Jason Whitlock on why black coaches get more NFL jobs than College jobs

From his weekly "10 NFL Truths" column:


I was reading Cris Collinsworth's thoughts on the success of black NFL coaches Tony Dungy, Marvin Lewis and Lovie Smith, and came to a realization: It's always going to be easier for a black coach to land an NFL job than a Division I college job.

It should come as no surprise that black coaches are finding success in the NFL quicker than in college football. When picking a professional head coach, the only thing you worry about is whether the guy can get the team to win. When selecting a college coach, athletic directors worry about how the coach will interact with boosters and whether he will help with fund-raising.

That's the main reason there are just four African-American Division I-A head coaches and six African-American NFL head coaches. There are 32 NFL jobs, and more than 100 college jobs.

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http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2/story?page=whitlock/051208




It's sad but true. In the NFL a coach doesn't have to worry about glad-handing bigoted boosters.

I enjoy college football, but in a lot of ways professional football seems a lot less corrupt than the "amateur" game played in Division I.

about two years ago and he was the FIRST African-American coach in the Southeastern Conference. With the long and storied tradition of that conference, that is shameful. Croom is turning that program around fast too. So why not more black coaches? That article hits the nail on the head, imo. I live in Big 10 (11) country, and I can't think of any black coaches in that conference. That is shameful too.
On a side note, if the Bears and Colts or Bengals meet in the Super Bowl, it will mark the first time that two black coaches have gone against each other in the big game. Now I hope that doesn't happen, not because of the coaching factor, just because I don't like the Bears. I don't give a damn who the coach is, just lose Bears!

Has ever won a SB. Everyone expects that to change this season with Dungy though.

To add on to your Groom example is Karl Doral. UCLA hasn't had a good football team since Cade McNown left and Doral seems to be really building that program up for what is going to be definete success.

I also think Nortzax had a point with the recruting thing. For example I don't think Carson Palmer has a problem getting yelled at by a black coach. But I think Carson Palmer's parents may have had a problem with him getting yelled at by a black coach. I don't mean that as an insult to his parents, for all I know they could be quite progressive about race, but that was just the first example that came to mind.

canned from Tampa Bay...that was not Gruden's team.

And there's no problem.

When I was showing the generational gap. Palmer may not care what color skin the guy yelling at him is, but his parents might have.

getting paid millions of dollars to do his job. Plus, he's a grown man, not someone's baby, like he was at 17, when most of these kids make their decisions.

now, I'm not saying that this is a real problem, but I think there is a subtle belief that this is a problem, and in the risk averse worlf of college football, that chance is a big thing.

Being a 'Hawks fan I was hoping we could put it off one more year.

I thought you were talking about Palmer.

sucked last year, and I don't think they're improving.

it's gonna take a while to turn them around

yes, the interaction with the boosters, yadda, yadda is important. But just as important, and what people won't say, is recruiting. How many black coaches would have success dealing with bigoted parents helping their children make decisions on what school to play for. a large percentage of people in this country still have a problem with black men and power, many have never worked for a black man, or played for one. How many people would be comfortable with the idea of a black man yelling and screaming at their son?


Look at it this way, at the high school level, how many majority white football teams have black coaches? Or even mixed teams? At the high school level, black coaches coach black kids, white coaches coach black kids and white kids (and latinos and asians, and everything else) So early on, the concept of a successful football coach is white. Until that changes, college coaches will continue to be overwhelmingly white. (compare this to basketball, an urban sport, where there are large numbers of black coaches at every level, and the numbers continue to equal out.

The NFL isn't racist. Too bad that's not true of other groups and individuals.