Whitlock on Minority Hiring In Football

[soxfan121]

Jason Whitlock, columnist for the KC Star and ESPN.com, has written what I consider to be the best article on minority hiring in football EVER.

http://www.espn.go.com/page2/s/whitlock/021024.html

There is a solution, and Whitlock has hit upon it. When the star athletes and those that hold power in the game make it their personal responsibility to 'get involved', the 'problem' of minority hiring will become a memory.

[moose]

1. I agree that the players union should be more active.

2. Whitlock touches on the point of alumni of colleges being more active in their coaches hiring...


...which leads me to an important point:

a few ground rules of this point:
a. i'd like to see more black coaches in the college and pro ranks
b. i believe that there has been covert racism in the hiring for a long time.
c. i believe that covert racism is MUCH LESS than it has been even, say, 5 years ago -- although i recognize that some is still around.

==
I think what Whitlock (and others) fails to recognize is that there's a GREAT effect of prior racism. it's easy to sit around and say, "look! no black coaches! they're all racist!!!"

but that ignores the fact that coaches don't materialize out of thin air -- even college coaches are usually at least coordinators elsewhere, and pro coaches are always touted on their coaching pedigree.

my point is that if there was racism in the past, that would affect the hiring at the LOWER LEVELS, and we'd STILL be feeling those effects.

for example, let's say netshrine only allows white members. then, in april, we allow minorities to become NDF members. slowly but surely, more minorities join the the discussion. but then, in november, someone says, "hey!! there are only 2 minority moderators at NDF!!!! that's ridiculous!!!" -- the small number of moderators is more due to the PAST discrimination (few candidates available) than any present policy to exclude minorities from moderator status.***

my point, then, is that we're still seeing the effects of prior racism in the HIRING POOL, especially in the NFL. like i said, i'm all for more black coaches, but it should be because those black coaches are the most qualified for the job, not because they're black [unless their being black is something you think will make them a better coach]. the answer is to stop discriminatory practices at EVERY level, but until more blacks are in the hiring pool, it's hard to immediately remedy the wrongs of the past.

to that end, i think whitlock's alumni involvement idea is an excellent one. i wouldnt mind seeing more NFLPA involvement, too. but especially at the pro ranks, there needs to be a recognition that the hiring pool needs to be changed before the coaching numbers are changed.

--
*** for this example to be anaus to the football situation, we'd have to assume that a high percentage of web surfers in general were minorities, as a high percentage of players are minorities.
[edited to add the footnote]

[KCBOOMER]

Living in KC I read Whitlock everytime he writes a column. Like most sports columnists he writes a lot of banal stuff, but nobody writes on race in sports better than he does. His column on Jackie Robinson and Branch Rickey they day MLB retired Robinson's number was simply the best sports column I have ever read.

People who only read him superficially think he is a black man who only writes from the pro-Black perspective. This is simply not so. If he is supporting Blacks on a given issue it is because he believes in the issue. He will rip the black athlete for his conduct when appropriate. He has specifically said Black athletes should be banned from having "posses".

Whitlock is also an outstanding writer on football.

[moose]

Originally posted by KCBOOMER

Whitlock is also an outstanding writer on football.

i like his work on the sports reporters too.

[Skip]

Originally posted by KCBOOMER
People who only read him superficially think he is a black man who only writes from the pro-Black perspective. This is simply not so. If he is supporting Blacks on a given issue it is because he believes in the issue. He will rip the black athlete for his conduct when appropriate. He has specifically said Black athletes should be banned from having "posses".

The reason I like Whitlock is that he a strong writer on 'black' issues but is NOT a writer that I know exactly what his perspective will be in advance because of race (paging Mr. Rhoden). I didn't know of him until his first appearances on Sports Reporters, but I look forward to reading/hearing him now, even when I don't agree with him.

Back to topic, this particular column was a very good one.

[spitball]

I read it a couple of days ago and I was and am in total agreement with him.