Quote:
Originally Posted by shinerbock
I like Croom fine, he may be a good coach. That being said, I don't think there are any indications that he is a better coach than Shula was. So if there are two qualified coaches, of comparable ability, and the white one is chosen, I think its pretty ridiculous to go crazy about it.
I still think it is a double standard. If I cheer for a white receiver, because he's white, people are gonna look at me funny. And when I say look at me funny, in Atlanta that means people might point guns at me. What do people expect AD's, GM's and owners to do? Can you name a lot of black candidates who have been shafted in favor of unqualified white candidates? I think things are right where they should be considering the pool of qualified coaches they're choosing from. I think its unrealistic that somebody making a hire cares so much about skin color that they'd sacrifice wins in order to hire a white person. If the quality black coaches are there, they'll get hired. I think its great that 2 black head coaches are in the Super Bowl, I truly do. However, I think to brag about it (this has nothing to do with the person who started this thread) or use it as a selling point for owners is pretty stupid.
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I feel different than you do because I do think there was a long time when black candidates were shafted in favor of unqualified white candidates. I don't know enough about NFL history, but I think it's likely that without either intentional or unconscious racism that a black person could have led a NFL team to the Superbowl before now.
I think things have been a gradual process, and you may be right that it wasn't until recently that black coaches were able to get the experience to seem as qualified as whites.
Croom may provide an example. If he had gone to college six or seven years before he did, he would have met George Wallace on the school house steps. Instead, it seems he entered in 1970 (was he sixteen when he started college?) and had a distinguished football career, but when he wanted to enter the SEC to coach, he wasn't good enough. His take, reported from wikipedia is this, "A lot of those [SEC] schools, guys are good enough to play for them, good enough to be assistant coaches and not good enough to be in the positions of decision making and the positions of high financial reward. And they're qualified." At the time the job went to Shula, Shula had ten fewer years of coaching experience.
There are times when I find concerns about race overblown, and I don't generally like double standards. But this superbowl is a historic first that represents the progress of the country. These guys earned the jobs and earned the chance to coach their teams in the Superbowl. It's great.