by sussexpob » Thu Nov 07, 2013 7:18 pm
Somethings Barnes says are really interesting, others are complete tosh. I think, for instance, to say something so ridiculous as "white people dont mind being called a white so and so" is amazingly ignorant. I would mind, very strongly so..... I would also mind if someone used a racist term to describe a friend who does not share my ethnicity, even if he doesnt mind. Its like swear words... If I tell my friend to "*modded* off" loudly in public, why should someone walking past not be offended? In fact, its more likely!
As for the management issue, yes, one cannot deny that the numbers dont add up, especially when black people are overrepresented in football generally... a large black playing community that goes no further, strange? Yes! Of course.
I agree with Barnes, however, that to a certain extent artificial rearranging of the sport will not help.... can rules in football stop poverty or present social opportunity? As he rightfully draws on, footballers earn loads of money, whether they move to management or coaching or not. We arent really helping black communities by increasing the opportunity of Ashley Cole to manage Bournemouth in two years time.
Its perception. Anyone who quotes the Rooney Rule so flippantly really does not understand the NFL and the culture in the USA. The Rooney Rule was brought in not to give black players a guaranteed interview!!! It was originally suggested as a much wider scope; to disprove the widely held theory that black players were employable only in the athletic/strength positions, while the white boy Jock's from College could manage to read the playbooks.
I mean I remember Kordell Stewart, a scrambling QB for the Steelers in about 2000? He actually played under Dan Rooney II's governance, the man who campaigned for the changes..... I think he said once that KS played better after the playbook "was simplified for him", and by that they meant he basically did a "run, Forrest, run" type tactic.
The NFL changed very quickly, there are now guys like Cam Newton who are black role model pocket passers.... yet its arguably how much of that was down to anything more than the opportunities for blacks in society that have come with more time.... Newton himself grew up in a well off family, his father and uncle being NFL players in the past.... before him, and probably the biggest post 2000 non scrambling QB was Donovan McNabb, who attended an expensive all catholic boys school and came out of University with a lingustics and speech degree. Michael Vick was a Forrest Gump, not seen as having the intelligence or awareness to pass teams to death, he just had a coach that called run all the time
The truth is that black society has gradually become engrained in USA society to the point that more black families are stepping out of the stereotypical social situations that they once found themselves in, but it is these types of people of higher standing that are getting the opportunity. Until anyone changes society to give better education to others, you wont find many uneducated or poor background blacks taking coaching or skill player roles in teams. So arguably the Rooney Rule did nothing much for the sport, it just was passed at a time when blacks were increasingly becoming prevelent in influencial positions across society.
I guess with the football you have the same thing.... lots of black players, but how many footballers come from educated backgrounds per se? And what is the average black person income to white, based on defined social roles that were handed to blacks in much less enlightened times?
Until we tackle ethnic minority opportunities in society then I think its natural that football can do nothing to help it, or little of consequence. The Rooney Rule is horrible, it was a cope out trying to tackle something that was too big to tackle in sport.
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