalo’s front office people said they gave Lewis serious consideration. Old diehards such as Marty Schottenheimer and Dick Vermeil returned to coaching this offseason. These guys are proven winners. Lewis won’t land a head coaching job when pitted against those types of veteran coaches, so what’s the difference if he gets an interview or not. Dungy was way off the mark with that comment. How can you fault these teams for hiring Schottenheimer-type guys or proven college coaches?
Winning a championship in professional sports is taken more seriously than ever these days. It’s a multi-million dollar ordeal. The idea that race plays a part in hiring a coach is a naive, 1950s way of thinking. It’s winning at all costs these days. The potential coach who owners think can bring the team to the promised land will get the job, no matter what color.
