im sorry. i truly am. i didnt want to go there but i honestly cant help myself. i truly feel compelled to discuss this topic and share my opinion, whether you like it or not.
the topic, to be clear, is the fact that there are studies and reports and thesis's on the numbers and percentages of black head coaches. the study states there are 4 head coaches (out of 119) in the entire bcs subdivision. and to some people this deserves media attention and "newsworthiness". to some (wojciechowski of espn, whitlock of foxsports) this is a mistake and an outrage and believe the number should be higher. me? i laugh when i see these reports.
there are many reasons why the percentages are so low. we can start with the simple fact, that the head football coach in any major college program is, for all intents and purposes "the face of the franchise". guys like tressel in colombus, miles in baton rouge, carroll in sc, paterno, bowden, to name a few. these guys, beside from being football coaches, have to kiss alot of ass. they need to butter the bottoms of highly sensitive boosters, wealthy white recruits, the overly-protective alumni. these are things that go on in order to keep funding in the uber-millions. so when a president and a.d. are looking for someone who can excel at all the diversity the job calls for they tend to lean towards the guy that the rich, white, cash cows will better receive. sometimes in life it just boils down to the dollar.
another reason could be, whether you believe there is a connection or not, is the amount of winning black coaches in recent college football history. ty willingham - 44 wins in 7 seasons with stanford, 21 wins in 3 seasons with nd, and 11 wins in 4 seasons with uw. and this is a guy who got more than one chance to prove himself. why it took so long for this guy to get bounced, i have no idea. Ron Prince of kansas state, after promising to put ksu football on the map, he valiantly puts 16 wins on the map - in 3 years. there simply isnt enough to go around.
i love it. all these articles talk about the numbers and what not, but dont mention names. they wont mention the fact that there is a severe dearth of competent black coaches to even choose from. just listen to this quote from yahoo sports. are these guys out of their mind ?. its like its expected to be a certain number and if its not then all but 4 college presidents are racist.
"Also, we must expect more out of our college presidents, who have an even more important responsibility. They are the leading scholars of our academic institutions, and they should see beyond bias and stereotypes and seek grander principles. When it comes to hiring and setting the tone at their universities, they are in charge."
what ever happened to hiring the best guy. i look at it like this: each individual university conducted their own interviews, made their own lists, had meetings, mulled it, then came out with the guy they deemed best to fill the position. when that process happens, the better available and more qualified possibilities would logically get snatched up and the less qualified and less competent would get left in the cold. simple as that. so instead of every fucking member of this american liberal media crying about stats and ratios and viewing from the back-end, why dont you look at it the more translucent way? from the beginning of the process, not from the end result. maybe, just maybe, Rick Neuheisel is better at what he does than dewayne walker(usc black asst coach who was in the running for the ucla job that Neuheisel got). nothing against walker but this is one example of what i just explained. the stats represent reality. and maybe the reality is that our universities are run by angry old white men with racist agendas, or maybe the reality is that there are few good black coaches to pick from.
there are probably some very talented black coordinators out there that deserve a chance, but until there are more guys like sylvester croom ( a very good black coach and current hc of miss state, who has proven himself over and over) and randy shannon ( tough-nosed hc of miami who is turning around that program) i don't want to hear it.
here's another quote from the guy who did the study: "While the percentages are slightly better, the general picture is still one of white men running college sport," said Richard Lapchick, the report's co-author. "Overall, the numbers simply do not reflect the diversity of our student-athletes. Moreover, they do not reflect the diversity of our nation where we have elected an African-American as President for the first time."
now that last line, could potentially open a can for me but that is a story for another time. i just dont see a correlation.
and another :
"I found it appalling" Charlotte Westerhaus, the NCAA's vice president for diversity and inclusion.
i find you appalling.
i cant get enough of these douchebags. hear is copy and paste directly from gene wojciechowskis' article about this terrible situation that america has come face to face with.
