Barack Obama will be sworn in again as the President of the United States on January 21st, 2013 and to most people around the world it will signify that our once Jim Crow society has evolved into a culture of equality. This assumption has some validity, because of the accomplishments some minorities have made over the years. But does it mean that racism no longer exists? Is equality available to everyone? One only has to look to the sidelines of a college football game to realize that equality is a theory that is used sparingly when hiring African American Division I FBS head football coaches.
With the firing of Jon Embree at the University of Colorado the focus again was on the lack of African American FBS head football coaches. In 2008, the NCAA and the media were quick to give praises and koodles to themselves on the number of African American FBS head football coaches, which at the time was at a record high 16, but now that number has shrunk again to 10 (10 out of 124 FBS programs). The question remains – what happened to those six African American coaches who were fired? To sum the question up in a nutshell only one of those fired coaches is a head coach again, but at a lower level than FBS and that is Turner Gill, head football coach for Liberty. All the others are position coaches at FBS schools, except Embree, who at this time has yet to receive another coaching position.
Unfortunately, the trend for African American FBS football coaches has been one shot, one kill. They are only given one opportunity to prove themselves as successful college coaches or its back to being a position coach, if they are fortunate. Tyrone Willingham, former head football coach for Stanford, Notre Dame, and Washington, is the only African American to ever be fired and rehired to another FBS football program as a head coach. His situation has always made me question Notre Dame’s decision to hire as well as fire him. Willingham was fired after three seasons at Notre Dame with a 21-15 record and was not allowed to coach his final game at the Insight Bowl, which Oregon State won 38-21. On the other hand, Charlie Weis, Willingham’s successor at Notre Dame and current head football coach at the University of Kansas, accumulated a 22-15 record after three seasons and was given a 10 year contract extension halfway through his first season reportedly worth $30-40 million. How is that possible? Basically, the same record, but one is fired and the other one is prematurely rewarded millions for the same results.
I always felt and will continue to believe that Willingham’s hiring by Notre Dame was a cover up for the hiring debacle of George O’Leary, who lied about his educational and athletic accomplishments on his resume. What better way to overshadow this misfortune than to hire the first African American head coach ever in any sport at your university. Willingham’s stay at Notre Dame came with a short leash and a hidden agenda. That agenda was as soon as the time is right we will replace him with someone that looks more like Football Jesus. But this approach is becoming the norm at FBS schools. It’s not until the football program is dying that an African American is hired to attempt to resuscitate it. The catch is they only have two years to do it and that means making it to a bowl game; winning it wouldn’t hurt either. While White coaches are given three to four years at least to turnaround a program and if they are not able to they still will be given another chance as a head coach at another FBS school.
I call this hiring approach of African Americans the Obama Effect. This concept is defined by the notion when all is lost or can get no worse, then it is an appropriate time or situation to let a person of color lead the organization, company, team, etc… This approach is used every day in our society and it is labeled and promoted as equality. But how is this equality? When White coaches are given more opportunities and time to fail and African American coaches are given one chance and less time to prove themselves as successful coaches. According to Embree, African American coaches understand this going into their “once in a lifetime” head coaching position. This insurmountable pressure and scrutiny has left only a few out of the few successful. Unfortunately, this same realization is true in professional sports as well.
The Obama Effect, as it pertains to hiring African American head FBS football coaches, is a double edge sword. On one hand, an African American is given the chance to fulfill his dream as a head football coach of a FBS Division I program and equal opportunity appears to our society that it exists; but on the other hand, this coach is placed in a nearly impossible situation and has very little time to correct and restore the program to the respectability he intended without the true support of his administration. Now, does that sound like equality? I don’t think so.
As long as White coaches can lie on their resume about their credentials, get caught doing so, and still get a FBS head coaching job there will be no equality. As long as White coaches can get fired due to marital infidelity with a subordinate that he hired, commit obstruction of justice of a police investigation, and lie to his athletic director about the incident; yet still get a FBS head coaching job, there will be no equality. As long as White coaches can get fired after four losing seasons at one FBS program and get hired 10 days later at another FBS program, there will be no equality. As long as an African American coach only has one opportunity to succeed as a head football coach of a FBS program, there will be no equality.
