UPDATE: The 49ers did talk to Hue Jackson, the offensive coordinator who turned around the Raiders season. He's black. But was Hue a token? And what about the 49ers GM position?
Former Stanford Head Coach Jim Harbaugh is now the coach of the San Francisco 49ers. It marks the second time a Stanford Head Coach was selected to be the coach of the 49ers. Of course, the last person was the Legendary Bill Walsh. In the press conference, which I watch below while here in Las Vegas for CES, the Consumer Electronics Show, Harbaugh mentioned Walsh several times.
As one who's advocated for a person who understands what I call "the system" that was born in San Francisco and created by Walsh to be in the Niners fold, Harbaugh's a step in the right direction. But as I watched the press conference, and
read the full transcript from it, I found myself seething. There was no mention of the 49ers having talked to a minority head coach, and no member of the media who asked about it. Witness:
In other words, while Harbaugh's a good choice, the 49ers skirted the Rooney Rule, and I'm going to bet money the NFL will cover for them. But for the mostly white San Francisco Bay Area media to allow an entire freaking press conference introducing a white head coach and GM to go without any question about the Rooney Rule is awful. Shameful. Terrible.
What the hell is the Bay Area sports beat media afraid of? Do they think 49ers Team President Jed York's going to break out a machine gun? What's going on? Lots of cowardice on display at that press conference.
Makes me puke.
They're lucky I wasn't there.
It's not a question of "Do we need the Rooney Rule," we do. It's totally stupid to have a society that reflect the Roman Empire, with (mostly) well-moneyed whites cheering blacks beating on each other. And if you're black and think it's OK, you're just as much a part of the problem too.
Keep supporting it; I hope you enjoy your second class status. It's not for me.
The Rooney Rule was installed in 2003, and "requires National Football League teams to interview minority candidates for head coaching and senior football operations opportunities." Let's see, both Jim Harbaugh and new 49ers General Manager Trent Baalke are white and male. And, particularly in a day and age when there are GMs and Assistant GMs in baseball who are female, why just go out and talk to just male candidates for NFL front office positions? Did the 49ers York talk to any black or Latino or woman candidate? Who? When?
It seems no one. The 49ers reportedly only talked to NFL Network Analyst Mike Lombardi, and he's a white guy. Geez.
Oh, and someone will say "You're getting racial?" To anyone who does, my retort is get out of The Matrix and think. We've been presented with images of "white male knows best" so much that it impacts a person's ability to clearly go and evaluate who the best person really is for any position in any walk of life. That's the problem. And it's so much a problem that when it's questioned, some say "oh, you're getting racial," but if the person was black, then race would be an issue for some. Not good.
The NFL overwhelmingly presents this problem and that's why Steelers Owner Dan Rooney, a forward thinking person who sees beyond The Matrix, called for The Rooney Rule. (He didn't name it that, however.)
If Rooney, a white male, can see beyond his own skin and place to understand we must eliminate institutional racism, why can't the Bay Area media see that?
(And don't give me this "we had a black coach" garbage. This isn't a points game. It's about giving those people who may be the best qualified a chance, and who happen to be of color. Moreover, it's not a point of saying "We talked to one person." You're to survey the landscape of candidates.)
Race is always an issue. You have three choices: embrace it positively, or negatively, or ignore it. Chose the first one. Please.
Something's really wrong. And it's not with this blog. It's with our society.