""Do the math. Four out of 119 equals 3.36 percent (120 schools were studied, including one transitioning into FBS). That's less than you tip the worst waitress in the world. Now compare that to the other numbers published in a recent study by the Institute for Diversity and Ethics in Sports at the University of Central Florida: • 54 percent of FBS players are minorities (50 percent of those African-American). • 5.04 percent of FBS head coaches are minorities. • 92.5 percent of FBS university presidents, 87.5 percent of FBS athletic directors and 100 percent of FBS conference commissioners are white. ""
yes, the waitress line was hilarious and i would like to formally invite you back up the computer after you surely were on the floor laughing.
in the nfl there is something called the "rooney rule", which forces nfl teams to interview at least one minority coach. these guys would like to implement a similar rule in ncaa. if the point of this rule is only to increase the number of black coaches just so you can feel better about yourself bec you are too insecure about racism in this country and need to have blacks love you, otherwise you might be called a bigot and shunned by all, or is it to actually find good black coaches that otherwise might not get the opportunity for an interview?
if its truly the latter, then go for it.
the only problem with this system is that it requires you to interview guys like herm the worm, ray rhodes, denny green, romeo crennel, and then get stupid and actually hire them. these might be the 4 worst coaches in the last 15 years to put on a headset. lets not ignore dungy, tomlin, lovie smith, these guys are everything a young black coach should strive to be. marvin lewis is an enigma. i like him, think hes a good coach, but has had almost no success and no luck other than one season.
the current black coach situation is very polarizing. to me there are no average black head coaches. either youre in the top third or bottom third. that saying something. it says there are elite black coaches out there but after that your pushing it and essentially are a product of affirmative action. seriously, what has herman edwards done in his career that tells me he should be navigating a rebuilding organization. teams in need of an energetic and fresh approach like the falcons, redskins, cards, dolphins, all miraculously found the right guy to steer their respective sinking ships. what have the browns done? im not saying white coaches are better than black coaches, im saying some individuals are better at the coaching profession, and all that that entails, than others and if they happen to be white thats the way it is. believe me there are indeed under-performing white head coaches, guys in the past few years like mariucci, nolan, bill callahan, marty schott, linehan, and guess what, they were bounced on their heads and were replaced. you dont hear an outcry about them. one seriously has to ask if the browns, cheifs, and bengals are afraid of the p.r. if they bootleg their coach. thanx to reports like these, if a crennel or a dennis green get fired its bec they are black. the reality is, in the nfl there is a concept called "shitty head coach" and when a team has one it fires his ass, thats it. so why wait on these three guys. some are of the opinion that if they were white they'd be in the tv booth by now. how many more clock-managemant miscues and awful playcalling do these guys need to commit to convince people they are horrible at their job. how many more cheifs and browns players losing interest in the tream concept does it take to prove that these guys have zero locker room control.
i seriously could spend days going through every coach in every sport. ncaa b-ball guys like kelvin sampson: commits ncaa violations, gets caught, then seriously, no joke, commits the same violation at indiana; henry bibby: 131-111, fired after nine seasons; john chaney: threatened to kill john calipari at a press conference, ordered a player to commit hard fouls on opponent eventually leading to a broken arm of a st joes player; tubby smith: he went from top-five job with kentucky and winning a championship(1997) to coaching at minneota and the nit. what happened?; nolan richardson: my favorite- In February 2002, Richardson spoke out against the administration at the University of Arkansas and its fans. He claimed that he was being mistreated because he was african-american, and challenged Athletic Director Frank Boyles to buy out the remainder of his contract. Shortly thereafter, Arkansas dismissed Richardson as head coach. In December 2002, Richardson filed a lawsuit against the University, the Board of Trustees, and the Razorback Foundation, citing a racially discriminatory environment. Coach Richardson's lawsuit was dismissed in July 2004. Reminds me of willie randolph. is tommy amaker or john thompson III the best black coach in the ncaa? see what im saying. now obviously there are white coaches that cause trouble and cant seem to figure it out. Larry Eustachy, bobbo knight, bobbo huggins, Dave Bliss, are few mental-cases worth mentioning. eustachy compromised the reputation of the university. he is currently at southern miss. bliss made the mistake of his life. bliss is now out of coaching. knight and huggins were embarrssing themselves more than the company, but they are proven winners, which is why they remained major factors in the coaching landscape.
