Editor’s note: The following article is an op-ed, and the views expressed are the author’s own. Read more opinions on theGrio.
Content warning: This story includes discussions of alleged sexual misconduct.
Among the wildly popular Nike merch that’s inspired by Deion Sanders and running out of stock are shirts that read: “I ain’t hard 2 find.”
That’s easy for him to say.
Media encircles Coach Prime like planets orbit the sun. He was the talk of college football at Jackson State and remains the lead story at Colorado, where “60 Minutes” just featured him for the second time in a calendar year. There’s no doubt Sanders is extraordinarily different, one of one.
But he’s also one of eight coaches (at the moment) who stand out for chromatic reasons, not charm and charisma.
As soon as Michigan State is done with Mel Tucker, the percentage of Black head football coaches at the 69 power conference schools will dip from .115 to .101. The number includes high-profile assignments like Notre Dame (Marcus Freeman) and Penn State (James Franklin) and inconspicuous gigs like Syracuse (Dino Babers) and Purdue (Ryan Walters). Unless another brother is hired to replace Tucker, Mike Locksley (Maryland) and Tony Elliott (Virginia) will round out the Magnificent Seven.
They can double-team their NFL counterparts and have a sub on the sidelines. Mike Tomlin (Pittsburgh), Todd Bowles (Tampa Bay) and DeMeco Ryans (Houston) are the league’s only Black head coaches, representing .093 of the 32 incumbents. No wonder former Miami Dolphins coach Brian Flores filed a racial discrimination lawsuit against the NFL and three teams, claiming the obvious:
Not counting HBCUs, it’s hard to be a Black head football coach.
Tucker did the crew no favors by admittedly masturbating during a phone call with Brenda Tracy, a prominent rape survivor and activist hired by the school to speak to…
Read the full article here
