“Equal in Sports” The names of the three articles that are being used are “Minorities Coaches Do Not Face Discrimination in Hiring,” “Decision Making in Hiring: Intercollegiate Athletics Coaches and Staff,” and “Tackling Unconscious Bias in Hiring Practices: The Plight of the Rooney Rule.” The authors of the article that I am refuting, “Minorities Coaches Do Not Face Discrimination in Hiring,” are Roger Clegg and Greg Franke. This article was published in Opposing Viewpoints: Sports and Athletes in 2005. Also, there are two peer-reviewed articles that I am using to support my argument. The authors of one the editorials, “Decision Making in Hiring: Intercollegiate Athletics Coaches and Staff,” are Keith Harris, Richard E. Lapchick, and Neza K. Janson. This editorial was published in New Direction for Institutional Research in the winter of 2009. The author of the last piece of writing, “Tackling Unconscious Bias in Hiring Practices: The Plight of the Rooney Rule,” is Brian Collins. This piece of writing was published in New York University Law Review in June 2007. “Minorities Coaches Do Not Face Discrimination in Hiring” simply explains what its title says; that minorities coaches do not face discrimination in the hiring process for coaching job. Meanwhile, the two peer-review articles, “Decision Making in Hiring: Intercollegiate Athletics Coaches and Staff” and “Tackling Unconscious Bias in Hiring Practices: The Plight of the Rooney Rule”, explains in greater details that the first article is not true and that minorities experience a lot of difficulties when trying to find a coaching job in sports. Throughout this paper, key terms such as minorities, coaching, and discrimination, will be used a great deal of time as each author explained their beliefs. Even though both sides of this argument are very compelling, there is only one side that I believe in. Although “Minorities Coaches Do Not Face Discrimination in Hiring” have well-informed scenarios that it used to develop an argument, the two peer-reviewed articles goes into a study by using facts, quotes, statistics, and data to discredit the opinionated commentary. In “Minorities Coaches Do Not Face Discrimination in Hiring”, Clegg and Franke combined for a two part viewpoint that criticized a 2002 report by the late Johnnie Cochran and Cyrus Mehri (par 1). During the first part of the viewpoint, Clegg referred to a study in Cochran’s and Mehri’s report, “Black Coaches in the National Football: Superior Performances, Inferior Opportunities”, by Janice Madden that compared the success of black coaches and white coaches. Madden found that the success of black coaches were greater than their white counterparts (Clegg par 2). With that result, Madden even said in a footnote that, “The small number of black coaches hired by NFL teams makes it difficult to conduct more formal statistical analyses of racial differences. While many of the racial differences reported here are strong enough that a 'statistical test dismisses chance or random variation as the reason for racial differences, in the end, there are simply too few black coaches for more formal statistical analyses to be appropriate.” Therefore, Clegg disputed Madden’s conclusion and came up with his own conclusion that all owners should hired the best qualified coach (par 2). Still in the first part of the viewpoint, Clegg continued to questioned Cochran’s and Mehri’s report and even goes as far to say in the article, “If the discrimination is open-eyed and deliberate—that is, if the owners know that they aren't making rational decisions but they don't care because they are so bigoted—then it's not clear that anything can be done about it” (par 3). Later, Clegg discussed his problem and the unfairness with the Fair Competition Resolution. He argued that this rule has the potential to knock a “better-qualified white candidate” for a job to make way for a “less qualified nonwhite candidate” (par 4). In part two of “Minorities Coaches Do Not Face Discrimination in Hiring”, Franke reflected of a time, before political correctness, that anyone can reach the top. But nowadays, a person has to be very careful of what he or she says, Rush Limbaugh for example (Frankie par 5). Franke brought up the scenario of what happen to the Detroit Lions in 2003. The Lions obviously wanted to hire Steve Mariucci for their vacant head coaching position. Therefore of all the minorities candidates invited for an interview (six total), none did not accepted an interview opportunity. So the Lions were fined two hundred thousand dollars (Franke par 5). Franke called the decision an “unnecessary common sense penalty” (par 6). In “Decision Making in Hiring: Intercollegiate Athletics Coaches and Staff”, the editorial presented a large amount of facts and statistics to sustain its argument that not only minorities but also women stumbled upon obstacles to obtain jobs in intercollegiate sports. Harrison, Lapchick, and Janson acknowledged that there has been a great increased of women holding administrative position in the NCAA (1). But the authors also recognized there is a lack of diversity among university presidents, athletic directors, head coaches, associate