what about the nba. this is the easiest to analyze. it was actually easier one year ago than it is now, bec people actually think doc rivers out-coached phil jackson. it never happened. i dont know what phil jax was doing but anyone watching the end of the season and playoffs, realized the talent and leadership on that team overcame the deficiencies of the coaching. there were misused timeouts, unclear rotations(cassell, rondo), defensive breakdowns(hawks series) and other things that the bug three ignored and took care of business themselves. docs' career total is 346 -329. and thats after a 66 win season. phil jax needs no defense. anyways i always like to start off simply by asking who are the worst coaches in the league. maybe scott skiles, maybe lawrence frank. maybe marc iavaroni, but definitely sam mitchell, mike brown, mo cheeks. possibly mike woodson, reggie theus. guys like michael curry and terry porter need more time to prove their horribleness. doc rivers and byron scott have achieved some success so its difficult for people to see the flaws and realize the jokes they really are. nate macmillan and eddie jordan are very good coaches. but the best barometer is to look at the black coaches that were in the league recently. here are some. try not to laugh. sam vincent, bill cartwright, sidney lowe, bernie bickerstaff, don chaney, avery johnson, dwane casey, paul silas, and the one and only, the guy all young black coaches cringe when hearing his name: isiah "i'm a little too feminine for this profession" thomas. ok, mostly good guys and smart guys, but all were severely out-coached and exposed for the bumbling morons they think they're not. there are obviously white coaches who cant hack it in this leauge guys like calipari, rick pitino, who went back to college and displayed their talent where it was simply a better fit for them. guys like doug collins, jeff van gundy, are out of the league. but only bec they chose to, they are hounded about jobs every offseason.
was anyone surprised that in crunch time the maverix folded and the team led by pat riley and d-wade out-played and out-maneuvered the avery johnson-led squad. why is he not coaching now? after a finals appearance and a coach of the year award you'd think gm's would be all over his big teeth . where is he? do you remember the knicks had interest in mark jackson to be their head coach this offseason. that would have been interesting. dont get me started on lenny wilkens. when you have a league where more than a third and almost half the coaches are black( 11-30) you would think doc rivers wouldn't be the first guy since the days of kc jones (84' and 86'), lenny(79'), and al attles (75') to win a championship. thats a 22 year break. the reason i say this league is the easiest to analyze is bec if their was any league one would think african-american coaches would attain championship caliber success it would be the nba. a. bec of the high percentage of black coaches and b. bec of the high percentage of black players. 83% of nba players are black, so essentially its the one sport that that culture has embraced. which would lead one to think that in the nba there would be more black coaches, gms, and owners, which in fact is true. so where are the winners? and c. every one of the 30 nba teams has had at least one black coach (not necessarily head coach) by now.
there are still liberal hippies who think its not enough. this new york times article, listen carefully, starts off with the premise that black coaches tend to have shorter tenures than white coaches. the article goes on to bring stats and quotes from guys like silas ( who was fined $10,000 for a vulgar reference of a former member of the cavs, before getting fired) to prove unfairness and possible racism . then at the end of the article, oh so quietly, it suggests that actually "Team performance turned out to be the most important factor in a coach's job security";
i'm laughing my ass off right now, you have no idea. i think i might rupture my spleen.
http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9504E2DA1F3CF931A15750C0A9639C8B63&sec=&spon=&pagewanted=all
in all of this, is another sub-category which ill mention but wont rant on. black players playing for black coaches. you would think its an advantage as a coach. but it doesnt seem so statistically. a couple years ago larry johnson had this to say when asked a question regarding a comparison between herm and dick vermeil: "I think so. I could relate to Herman. I couldn't do that with the other coaches I had because they had not done it. You know, they haven't put those pads or they haven't been in the situation as a young black athlete and know what we had to go through." he was trying to say that he can open up more to herm bec he was like a father figure. in last weeks s.i. pol that asked "Which current NFL coach would you most like to play for?" herm the worm came in fifth place?!?! ok larry you play for herm and beat women, ill play for vermeil and go to super bowls.
its been 60 years since jackie played his first game. cito gaston is the only black manager to lead his team to a world series. i commend him for the job well done, but why would he not get another job after getting fired from the jays in 1997. imagine any other white manager with a resume of TWO world series championships. he would get hired faster than you can say martin luther king junior. its a mystery to this day. as recently as 2006 willie randolph showed why he should have stayed a third base coach. he got embarrassingly out-coached by the much sharper larussa. 2002 dusty baker had a 3 games to 2 lead in the world series. mike scioscia wasnt too nervous. theres only been a handfull in the last few years but guys like willie, dusty, frank robinson, don baylor, lloyd mcklendon all have one thing in common. they are horrible managers and have never won anything and will never win anything.
its sad really, at least in football you have some smart black coaches. in baseball, there should be reports and studies done.
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