Coaching Football & Systemic Racism

Sports have been said to be one of the world’s most level playing fields. Talent, drive, hard work, and performance supersede almost all else most of the time; at least where players are concerned. Yes, athletes are, generally speaking, judged mostly on their ability to execute and win games. But does this performance based evaluation extend into the realm of coaching? Where football is concerned, my answer is no.

I am a white woman who is married to an African-American high school football coach in the South. I grew up watching football and loving sports. I was one of those girls who followed ESPN and knew about recruiting classes and player statistics when I was in high school and college. Admittedly, I am not as adept on all things football these days because, you know...life... but I was once the girl that could talk ball with the best of them. However, even though I followed college football so closely in my younger years, it wasn’t until I found and married my husband did I realize the severity of systemic racism in coaching football across all levels. This revelation is not something that I am proud of, to say the least, but definitely one that I have embraced, pondered and questioned.

Please take note of what I said; systemic racism, meaning the structure of football is ingrained with racist practices whether they be known to the participants or not. This does not necessarily mean that coordinators, head coaches, administration, boards, general managers, owners, etc are all deep seeded bigots. No, that is not systemic racism. This term is for racial inequalities that are embedded into a society so deeply that one can have no racial prejudices personally and still be an active participant and even benefit from the institutionalized oppression already in place. I know because it was me. Before I had the perspective of the wife of an African American coach, the thought that football, of all things, upheld racial inequalities never crossed my mind. And, on the surface, it doesn't. When we don our team colors and cheer on our team be it on small-town Friday nights, College Saturdays, or Sundays in the big city, we see lots of black and white participants in the uniform. But what about wearing a headset? Or leading the sideline? Or in the press box? Or in the upstairs office? Or better yet, in those swanky club boxes (or wherever the owners sit). Where is the diversity in those places? Why is it perfectly acceptable and even expected for an African-American to run the ball, but not to call the plays or sign the checks? I am sad to say that, through my own ignorance, these questions never crossed my mind before I became not just a coach’s wife, but a black coach’s wife.

In the spirit of transparency, I should relay that these questions are based solely on my own experiences. No fancy scientific or social experiments have been performed. I didn't send out surveys or questionnaires or crunch numbers. I listened to my husband, observed his behaviors and the behaviors of his Black colleagues, and just started paying attention. Truth be told, there are about a million different angles from which to analyze this complex issue and twice as many statistics and facts and figures that prove this is a real issue, but you can Google all of that (and, if you are honest with yourself, you probably already know it’s true).

So, what now? What is the answer? How do we even begin to make a change? I don't have an answer, but I surely think a conversation is a promising place to start. A conversation that hopefully leads to the first step...admittance. Admittance that systemic racism is alive and well in one of the most popular sports and lucrative businesses in our country on all levels. Admittance that the color gap between the end zone and the upstairs offices is miles wide and decades deep. And admittance that over time, without knowledge, hatred, or prejudice that white men have long benefited from the institutionalized racist system that is American football. After all, the first step on the road to recovery is admitting there is a problem, right?