USA TODAY
Feb. 1, 2007, n.p.

© 2007, McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.

Milestone Resonates Beyond NFL

By Jarrett Bell
USA TODAY

     MIAMI--The sports term "statement game" has a new definition for Sunday's Super Bowl XLI. The game's legacy will come not from its outcome, but from its outset--when the Indianapolis Colts' Tony Dungy and the Chicago Bears' Lovie Smith take the sidelines as the first African-American head coaches to stand one victory from the NFL championship.

     The moment will play out in what has become the ultimate event for the U.S.' No. 1 spectator sport, an event that spawns parties and epic advertising campaigns and annually becomes the nation's most-watched television program of the year. Smith's and Dungy's achievement in reaching this stage conveys stature upon them not only as football men but also as social figures.

     John Wooten, chairman of a group that monitors and promotes the hiring of minority coaches in the NFL, says the buzz surrounding Dungy and Smith is reminiscent of what he experienced as a youth in the 1930s and 1940s.

     "Since the (conference) championship games, for a lot of black people in this country--waiters, hotel domestic workers, businessmen, bus drivers, people in barbershops--it has gone back to the Joe Louis days," says Wooten, a former NFL player, scout and executive. "When I was a little boy, whenever he fought, I was with Joe Louis. People who could care less about football will be watching the game."

     "This is the equivalent of a black man being president," says attorney David Cornwell, formerly the NFL's director of equal employment. "In the NFL coaching ranks, you can go no higher than winning the Super Bowl."

     The NFL didn't have its first black coach of the modern-era until Los Angeles Raiders owner Al Davis hired Art Shell in 1989, by which time four black coaches in the NBA--which began play in 1946--had won six titles.

     When Dungy finished his NFL playing career in 1979, there were 14 black assistant coaches in the league. None were offensive or defensive coordinators, let alone head coaches.

     This season, in a league where 70 percent of the players are black, there were a record seven black head coaches and 197 minority coaches overall, including assistants.

     It's another reflection of progress in a league that has operated since December 2002 with a rule that requires teams to interview at least one minority candidate for coaching vacancies. For years, black coaches in the NFL were limited by the same stigma that the late Los Angeles Dodgers general manager Al Campanis expressed about the lack of black baseball managers in his infamous interview on "Nightline" in April 1987--that they lacked the "necessities" to lead and manage.

     Dungy's and Smith's advance to Sunday's game is "not just football and all of America knows it," says former Georgetown University coach John Thompson, the first black coach to win an NCAA men's basketball championship. "That's why this has major significance. And anybody who says they don't see color has a luxury that we cannot afford to have. This is one barrier that needs to be broken down."

Common Thread of Pride

     Ask Sharon Robinson about the significance. Nearly 60 years ago, her father, Jackie, broke the color barrier in what was then the nation's most popular sport, opening doors in baseball with the Brooklyn Dodgers.

     She says if her father, who died in 1972, were alive today, his pride would be overflowing.

     "He would be so excited," says Robinson, an educational consultant for Major League Baseball. "My father loved football. (He also played the sport collegiately at UCLA.) I think he watched more football on TV than baseball. He'd be tempted to go to the game but knowing him, he'd be at home watching it on TV in the library."

     To many African-Americans who have felt the sting of racism and discrimination, the milestone sparks emotions that transcend educational, economic and political differences.

     A babysitter walking near South Beach suddenly drawn to football says she is inspired to "definitely" watch Sunday. "This shows respect for black people," Pearl Wilness said.

     Wednesday, the U.S. House of Representatives officially recognized Dungy and Smith for their achievement by passing a congratulatory resolution initiated by Rep. Carolyn Cheeks Kilpatrick, D-Mich., the new chairwoman of the Congressional Black Caucus.

     Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is "proud, both as a football fan and citizen," her spokesman, Sean McCormack, says. "She remembers the days when there was skepticism...about having a black quarterback."

     Doug Williams can vouch for that. Nineteen years ago, Williams was the first black quarterback to start and win a Super Bowl, winning most valuable player honors for the Washington Redskins in Super Bowl XXII.