With the firing of Jon Embree at the University of Colorado the focus again was on the lack of African American FBS head football coaches. In 2008, the NCAA and the media were quick to give praises and koodles to themselves on the number of African American FBS head football coaches, which at the time was at a record high 16, but now that number has shrunk again to 10 (10 out of 124 FBS programs). The question remains – what happened to those six African American coaches who were fired? To sum the question up in a nutshell only one of those fired coaches is a head coach again, but at a lower level than FBS and that is Turner Gill, head football coach for Liberty. All the others are position coaches at FBS schools, except Embree, who at this time has yet to receive another coaching position.
Unfortunately, the trend for African American FBS football coaches has been one shot, one kill. They are only given one opportunity to prove themselves as successful college coaches or its back to being a position coach, if they are fortunate. Tyrone Willingham, former head football coach for Stanford, Notre Dame, and Washington, is the only African American to ever be fired and rehired to another FBS football program as a head coach. His situation has always made me question Notre Dame’s decision to hire as well as fire him. Willingham was fired after three seasons at Notre Dame with a 21-15 record and was not allowed to coach his final game at the Insight Bowl, which Oregon State won 38-21. On the other hand, Charlie Weis, Willingham’s successor at Notre Dame and current head football coach at the University of Kansas, accumulated a 22-15 record after three seasons and was given a 10 year contract extension halfway through his first season reportedly worth $30-40 million. How is that possible? Basically, the same record, but one is fired and the other one is prematurely rewarded millions for the same results.
I always felt and will continue to believe that Willingham’s hiring by Notre Dame was a cover up for the hiring debacle of George O’Leary, who lied about his educational and athletic accomplishments on his resume. What better way to overshadow this misfortune than to hire the first African American head coach ever in any sport at your university. Willingham’s stay at Notre Dame came with a short leash and a hidden agenda. That agenda was as soon as the time is right we will replace him with someone that looks more like Football Jesus. But this approach is becoming the norm at FBS schools. It’s not until the football program is dying that an African American is hired to attempt to resuscitate it. The catch is they only have two years to do it and that means making it to a bowl game; winning it wouldn’t hurt either. While White coaches are given three to four years at least to turnaround a program and if they are not able to they still will be given another chance as a head coach at another FBS school.
I call this hiring approach of African Americans the Obama Effect. This concept is defined by the notion when all is lost or can get no worse, then it is an appropriate time or situation to let a person of color lead the organization, company, team, etc… This approach is used every day in our society and it is labeled and promoted as equality. But how is this equality? When White coaches are given more opportunities and time to fail and African American coaches are given one chance and less time to prove themselves as successful coaches. According to Embree, African American coaches understand this going into their “once in a lifetime” head coaching position. This insurmountable pressure and scrutiny has left only a few out of the few successful. Unfortunately, this same realization is true in professional sports as well.
The Obama Effect, as it pertains to hiring African American head FBS football coaches, is a double edge sword. On one hand, an African American is given the chance to fulfill his dream as a head football coach of a FBS Division I program and equal opportunity appears to our society that it exists; but on the other hand, this coach is placed in a nearly impossible situation and has very little time to correct and restore the program to the respectability he intended without the true support of his administration. Now, does that sound like equality? I don’t think so.
As long as White coaches can lie on their resume about their credentials, get caught doing so, and still get a FBS head coaching job there will be no equality. As long as White coaches can get fired due to marital infidelity with a subordinate that he hired, commit obstruction of justice of a police investigation, and lie to his athletic director about the incident; yet still get a FBS head coaching job, there will be no equality. As long as White coaches can get fired after four losing seasons at one FBS program and get hired 10 days later at another FBS program, there will be no equality. As long as an African American coach only has one opportunity to succeed as a head football coach of a FBS program, there will be no equality.
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