Liberty Reborn

A LIBERTY REBORN EXLUSIVE

Some people still have a long way to go in judging people based on their merits rather than their skin color. On January 21st, 2007 both the Indianapolis Colts and the Chicago Bears won their respective conference championships to advance to the Super Bowl. I know, some of you may not want to read about sports but hey, it’s my article and I’ll do what I want.

The Indianapolis Colts certainly were not considered the best team in the American Conference by most. And the National Conference was so weak that a 9 – 7 Seattle Seahawks team was able to not just make the playoffs, but win their division that the Chicago Bears could probably very well be the best team from that conference. Both teams had great seasons to get to where they are now.

But what was the first words I heard after the Bears defeated the New Orleans Saints was not about the great accomplishment of the men from Chicago but rather about the skin color of their head coach, Lovie Smith. See, Mr. Smith is black and there has never been a team in the Superbowl headed by a black coach.

I knew immediately what was coming later on should the Colts and Tony Dungy, who I think is one of the finest coaches in the National Football League, win against the Patriots. I cringed at the though about how the first thing I would hear if he lead the Colts to victory was how now there was not just one, but two black coaches in the Super Bowl.

I certainly was not far off.

Perusing headlines about the Super Bowl match up you would be lucky to find an article that did not mention the race of the coaches before almost anything else about the upcoming game. There was far more praise for these two men for being black than there was for their coaching talents which made me cringe even more. When their abilities as coaches was mentioned in articles it was usually much further down in the articles around paragraph six or seven.

I know, Heaven forbid that I would care more about the fact that both of these men are great coaches and about their trials and tribulations during their careers and this season than the color of their skin. Heaven forbid that I would rather talk about how the Bears looked like the same dominant, defensive powerhouse of earlier in the season against the sympathetic, national favorites in New Orleans. Heaven forbid I would rather talk about how despite losing an inarguably integral part of their team in Edgrin James, the Colts have continued to be an offensive force to be reckoned with.

When the playoffs started and I was deciding who to pull for I decided on the New York Jets. But when the Jets fell I decided that if anyone from the AFC would make the Super Bowl I would want it to be Dungy’s Colts. Not because I cared about seeing the “first black head coach in Super Bowl history” but because having followed Dungy’s career I knew that the man knew his football and had done wonders as a coach. Even if he was never really fully appreciated in Pittsburgh or even Tampa Bay after bringing that team back from the dead.

Oh, but the fascination with one’s race rather than their character or qualifications doesn’t end there. My Pittsburgh Steelers added to this frenzy on that same Sunday by announcing that they were going to hire Mike Tomlin, defensive coordinator of the Minnesota Vikings, to replace the retired Bill Cower. And just to make sure you knew what was really important, every announcement just had to include that Mr. Tomlin is also black.

The news blurbs were always basically “Steelers hire Mike Tomlin – the first black head coach in Steeler’s history”. As if that was more important than pointing out how under him Minnesota had the eighth-best overall defense in 2006 and that he was part of the dominant Tampa Bay defensive staff in the early part of this decade.

But I guess I shouldn’t complain too much about the hype about the race of the two coaches in this years Super Bowl. It could be worse. If there was only one black head coach in the big game and there was any sort of questionable call that would have let a team lead by a white head coach hoist the Lombardi trophy we would be deluged with rants about how it was all a plot to “keep the black man down” or some other insane rhetoric.

So just remember this you damn racists, watch the Super Bowl this year otherwise you’ll just prove that you do not like black people.

* This article is a Liberty Reborn EXCLUSIVE and may not be reprinted without the purchase of a license for this particular article. If you wish to request a license and pricing information for reprinting this article you must contact J.J. Jackson at jackson@thelandofthefree.net

This entry was posted on Saturday, February 3rd, 2007 at 6:25 pm and is filed under General Insanity, Liberty Reborn Exclusive, Politcally Correct Insanity. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.