By: Mike Walsh
Posted In: Opinion
Photo credit: KRT Campus
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. once said, “All progress is precarious, and the solution of one problem brings us face to face with another problem.”
If you have listened to sports talk radio or turned on ESPN over the past month, you have most certainly heard that for the first time in history, two African-American coaches played against each other in a Super Bowl. Tony Dungy and Lovie Smith, two of the NFL’s most respected head coaches led their teams into battle in Miami. A big deal, right? A HUGE deal for race relations in the modern sports world, right? WRONG, if you ask me. After every commercial break, SportsCenter aired this little montage of Dungy and Smith with the title “Making History,” containing snippets of conversations with various African-American athletes and celebrities harping on the importance of the game. As I sat writing this editorial, Venus and Serena Williams were throwing in their two-cents. I lost count of how many anchors on SportsCenter commented on how significant the game was for black coaches in the NFL, also followed by the ever-so-predictable line, “But it will be even more significant when we won’t have to talk about it.” SO DON’T! Talk about the GAME. It was made such a big deal because the media thinks it should be a big deal. Hmmmm. Well, who can think of a better source to look to for information about what we think is important? I mean, they can tell us who Paris Hilton woke up next to this morning, or who should be voted off American Idol. They must be right. Before I continue, let me state that I applaud both Dungy and Smith for doing magnificent jobs with both of their teams, which may not have been everyone’s early season Super Bowl picks. Smith has probably done more relying on luck and a Jekyll & Hyde quarterback than any team in recent memory. And even though Dungy FINALLY got the monkey off his back and squeaked by my New England Patriots (I am still dying on the inside), what he has done to provide his team with some stability on both sides of the ball is undoubtedly great. This has nothing to do with the fact that either of these men is black. It shouldn’t even be mentioned. It’s unfair that if during any other season, an anchor on SportsCenter had said, “This year, Bill Belichick and Andy Reid will square off against each other in the 32nd matchup between two white head coaches in the Super Bowl,” that person would most likely be considered prejudiced. How is this situation any different? People sit around and philosophize about why racism still rears its ugly head throughout the world, like it is some great mystery. The answer is right in front of our faces. Situations like this accomplish nothing short of dumping oil tankers of fuel onto the inferno that is prejudice. Instead of trying to eliminate this prejudice, we are subconsciously promoting it with more politically correct guidelines. Maybe you agree with me. Maybe not. Either way, I doubt that when many people sat down that Sunday night to watch Peyton Manning throw for about 6,000 yards against the Bears’ defense they were thinking, “Gee, this is so much more of an interesting game because there are two African-Americans coaching. Go them.” I was thinking about how many more ridiculous commercials Manning would “act” in to celebrate his first and only Super Bowl ring, not how big of a step this game was for race relations in the NFL. And come on, don’t kid yourself, neither did you. My point is that Super Bowl XLI was just the same as any other Super Bowl. So the next time you’re sitting on your couch laughing at the Bud Light ads and watching the artist formerly known as Prince attempt to entertain America during the halftime show, ask yourself if the game was directly affected in any way by the race of the teams’ head coaches. Chances are, I doubt you’ll find that to be true.