     The day after the game, Williams' coach at Grambling State University, Eddie Robinson, told him it reminded him of the night Louis knocked out Max Schmeling to win the world heavyweight boxing championship.

     Robinson "also told me I wouldn't understand the impact until I was older," says Williams, 51, a personnel executive with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. "He was right about that."

     Exuberant people still stop Williams on the street, sharing personal memories of his contribution to history. Last week in Mobile, Ala., a 74-year-old black man floored him.

     "He said, 'It was the proudest moment in my life,'" Williams said. "I understand. Here was a man in Alabama, and you know he has experienced so many things in his life that were not right."

     Williams expects Dungy and Smith will have an even greater appreciation for their achievement after they are finished coaching and other black coaches guide teams to championships. He felt connected in seeing black quarterbacks Steve McNair and Donovan McNabb lead teams to Super Bowls and is encouraged that race is no longer considered an issue for the position.

     Dungy speaks of a connection he already feels--to his predecessors.

     "I'm very proud to be representing African-American coaches in the Super Bowl for the first time. I know Lovie feels the same way," he says. "But we also realize that there were many guys who, if given the opportunity, could have done the same thing."

     Dungy--who as the Buccaneers' coach in 1996 gave Smith his first NFL job--  mentioned veteran assistants Jimmy Raye, Sherman Lewis, Emmitt Thomas and Lionel Taylor as respected coaches passed by as he climbed the ladder. Dungy has also used his platform to point a finger at the college ranks, where there are seven minority coaches at the 119 major-level NCAA football programs.

     "People forget the struggle that makes this moment possible," says Harry Edwards, a sociologist and consultant for the San Francisco 49ers. "I knew so many black assistant coaches who saw white coaches--competent and qualified, but no more than them and without the tenure--become coordinators or head coaches while they were stuck in their same wide receiver or running backs coach positions."

     Former 49ers coach Bill Walsh turned to Edwards to help establish an internship program for minority coaches in 1985 that later was instituted league-wide. Two of the 49ers' first interns: Marvin Lewis, now the Cincinnati Bengals' head coach, and Tyrone Willingham, head coach at the University of Washington.

     Another key was pressure applied by the threat of a lawsuit against the NFL brought forward by attorneys Cyrus Mehri and the late Johnnie Cochran.

     "That gave (then-NFL Commissioner) Paul Tagliabue the leverage he needed to go to the owners and say, 'We need to clean this mess up,'" Edwards says.

     It was the impetus for the Rooney Rule, named for Pittsburgh Steelers owner Dan Rooney, who headed a committee of owners that developed the minority interview requirement.

     "Five years ago, you had two African-American head coaches in the NFL," says Richard Lapchick, a long-time activist and director of the University of Central Florida's Institute for Diversity and Sport. "The climate has changed to the point that the Pittsburgh Steelers took a chance on a young, unproven African-American coach (Mike Tomlin, the Minnesota Vikings defensive coordinator hired last week to succeed Bill Cowher as Pittsburgh's head coach). That used to happen with white coaches all the time."

Big Moment for All

     NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell, who under predecessors Tagliabue and Pete Rozelle was a key administrator in implementing policies and programs that increased exposure for minority candidates, believes mainstream America should applaud this Super Bowl history as much as African-Americans do.

     "I know I do," Goodell said. "After the (conference) championship games, I could barely sleep. I was so excited about it. It's important for all of us to recognize the significance. But the progress has to continue. It can't stop."

     While he understands the reason for hailing the achievement, Thompson says that has come at the cost of Dungy and Smith not being fully recognized for their ability.

     "Bill Belichick's the smartest coach in the NFL, right?" Thompson said of the New England Patriots' three-time Super Bowl champion. "Well, somebody had to beat him to get there. (Bill Parcells, the newly retired Dallas Cowboys coach) is pretty good, right? He'll be watching on TV.

     "These guys' abilities as great coaches--the strategy, their intelligence--are not accentuated enough. That's the disservice to them. But that doesn't make it all bad because this transcends football. What has been lost is worth it for what they accomplished."

Contributing: Barbara Slavin in Washington