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

Last week we told the story of a radio talk show caller who suggested that a certain black NFL executive is “holding back my race” with his mediocre performance as the team’s general manager (Read about it here).

The comment led the talk show hosts to predict that if Houston Texans General Manager Rick Smith gets fired, the team won’t hire another black g.m.  The hosts also forecast that if the University of Texas cuts the cord on embattled head football coach Charlie Strong, the Longhorns won’t hire another black head coach.

We suggested America may operate on a one-and-done rule and Presumed Incompetence represents one reason.  Today, we explore a related reason for the possible reluctance of professional sports franchises and major college football programs to replace a black with a black − White Entitlement.

Reason No. 2 why Black Coaches are Doomed to Fail?

White Entitlement, which flows from “White Privilege” − the idea that being white in the United States produces engrained advantages many white people don’t recognize they have. White privilege means, for example, race never becomes an issue in encounters between whites and law enforcement, when a white person runs for office, nobody asks what it’ll mean to become the first white person to hold the office, and being white puts individuals on the road to economic and social success with race never being mentioned in connection with that success. 

For years, whites held the jobs Rick Smith and Charlie Strong now have. For much of our lives (all three of us were born before 1952), it was difficult, almost impossible, to imagine those jobs being filled by anyone but a white person. Indeed, on the hot August night in 2014 of Strong’s first game at the helm of the UT football team, one of us wondered what some 1964 Texas fan who had been in a coma for 50 years but awoke in his 40 yard line seat at Darrell K. Royal Texas Memorial Stadium would think upon seeing a black man lead the Longhorns onto the field.  The idea was mindboggling and acknowledged the power of White Entitlement.  After all, the head football coach at the University of Texas is “supposed” to be white.  If the coach at Texas is “supposed” to be white but, for whatever reason, a black person got the job and didn’t do it well, the natural order of things requires returning the position to a white person entitled to it.

We’ve seen the White Entitlement theory up close and personal.  Soon after the appointment of one of as a United States Magistrate (title later changed to Magistrate Judge), a white lawyer acquaintance said on several occasions, “Henry, you got my job.”  In theory at least, federal magistrate positions are promised to no one.  Appointments result from a rigorous review process involving the bar, the public, and the President-nominated, Senate-confirmed federal judges in the district.  Since the lawyer had no personal assurance of getting a magistrate’s position, it’s reasonable to wonder if race underpinned his statement.  The lawyer might not have been personally entitled to the job, but he could have felt racially entitled.

Join us next week for Part Three of Why Black Coaches are Doomed to Fail. Hint - Blacks, women, and other historically disadvantaged groups could be the reason.

What do you think? Sound off in the comments below.

 

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.

What do you think? Sound off in the comments below.