The obsession with race in sports media isn’t just ruining sports media, but it is perpetuating racism by turning black coaches and athletes into racial tokens instead of individuals with their own talents and backstories.
This was on display as sports reporters tried to hound Tampa Bay Buccaneers head coach Todd Bowles into giving them a racial soundbite. The Buccaneers are playing the Pittsburgh Steelers this week. Like Bowles, Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin is black. So one reporter decided to ask if Tomlin and Bowles had some special relationship as two black coaches and what Bowles thought about Steve Wilks, who is black, taking over as the interim head coach of the Carolina Panthers.
MEDIA TRY TO SMEAR LITTLE LEAGUERS TO CREATE A RACIAL CONTROVERSY
“I have a very good relationship with Tomlin,” Bowles said. “We don’t look at what color we are when we coach against each other — we just know each other. I have a lot of very good white friends that coach in this league as well, and I don’t think it’s a big deal.”
Todd Bowles on coaching against Mike Tomlin this Sunday: “I don’t think it’s a big deal…we don’t look at color.”
Bowles on representation in coaching: “I think the minute you guys stop making a big deal about it, everybody else will as well.”
*Questions included for context pic.twitter.com/JtehXqqKcW
— David Schiele WTSP (@Deacon_Schiele) October 12, 2022
Not good enough, the race hustlers replied!
Another reporter immediately interjected with her own question. “But you also understand that representation matters, too, right?” asked ESPN’s Jenna Laine. “And that when young aspiring coaches or even football players, they see you guys, they see someone that looks like them, maybe grew up like them, that has to mean something.”
“Well, when you say ‘see you guys’ and ‘look like them’ and ‘grew up like them’ means that we’re oddballs to begin with,” Bowles said. “I think the minute you guys stop making a big deal about it, everyone else will as well.”
Laine later pointed out on Twitter that Bowles did give an answer about representation when he was hired and that it “differed quite a bit” from the response he gave her, but that ignores the context. Bowles answered a question about it when he was hired and noted the significance, then he moved on to focus on coaching. He didn’t say or indicate that he wanted to talk about his skin color all the time and be reduced to his skin color by reporters constantly pointing it out.
Let me clarify something…I wasn’t telling Todd Bowles how he should think or feel about racial representation. I was seeking clarity because his response to the initial question from another reporter Wednesday differed quite a bit from this response March 31 when he was hired. pic.twitter.com/TQ6kHKI6ci
— JennaLaineESPN (@JennaLaineESPN) October 14, 2022
To the extent that representation matters, it is shown. The young black children who want to be coaches can see that Bowles is black. They don’t need white ESPN reporters constantly bringing it up. By doing so, they devalue Bowles’s achievements and contradict what he said when he was hired: “Being a person of color, you want to get hired off of your ability.”
Sports media constantly declare that racism is why more coaches aren’t black, and the NFL obliges by placing more affirmative action-style policies in place to address it. They want coaches to be hired because of their skin color because all they care about is skin color. As a result, the significance of Bowles’s hiring is devalued.
Bowles isn’t the one contradicting himself here. Our “anti-racist” sports media are constantly telling black children that race is a major and perhaps insurmountable obstacle to their success. The world, woke sports media maintain, must be viewed through the lens of race, even in sports. We would be a better country if people viewed race the way Bowles does. Sports media are welcome to start listening to an actual black coach on the subject whenever they like.