athletic directors, faculty athletic representatives, and sports information directors; especially when it comes to African Americans. The most noticeable position, head football coach, continued to create news because of the shortage of African Americans that currently hold that position. Harrison, Lapchick, and Janson discovered that informal networks called “hiring trees” are being constructed to help one rise in the coaching business. As a result, this profited predominately white coaches more than minority coaches (2). The authors admitted that that there are a very high number of female athletes, assistant coaches, athletic directors, and employees in intercollegiate sports. With this there is still a lack of females in head coaching positions, especially in tennis (Harrison, Lapchick, Janson 5). Harrison, Lapchick, and Janson suggested that there should be a greater investigation from high schools to all divisions of the NCAA to potentially boost the importance of equity and diversity in every portion of intercollegiate and interscholastic athletics (7). Finally the authors believed in order for there to be change, Congress need to be holding hearings, and that black and white players need to speak out more (Harrison, Lapchick, Janson 8). In “Tackling Unconscious Bias in Hiring Practices: The Plight of the Rooney Rule”, this article examined the pronouncement to create a rule the required every team to interview at least one minority for their vacant head coaching position or be issued a noteworthy monetary fine, Rooney Rule (Collins 1). Collins started his note by revisiting the history of unconcealed racism. For example, comments from former Los Angeles Dodgers executive Al Campanis in 1987 stating, “African Americans may not have some of the necessities to be, let's say, a field manager or perhaps a general manager.” Also remarks from former Cincinnati Reds owner Marge Schott in 1992 saying, “I once had a n--- work for me… I would never hire another n---. I would rather trained a monkey working for me than a n---.” These statements showed the difficulties minorities experienced before the Rooney Rule was even thought about (Collins 3). Collins also noticed that some of the unfair treatment is basic on preconceive stereotypes. African Americans are typically thought to be awesome athletes but not to have awesome intellect. The opposite is thought of for white athletes. Therefore with this impression, it is understandable why it was not easy for African Americans to receive a coaching job that obviously required intellect to be obtained (Collins 3). Later in Collins’s note, the question was asked if the Rooney Rule has been working (10). Well, the National Football League begins its ninety season in 2010. There are thirty-two head coaching positions in a game that black athletes outweigh other races. Yet only six teams presently have African Americans as their main man: Mike Singletary (San Francisco 49ers), Marvin Lewis (Cincinnati Bengals), and Mike Tomlin (Pittsburgh Steelers), Lovie Smith (Chicago Bears), Jim Caldwell (Indianapolis Colts) and Raheem Morris (Tampa Bay Buccaneers). Even though only nineteen percent of the coaches in the NFL are black, this is one of the highest percent in NFL history (2006 had seven black coaches with a percent of twenty-one percent) (Collins 12). Although in the 2007 season, the advancement of minority coaches, at the result of the Rooney Rule, reached its peak by both Super Bowl head coaches of both teams were African Americans, Chicago Bears’ Lovie Smith and Indianapolis Colts’ Tony Dungy (Collins 13). The questions that need to be ask is what can be done to modify this model of racism? Black coaching candidates are hesitant to speak out for fear that what little chance they have of landing a head coaching position would be put at a greater risk. Both peer-reviewed articles called for athletes of all race to speak out for change. Many of the existing players have post-playing ambitions of becoming coaches. If today's athletes do not strongly utter their feelings on the shortage of opportunities being presented to minority coaches, they will discover that doors will be shut in their faces when they go knocking. Journalists both black and white must confess to the reality and start exploring the issue more enthusiastically. It is not a secret that the media plays a main role in the dismissal and appointing of coaches. Demands must be applied on the owners to overturn this troubling practice. A joint ground-breaking attempt needs to be put in place right away.
Work Cited Page Clegg, Roger and Franke, Greg. "Minority Coaches Do Not Face Discrimination in Hiring." Opposing Viewpoints: Sports and Athletes (2005). Opposing Viewpoints Resource Center. Web. 26 March 2010 Harrison, Keith, Lapchick, Richard, and Janson Neza. “Decision Making in Hiring: Intercollegiate Athletics Coaches and Staff.” New Directions for Institutional Research 2009.144 (Winter 2009): 93-101. Academic Search Premier. Web. 26 March 2010 Collins, Brian. “Tackling Unconscious Bias in Hiring Practices: The Plight of the Rooney Rule.” New York University Law Review 82.3 (June 2007): 870-912. Academic Search Premier. Web. 26 March 2010