THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, January 8, 1995 TAG: 9501080201
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C3 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BOB MOLINARO
LENGTH: Medium: 67 lines
Their faces pass before us on TV and in the newspaper, a persistent, pale parade of professional football coaches. Some have been fired. Some hired. Others are actively being romanced.
Unless Jesse Jackson finds the time to speak out, probably nobody will bother to notice. But for another year, none of the coaches seriously involved in the annual game of musical headsets is African-American.
It is not a scoop when a black man is passed over for an NFL head coaching job. It is hardly a story. Unless Jackson decides to make it one.
Last winter, Jackson noted following another Super Bowl that ``65 Afro-Americans were on the field, and not one was in the front office of either team.''
Though the executive suite is where the real power resides, the visibility of a black head coach probably does more to promote the notion of fair play in pro football and in America at large.
The NFL has two black head coaches, Minnesota's Dennis Green and Art Shell of the Los Angeles Raiders.
Two blacks out of 28, soon to be 30, teams. This in a sport where black athletes dominate, in numbers and talent.
One of the expansion teams, the Carolina Panthers, apparently will be coached by Dom Capers, currently the Pittsburgh Steelers' defensive coordinator.
Several years ago, word got around about a Steelers defensive coach who was going places. The man people were referring to was Tony Dungy.
As it turns out, Dungy has gone places, all right, though the place is Minneapolis, where he remains an assistant.
When Rich Kotite, the New York Jets' new head coach, was an obscure assistant in Philadelphia, Dungy was already being touted as the man who would break the color barrier among NFL head coaches.
But while Kotite's reputation inexplicably grows, Dungy has faded into the shadows again.
Something about Kotite made him a hot commodity on the coaches exchange. Was it his record? In his fours years as Philadelphia Whipping Boy, the Eagles reached the playoffs once, winning one game, losing one.
What, then, could it be that convinced Jets owner Leon Hess that Kotite was his man - those seven consecutive losses to close the Eagles' season?
Hess can hire anyone he wishes. He says that he has lost patience with the losing. He says he is tired of waiting.
But speaking of waiting, what about Dungy and other qualified black assistants?
Pete Carroll and Wade Phillips come and go. David Shula, who had the right name, but no other qualifications for the job, muddles along in Cincinnati.
Meanwhile, Mike Shanahan, a 49ers assistant who washed out as the Raiders head coach, is being considered by Denver and Seattle. Presumably, he'll get the job Miami's Dennis Erickson doesn't want.
It's not as if Major League Baseball is the original rainbow coalition, or pro basketball couldn't do better, but big-time football is even more stubborn when it comes to providing off-the-field opportunities for minorities.
The universities are as bad, if not worse, than the NFL. The recent hirings of Tyrone Willingham at Stanford and Bob Simmons at Oklahoma State bring to five the number of Division I-A black football head coaches. That's five out of 107 schools.
The figures get lost until somebody, usually Jesse, forces us to pay attention. Greater opportunity for black football coaches is not a trendy cause. Maybe it should be. by CNB