| I honestly must say, I don’t know what Tony
Dungy is thinking. I’m as appalled by the lack of African-American head coaches in
the NFL as the next person, but Dungy’s recent accusations seem to focus on the wrong
issue in the snubbing of Marvin Lewis. When the Bills hired Titans defensive coordinator
Gregg Williams last week to be their next head coach, many people were shocked. Most
people — myself included — thought Lewis, the Ravens’ defensive
coordinator, was a shoo-in for the position. Everyone knows he deserves to be a head coach
in the NFL. He’s paid his dues, and he’s done a great job as an assistant. He
will certainly get a deserved head-coaching job in the future.
Lewis was rumored to be at the top of several teams’ head-coaching candidate
lists. That made the league very happy, as it was coming under severe fire for the lack of
minorities in head-coaching spots.
The league was overjoyed when the Jets hired Herman Edwards to be their head coach. And
many folks thought at that point that fellow African-American assistant coaches Ted
Cottrell and Lewis were next to get head-coaching spots.
But those aspirations fell apart. Cottrell was tabbed by Edwards to be the Jets’
defensive coordinator. Lewis was the only highly ranked African-American assistant left,
and his team was in the Super Bowl; teams weren’t allowed to talk to him until the
Ravens were eliminated.
I respect Dungy a lot. And I respect the point he is trying to make. The lack of
African-American head coaches (and management) in the NFL is indeed pathetic. But Dungy
needs to reword his statement a bit differently if he’s attacking the league, not the
Bills.
Dungy does make some valid points in his statements about Lewis’ situation and the
league rules. He scolded the league for the fact that only the Bills interviewed Lewis,
because they were the only team that was patient enough to wait until after the Super
Bowl. But he also says that more teams might have waited if Lewis were white. That point
makes little sense, simply because Giants defensive coordinator John Fox, whom many teams
also wanted to interview, is white, and none of those teams waited for him either. Dungy
said as much later in his statement.
I hope that Dungy was trying to make the league consider some sort of rule change
regarding job interviews. Lewis is the one who got cheated by the fact that his team did
so well. Now he has to wait for his chance, likely until next year. But using the race
issue to get that rule changed highlights the race issue, not the timing issue.
If Dungy truly thinks Lewis was snubbed because he is black, I don’t think I agree
with that. Many teams with openings panicked this offseason and filled their spots before
the Super Bowl. Can the league truly do anything about that? I doubt it.
On the other hand, if Dungy is just trying to point out the fact that the league’s
job-interview rules are terrible, then he’s doing a poor job of it. The race issue is
a huge deal, don’t get me wrong. But if the rules regarding coaches, job openings and
playoff eligibility were different, I guarantee Tony Dungy wouldn’t have made the
statements he did, because Marvin Lewis would be a head coach by now. |
