On Wednesday, the coach of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Todd Bowles. He has dismissed the attention that is being paid to his impending coaching showdown against the coach of the Pittsburgh Steelers, Mike Tomlin. This matchup will be one of the rare games this season that will feature two Black head coaches.
Tomlin Are Two Of The Four Black Coaches in The League
When asked about the fact that he and Tomlin are two of the league’s four Black coaches, Bowles responded on Wednesday by saying, “I have a very good relationship with Tomlin.”
This is a group that now includes Steve Wilks, who replaced Matt Rhule in Carolina on an interim basis this week after Rhule was terminated from his position.
When we coach against each other, we do not pay attention to the teams’ colors since we already know each other so well. When it comes to us coaching against each other, I do not think it is a huge thing since I have a lot of really good white friends who are also involved in this league.
I believe it is normal. Wilks has been given the chance to perform an excellent job, and we can only hope that he takes advantage of it.
And while we are coaching, we do not care about color at all. After that, Bowles was questioned on the significance of representation and what it means for minority coaching hopefuls to witness NFL coaches who “look like them” and potentially “grew up like them.”
“You Look and Grew Up Like Them,” they Say
When Bowles heard that statement, he responded with the following: “Well, when you say, ‘They see you, people,’ and ‘look like them and grew up like them,’ that suggests that we’re oddballs, to begin with.”
“I believe that the moment you people stop making a big deal about it, everyone else will as well,” you said.
The National Football League (NFL) has been under growing attention in recent years for the fact that it does not employ any Black head coaches, although over 70 percent of the league’s players are Black.
Now that Wilks has been elevated to the position of head coach in the NFL, there are four Black men now serving in that capacity throughout the league.
Bowles, Tomlin, and Lovie Smith of the Houston Texans. In addition to these four, three other head coaches are members of a minority group.
Mike McDaniel, head coach of the Miami Dolphins, is biracial; Robert Saleh, head coach of the New York Jets, is of Lebanese descent; and Ron Rivera, head coach of the Washington Commanders, is of Latino descent.
Brian Flores, a former head coach for the Miami Dolphins, filed a class-action complaint against the National Football League and other clubs in February, claiming that the NFL engages in racial discrimination in its hiring processes.
Finishing Line
Wilks, who was the head coach of the Arizona Cardinals for one season in 2018, and Ray Horton, who has been an NFL assistant since 1994 and interviewed for the head coaching job of the Tennessee Titans in 2016, later joined Flores’ suit as plaintiffs.
Wilks served as the head coach of the Arizona Cardinals for one season in 2018.
