I’ve been meaning to write a blog about the coaches in the Super Bowl this week. Tony Dungy and Lovie Smith, who, if you haven’t heard already (maybe you live in a cave) are both bla… I mean African-American.

First, let me say that I think its great that our society is progressing and that stereotypes are breaking and that race is becoming less and less of an issue. The NFL has made great leaps in the past 20 years in the area of race.
However, I think those barriers are mostly gone in the NFL and the hubbub over the past two weeks as been nothing more than politically correct self back-patting. There have been black head coaches in the league for some time now so it was only a matter of time before one of them made it to the Super Bowl.
The P.C. stuff is out of control if you ask me. Its to the point where a black commentator (Shannon Sharpe) has to stop himself mid-sentence on national TV to keep from saying “black coach” in order to defer to the politically correct and more ambiguous “African-American.” (Side note, I went to college with a white girl from South Africa. She got her citizenship, making her an African-American.)

OK, on to coach Dungy. He’s had some great comments on the whole thing over the past two weeks. He’s said that he is glad to be a role model for black kids to look up to and to know that they have the potential to reach such heights. But he has also done something else, he’s been sure to say how his Christian faith has shaped him as a coach and a person.

He told of how he experienced discrimination as he interviewed for coaching jobs, not because of his skin color but because of his demeanor and his attitude. One interviewer asked if he became coach would the team be the most important thing to him. He said no, that his family would come before the team. He didn’t get the job.

That has long been the critisim of Dungy. He’s too soft. That’s what they said when Tampa won the Super Bowl the year after he left. Dungy built the team but he couldn’t get them there. They’ve done the same thing since he’s been in Indianapolis. He even had some of his onw players saying it (remember the ‘idiot kicker’ comments?) The same sports media that is putting him on a pedestal because of his skin color were the same people cutting him down for his personality and, indirectly, his faith.
His style is atypical of an NFL coach. They are usually red faced on the sideline, cursing, belittling players on and off the field. Those are the tough guys, those are the guys that win championships. Not Dungy, he lets his faith inform his coaching. He has a quite but firm sideline demeanor. He treats his players with respect, treats them as men. And, here’s a shocker, they respond as such. And now he’s collecting the dividends, playing in the game that’s the ultimate goal of every player and coach in the NFL.

Lovie Smith was originally hired into the NFL by Dungy. Lovie has followed much the same pattern as Dungy in form and style. And he leads with his faith.
Both coaches are good men, and good friends. Whoever wins, the best man wins.
Tony and Lovie are good for the game not because of their skin color, but because of who they are as people and because of their faith.