John Wooten has a dream, and it’s being fulfilled before his very eyes, blurred a bit by tears. As chairman of the Fritz Pollard Alliance, Wooten sees for the first time two African-American coaches in the NFL’s conference finals.
There’s a chance the Colts’ Tony Dungy and his protege, the Bears’ Lovie Smith, could meet in a Super Bowl, achieving the last two milestones left–getting to the biggest game and winning it.
“We’re pulling like crazy that this is the year,” Wooten said. “It’s been this way since Denny [Green] had that great year in Minnesota and Atlanta beat him.”
Green’s 1998 Vikings were 15-1 and set an NFL scoring record that still stands, yet lost to the Falcons in the NFC title game in Minnesota. Until this week, that game was the only time a team with a black coach was playing at home in a conference title game.
Wooten, a former Cleveland Browns guard and longtime scout for the Dallas Cowboys, laments that such details of history must be recorded. Someday, the Fritz Pollard Alliance no longer may be necessary to recommend and help groom African-American candidates for coaching and NFL executive positions.
“As Lovie said in his press conference, that day isn’t here yet,” Wooten said.
But on Martin Luther King Jr. Day, Wooten said he was filled with wonder and gratitude when he called Smith and Dungy and then watched Jerry Reese be named general manager of one of the league’s flagship franchises, the New York Giants. Reese joins Baltimore’s Ozzie Newsome, Houston’s Rick Smith and Arizona’s Rod Graves as African-American general managers or directors of football operations.
Later, Wooten watched 34-year-old Mike Tomlin get a second interview for head coach of the Pittsburgh Steelers, whose owner, Dan Rooney, has been so instrumental in pushing for minority hiring that the “Rooney Rule” demanding an inclusive interviewing process bears his name.
“To have all of this happen, you couldn’t stop the tears,” Wooten said. “Somewhere in the great beyond, Dr. King is smiling.
“Here’s what he had long aspired to and believed. Work and try to be the very best, whether you’re a street sweeper or a garbage collector. Whatever you’re going to be, try to be the best.”
Wooten praises Rooney, Commissioner Roger Goodell, former Commissioner Paul Tagliabue and others for aggressively advocating equal opportunity, but he also knows it took a pointed nudge from the late attorney Johnnie Cochran and others to turn good intentions into policy.
As proud as the Bears should feel to be a part of this history, it also could be an embarrassment for Smith to lead their team into Miami not only as the first black coach to get to a Super Bowl, but also as the lowest-paid coach in the NFL.
When will the subject of race no longer be noticed? In time, Wooten says.
“We were that way when we were talking about the quarterbacks,” Wooten said.
After Doug Williams won and Steve McNair and Donovan McNabb played in Super Bowls, Wooten said, “We don’t talk about it anymore. That’s what we want to see happen throughout.”
Like Smith, Vikings defensive coordinator Tomlin was first hired by Dungy. So was Herm Edwards, who took his Kansas City Chiefs to the playoffs. Wooten looks forward to the time when Dungy’s coaching tree becomes the bigger story.
“When the day comes when they’re talked about the way [Eric] Mangini and [Bill] Belichick are talked about with [Bill] Parcells, without the color description in front of them, then we know we’ve won,” Wooten said.
If the Super Bowl is indeed Smith vs. Dungy, Wooten might discover a more apt description would be “colorless.” Wooten calls them “two of the finest people you ever want to be around,” but Wooten won’t be trying to glean catchy sound bites or quotes during the two-week preview.
Smith told New Orleans media Wednesday: “I’ve thought about it and realize it could be two black head coaches in the Super Bowl and what that would mean. Being a part of Tony’s tree and him being on the AFC side having a chance to compete against him in the Super Bowl has been on my mind for a long time.
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“I’m a big Indianapolis Colts fan and that would be great, but that’s like talking about next season. That game seems so far way and we are really just concentrating on this one.”
Wooten said it’s more than coincidence that Smith and Dungy have similar low-key personalities. Get used to it.
“We’re saying to them, `You need to help train these guys. You need to show them.’ And that’s why you’re not going to see our coaches whooping and hollering and cussing and kicking,” he said. “You’re not going to see that, because that’s not the way we want it to be.”
Hiring minority coaches is only the first step toward real equality. No more certain sign of progress was the recent firings of Art Shell in Oakland and Green in Arizona–both fired for the second time, thus joining the previously exclusive recycle circle.
Before Green’s Vikings in 1998, Shell had become the first black coach to get within one game of the Super Bowl when his 1990 Los Angeles Raiders lost at Buffalo 51-3.
Dungy took his 1999 Tampa Bay team with Smith and Edwards on his staff to St. Louis, where the Bucs slowed down the high-scoring Rams but lost 11-6.
Green’s 2000 Vikings went to New York to play the Giants for the NFC title and lost 41-0.
Dungy’s 2003 Colts went to New England and lost the AFC title 24-14.
Shell, Green, Dungy, Edwards, Smith, Cincinnati’s Marvin Lewis, Cleveland’s Romeo Crennel and Philadelphia’s and Green Bay’s Ray Rhodes are the only African-Americans to coach in the league since Chicago’s Fritz Pollard coached the Akron Pros in 1921, so even getting to six title games since Shell was first hired in 1989 is significant.
But the Super Bowl awaits, and it’s not just the oddsmakers favoring Dungy and Smith to get there.
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