Three Reasons Why Black Coaches are Doomed to Fail – Part One

“Rick Smith has to go.  He’s holding back my race.”

That recent tirade by a caller to a radio sports talk show against Rick Smith, the black general manager of the NFL’s Houston Texans, and the conversation it generated among the white hosts of the show, illustrated another flashpoint in America’s never - ending struggle with race – the impact race (or gender) has on success in a high profile job.  The discussion led us to ask whether America follows a one-and-done rule for minorities and women in prominent positions.    

Since Smith took over as Houston’s general manager in 2006, the relatively young NFL franchise (established in 2002) has been maddeningly mediocre.  Its regular season record during Smith’s tenure is 79 – 81 and 2 – 3 in postseason play. The team has been bad as often as it’s been good, but mostly it’s been ordinary.

After the caller’s declaration that Smith is “holding back my race,” the white talk show hosts jumped in to assert that if Smith gets the axe, we can assume the next Texans’ general manager won’t be black. They then turned to the predicament of embattled University of Texas football coach Charlie Strong, forecasting that Texas won’t hire another black head coach if he doesn’t get the Longhorns turned around next season.

Strong finds himself on the coaching hot seat after two disappointing years (6 – 7 with an embarrassing bowl loss to Arkansas in his first season and 5 – 7 with no bowl game in 2015, despite signature wins over highly ranked rivals Oklahoma and Baylor).  Many predict that to survive he must lead the Longhorns to nine wins in 2016 (the right eight might suffice).  Whether he should be in that position after only two seasons is a different matter, but little doubt exists about the reality Strong faces.   

 (Full disclosure:  one of us holds two University of Texas degrees and counts himself an unabashed Texas fan, 20-year season ticket holder, and current or former member of multiple UT alumni and support groups.  All three of us grew up in Strong’s native Arkansas.)

The caller’s contention that Smith’s alleged underperformance holds back black people and the hosts’ assertion that neither the Texans nor the Longhorns will hire a black to replace Smith or Strong if their bosses show them the door leads to a simple question:

Why? 

What should a black NFL general manager’s performance have to do with the racial identity of his successor? What does it matter to the decision about who the University of Texas hires as its next coach that its prior black coach failed in the position?  

Are big-time college football programs and professional sports franchises done with black coaches and executives if one fails?  Here’s our first reason for why that may be the case:

Presumed Incompetence − This theory holds that white-run organizations operate on the premise that any black person put into a significant job will do it poorly until that person demonstrates otherwise.  Whatever the reason Smith got the Texans general manager’s job, it was “natural” to assume he wouldn’t do well because he’s black. Until he shows – perhaps by putting together a Super Bowl team – that his color didn’t predict incompetence, the presumption remains.  Smith, in doing whatever it takes to get fired, would have confirmed the opinions and no need exists to try another black person. 

If we believe the Presumed Incompetence theory, it’s easy to think Texas wouldn’t hire a black coach to replace a deposed Charlie Strong.  Part of Strong’s problem at Texas lies in the fact he wasn’t the choice of some prominent UT boosters and donors.  Many of them had the fantasy – and that’s all it was – that Texas could steal Nick Saban from Alabama or lure Super Bowl winning coach John Gruden out of his ESPN comfort zone.  Evidence suggests this group saw Strong as an affirmative action hire not worthy of comparison to UT’s dream coaches. Despite his success as defensive coordinator for national championship teams at Florida, 11 and 12 win seasons and a 3 – 1 bowl record as head coach at Louisville, and spots on the Lou Holtz and Urban Meyer coaching trees, these disgruntled supporters believed (and one said so publicly) Strong wasn’t qualified to be the Texas head coach.

We’ve seen many public and private applications of the Presumed Incompetence theory.  It wasn’t that long ago when then Los Angeles Dodgers General Manager Al Campanis went on Nightline and proclaimed blacks don’t have the “necessities” to manage or run major league baseball teams.  Despite host Ted Koppel’s admirable effort to help Campanis walk back his bigoted statement, Campanis kept barreling down the same steep hill.  More recently, Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, now deceased, read during an oral argument from an amicus brief that suggested blacks belong in “slower” colleges and universities. In a personal, private context, a white law school classmate told one of us, “Woodson, I think you’re going to make it.”  No real relationship existed with the student.  The only plausible explanation for the comment seemed to lie in his astonishment that a black person could frame intelligent comments in class. 

Join us next week for Part Two of Why Black Coaches are Doomed to Fail.

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