Why does everything have to be turned into something racial. Willingham has been a complete failure at Washington. What are they supposed to do keep him around just because he's black? Ron Prince didn't do squat while at KState. If these two coaches were white, we wouldn't even be talking about this. I'm sure there are very capable black coaches out there. I just think it's a travesty when a black coach gets fired because he can't win games and people get all up in arms over it. If Gill was hired by NU and had the success Willingham has had at Washington, I would hope we could fire him without the backlash. So far, the resume of black HC's hasn't been that stellar. Art Shell wasn't any good. Crennel at Cleveland hasn't exactly set the world on fire either. Dennis Green, not a good coach. Tony Dungy has been an exception, but then again he was sacked at Tampa Bay. I think Mike Tomlin will prove to be a very good coach, but there just hasn't been many with much success. Coaches should be hired and fired based on merit and performance rather than race. As long as there continues to be as much fuss about color, we're probably going to see more and more schools look away from black coaches for fear of the backlash if they don't pan out.
If you don’t think there is a hiring problem then you are crazy. Come on man there are only 4 minority Head Coaches out of 119 schools or 3% that is terrible. You rambled off all of these minority coaches that failed, just think of all the white guys that have failed and still get recycled through the ranks. Charlie Weis has failed at ND just as bad as Willingham did while he was there yet he is still safe. How does that work?
Sure in a perfect world places would hire coaches off of merit but this is far from a perfect world and until things change this will always be brought up. I don’t think people are up in arms that Willingham and Prince were fired, because they did deserve it, they are up in arms because of the low percentage of minority Head Coaches. Racism is a problem even if it doesn’t affect you personally. It is easy for us on the sidelines to say that it isn’t an issue, but look at the stats it shows that it is a glaring one.
For what it is worth I hope Norvell and Gilmore both get jobs as Head Coaches and I hope Turner keeps moving up in the ranks and it isn’t because they are minority coaches, it is because they deserve it.
For the record both Art Shell (56-52) and Dennis Green (113-94) have career winning records in the NFL. Shells teams made the playoffs 3 of his 7 years and Greens teams made it 8 out of 13 years. I just figured I would point those things out since you said they both stunk as coaches.
Well spoken sir.
There is a reason why things like Affirmative action and Rooney are put into place. Its because us white folk are content to sit around and let things stay the same and pretend like nothing is wrong.
Inequalities only get changed because someone speaks up. Someone refuses to sit in the back of the bus. If they didn't do that most of us would just pretend everything was fine- maybe we'd even think it was.
I grew up in NE and my town had a large hispanic population and they were viewed as 2nd class citizens. The only black people we had were adopted by white families or played Basketball at the community college. Interesting stereo-types we were comfortable with. Know what it was called when we rang the doorbell and ran away?
No one was burning crosses or holding clan meetings. We all just had this "Everything is OK for us so it must be OK" thing going on.
I love it when members of the majority, living in a country designed to afford them every privilege start whining about reverse racism. Boo Hooo!! I will admit that I have no idea what it is like to grow up a person of color in this country but I bet it wasn't the same as my experience.
Also, the artcile did not say that Willingham or Prince should keep their jobs. It just stated that by losing their jobs the numbers got worse.
As for the "Why aren't there more asian coaches, etc...." Easy answer. Look at the demographics of the athletes. I'm sure you could've figured that out though.
If you've ever said the words "I'm not racist but......" You are in fact a racist. If you have used the word "Halfrican" when referring to our new president (a word I've seen in the political forums on other husker boards) you are a bigot.
If you think this coaching issue is not really an issue, you are living in a fantasy.
