Two black head coaches have taken their football teams to the sport's biggest stage--the Super Bowl.

So what's the big deal?

It's a question I've asked myself over the last few days. Honestly, it didn't dawn on me as a story of significance when Tony Dungy of the Indianapolis Colts and Lovie Smith of the Chicago Bears made it to their respective championship games, one game removed from the Super Bowl. I mean, we were past the point of celebrating this as a big story ... weren't we?

I was wrong. While it may seem odd to still be rejoicing racial firsts in professional sports in 2007, it will be a noteworthy accomplishment when these two men meet in Miami in Super Bowl XLI on Feb. 4. They'll be the first black head coaches to advance to the Super Bowl in the sport's 41 years--and yes, it is a big deal.

It's significant because the roll call of black head coaches, in a sport where the vast majority of the players on the field are black, remains woefully short. Besides Dungy and Smith, there's Romeo Crennel (Cleveland), Herman Edwards (Kansas City) and Marvin Lewis (Cincinnati). Two other black head coaches, Art Shell (Oakland) and Dennis Green (Arizona), were fired in recent weeks after disappointing seasons. The Pittsburgh Steelers' recent hire of Mike Tomlin brings the number of black head coaches up to six.

Go one step up the food chain and you'll find black general managers in the sport are practically unheard of. Indeed, the New York Giants' recent hiring of Jerry Reese marked him as only the third GM in the league's history. 

Smith and Dungy are a big story because as recently as five years ago, it was so difficult for a black assistant coach to land a head-coaching interview that a group led by the late Johnnie Cochran and attorney Cyrus Mehri released a report scrutinizing the NFL's hiring practice of black head coaches and admonished them to change. (For more on Cyrus Mehri, read the January/February issue of DiversityInc magazine, focusing on the real story of the lawsuit he led against Coca-Cola.)

Because of that report and subsequent diversity policy, any NFL club hiring a head coach must include a racially diverse candidate in their interview pool. At the time, some decried the policy as window dressing, but five short years later, two black head coaches will meet in the Super Bowl.

I imagine both men simply would rather be known as excellent football coaches trying to win their game's biggest prize rather than trailblazers. But they're trailblazers nonetheless.

Sports are important because they mirror society. And in some cases, they mirror the way society ought to be. The Rev. Jesse Jackson has an oft-used line when discussing why sports are a reflection of the way things should be in society. On the playing field, Jackson says, everyone is playing by the same rules. If it's football, both sides have to travel the same distance to score a touchdown. In baseball, everyone gets three strikes before being called out. The rules are the same for all, blacks, whites, Asians, Latinos, GLBTs, people with disabilities. It's the way the rest of the world "should" work, says Jackson. That's why sports are important. And that's why this story is still important.

The Power of Being First

On a personal note, the junior high school I attended was named after Jackie Robinson, who, in 1947, became the first black major-league baseball player of the modern era. I also was a student at Howard University in Washington, D.C., the year Doug Williams became the first black quarterback to win a Super Bowl, leading the Washington Redskins to victory. I still remember how electrified the city was during the Redskins playoff run leading up to the Super Bowl. In that city, during that time, there was more than a game at stake ... there was pride. Whether he knew it or not, Williams' success wasn't only his; it represented the success of all the black residents in the city, regardless of whether they were football fans.

In the same way blacks across the nation embraced Joe Louis during his epic rematch with Max Schmeling in 1938, Williams' triumph would be our triumph. His failure would be our failure. 

Are we giving the accomplishments of Smith and Dungy, two football coaches, too much weight? Perhaps. But better the story be given too much weight than not enough.

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