John Wooten tears up easily these days. The thought of two black coaches working on opposite sidelines during next Sunday's Super Bowl can do that to a 70-year-old grandfather who has graduated from opening holes for legendary Cleveland Browns running back Jim Brown to opening opportunities for minority coaches in the NFL.
Indianapolis Colts coach Tony Dungy and Chicago Bears coach Lovie Smith are the first black head coaches to lead teams to the Super Bowl. For Mr. Wooten, who as chairman of the Fritz Pollard Alliance monitors and advocates the hiring of minority coaches in the NFL, they are reminders of how far the league has progressed since he arrived as a rookie guard in 1959.
"When I came into the league, there was not a single black coach," said Mr. Wooten, a former Cowboys executive who lives in Arlington. "Not a head coach, not an assistant coach, nothing. The only black faces in the league belonged to players and people picking up towels in the locker room."
Pause. Deep breath. A moment to regain composure.
"Now we have this. ... This is ... unbelievable."
Stories about "this" dominated the Super Bowl watch last week. The stories – in newspapers, on television, radio and the Internet – are sure to continue as both teams settle into Miami for the final week of pre-Super Bowl XLI hype.
If you are weary of the Dungy-Smith story line, know this: It has historical context and social implications far beyond Colts quarterback Peyton Manning's inability to win a championship or Bears quarterback Rex Grossman's inability to throw an accurate forward pass.
When Mr. Wooten in late 2002 conceived of the need for an organization that would complement the NFL's fledgling diversity committee, there were two black coaches in a league in which the majority of players were black – Mr. Dungy and Herm Edwards of the New York Jets.
It had been only 13 years since the Los Angeles Raiders anointed Art Shell the NFL's first black coach of its modern era. The real pioneer was Fritz Pollard, who coached four teams in the 1920s when the NFL, born as the American Professional Football Association, was a mom and pop operation in the Midwest.
As the new millennium began, there were two black head coaches in an NFL fraternity of 32.
And so in 2002, the NFL established a committee on workplace diversity. Among its mandates was a rule that a team interview a minority when looking for a head coach. It's known as the Rooney Rule in honor of Pittsburgh Steelers owner Dan Rooney, who oversees the committee.
Times have changed. The NFL had a record seven black head coaches in 2006 and seven assistant head coaches.
In 1980, there were 14 black assistants in the entire league. That was the year when Mr. Wooten, working in the personnel department of the Cowboys, was charged by general manager Tex Schramm with finding the team's first black assistant coach. That is how running backs coach Al Lavan came to leave Stanford to join the Cowboys.
Mr. Wooten, who also worked in the front offices of the Philadelphia Eagles and Baltimore Ravens before heading the Fritz Pollard Alliance, says his Washington-based organization simply "wants to make sure that everyone who is qualified gets an opportunity to coach."
"All we ask for is a diverse slate of candidates," he said.
It was from one those slates that the Bears in 2004 selected St. Louis Rams defensive coordinator Lovie Smith of Big Sandy, Texas, as their new head coach.
"A fortunate selection for all concerned," Mr. Wooten said.
So why is it such a big deal that two black coaches have brought their teams to the ultimate game in America's most-watched sport?
"I think [former Georgetown basketball coach] John Thompson said it best, and it's almost a Yogi Berraism," said CBS' James Brown, host of next Sunday's Super Bowl studio show and one of the most prominent black TV broadcasters. "You can't get past it until you get past it, and we haven't gotten there yet."
"It is very significant from the standpoint that many societal shifts don't take place until people can see them and embrace their significance," he added.
It has been almost two decades since race played such a prominent role at a Super Bowl. It was at Super Bowl XXII in 1988 that the Washington Redskins' Doug Williams dispelled for all-time the stereotype that black quarterbacks did not have what it takes to lead a team to an NFL championship. The first black quarterback to start a Super Bowl became the first to win one and be named the game's most valuable player.
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TOM FOX / DMN John Wooten, a former lineman for the Cleveland Browns, now chairs the Fritz Pollard Alliance. |
What better platform to dispel forever a similar stereotype, said Floyd Keith, executive director of the Black Coaches Association, whose mission is to ensure equitable hiring on the high school, college and professional levels.
"At some point on Feb. 4, an African-American coach will be holding up the Super Bowl trophy," he said. "You can't market that. And just like Doug Williams impacted the plight of African-Americans playing quarterback in the NFL, so, too, will these Super Bowl coaches. We won't talk about it anymore."
The real ogre in the closet, said Mr. Keith, is NCAA Division I-A football, where there are seven African-American coaches in a pool of 119 schools.
"We have had Mike Tomlin on our search lists, and I'm not sure he ever got an interview anywhere" in the college ranks, Mr. Keith said. "The NFL is whole football fields ahead of the collegiate level on this issue."
Mr. Tomlin, 34, was hired to coach Mr. Rooney's Steelers on Tuesday. He is the 10th black NFL coach of the modern era.
But it was the accomplishments of Mr. Dungy and Mr. Smith that the Rev. Jesse Jackson elevated to a larger stage.
"This is one of the great moments in American history," Mr. Jackson told The Associated Press last week. "It really is. It comes 60 years after Jackie Robinson broke through [Major League Baseball's color barrier]. It's an American feel-good moment. Both are men of dignity and unblemished character."
They are also inexorably linked. Mr. Dungy, 51, is the mentor of Mr. Smith, 48. When he was first hired as an NFL head coach, by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in 1996, Mr. Dungy made Mr. Smith his linebackers coach.
Talking to reporters in the wake of their team's Sunday victories in the conference championship games, Mr. Dungy and Mr. Smith addressed the issue of race.
"My generation of kids who watched Super Bowls never saw African-American coaches," Mr. Dungy told reporters in Indianapolis. "You could be a player. You couldn't necessarily be the quarterback. Then you saw Doug Williams play and win. Hopefully, kids now will say, 'Maybe I can be the coach one day.' So that's special."
In Chicago, Mr. Smith acknowledged that Super Bowl XLI was special because it was a first. But he said that like black quarterbacks' accomplishments over the last two decades, future appearances by black coaches in the title game "won't be talked about – and I'll look forward to that day."
| BLACK COACHES IN THE MODERN NFL |
| Name | First year | Team |
| Art Shell | 1989 | Los Angeles Raiders |
| Dennis Green | 1992 | Minnesota Vikings |
| Ray Rhodes | 1995 | Philadelphia Eagles |
| Tony Dungy | 1996 | Tampa Bay Buccaneers |
| Herm Edwards | 2001 | New York Jets |
| Marvin Lewis | 2003 | Cincinnati Bengals |
| Lovie Smith | 2004 | Chicago Bears |
| Romeo Crennell | 2005 | Cleveland Browns |
| Mike Tomlin | 2007 | Pittsburgh Steelers |
