by Aubrey Bruce, For New Pittsburgh Courier
There are going to be a few disenchanted “haters” with swords drawn and daggers unsheathed after this column is published. Why? Well, merely because I have the nerve to express relief that Black History Month is in my rearview mirror for the year 2022. The reason that I feel this way is because I am not looking forward to reading the following in February 2023: “On this day, February 19, 2022, former Miami Dolphins Head Coach Brian Flores was hired as a defensive coach with the Pittsburgh Steelers.”
We don’t need another Black History moment because moments are fleeting and soon become dusty memories, so it seems.
It seems as if every fan and media talking head feels as if they are qualified and justified to blow SUV-sized flugelhorns through tractor-trailer sized megaphones regarding or in some cases disregarding the hiring of Steelers Assistant Coach Brian Flores.
There are a few media members and some radio and television networks as well some as Internet outlets that seem to be promoting the notion that Pittsburgh Steelers President and fellow owner Art Rooney II was making some sort of statement in regard to Flores landing a new coaching gig with the Steelers.
There are even those that have the audacity to promote the notion that the hiring of Flores by Art Rooney II, President and co-owner of the Pittsburgh Steelers, represented Mr. Rooney making some sort of statement that may have been a direct “pacification” reaction regarding the accusations leveled by Flores that the NFL’s standard operating procedure regarding the hiring of Black head coaches was systemically-biased.
Why would Art Rooney II even be so petty as to waste a coaching position just to “make a statement?”
In 1969, when Dan Rooney hired the youthful defensive coordinator of the Baltimore Colts, Chuck Noll, one could surmise that one of the primary reasons, if not the most important reason, was that Coach Noll had helped lead the Baltimore Colts to an NFL championship the year before.
Ya think that Mr. Rooney may have just been thinking about navigating his perennially losing franchise to the destination of greatness and not just making a statement? Ladies and gentlemen, much has been said and maybe more has been written regarding the hiring of Coach Mike Tomlin on Jan. 22, 2007. Just seconds after he was introduced as only the third head coach hired by the team since 1969, the press began hemming and hawing, shucking and jiving, creepin’ and conniving about whether or not Tomlin was the recipient of another golden egg laid by the golden goose; otherwise known as “affirmative action.”
If a few folks had paid more attention to the culture and the S.O.P of the Pittsburgh Steelers instead of rushing to judgment eager to empty their pens that were overflowing with the ink of narcissism; they would have almost certainly experienced an epiphany regarding a pattern of the team choosing only to hire a head coach under the age of 40 since they hired Chuck Noll in 1969 at the age of 37. If they would have investigated a tad more they would have come to the correct conclusion that both head coaches that were hired to succeed Noll, Bill Cowher and Mike Tomlin, were hired by Pittsburgh when they were under the age of 35.
It is my opinion that the hiring of Mike Tomlin was based on his youth, his football intellect and creativity more so than his race. Young coaches could relate to their players far better than the blazer and tie culture nurtured by the NFL ownership group.
In 1969, the youth movement and the Steelers’ journey toward the status of legend had begun.
To assist the young coach in creating a reservoir of talent, the team hired future NFL Hall-of-Famer Bill Nunn Jr. Nunn was the first Black scout and front office executive in the league when the Steelers hired him in 1967 to help recruit players from historically Black colleges and universities. The eye for talent possessed by Bill Nunn Jr. and the teaching/coaching methods of Chuck Noll helped to create a new culture of excellence and almost immediately transformed the Steelers franchise into the a dynasty in the 1970s, when they won four Super Bowls. By the way, the Steelers never had to cheat or do anything illegal on the road to winning any of their six Lombardi trophies.
Let’s discontinue blowing our horns of discontent like bags of hot air regarding the “first and initial accomplishments” of people of color. There should be no first corporate CEOs or first airline pilots or doctors. There should not have been any deterrents to profile and hire Black quarterbacks, Black head coaches, Black general managers or Black janitors. There should not have been any color lines to cross in the first place. If White society had hired candidates based on talent and merit since the NFL was founded in 1920, there would be no need for Rooney Rules or for Brian Flores and Colin Kaepernick to seek legal remedies for biased hiring practices or to seek basic civil rights for people of color. In this day and age issuing statements about racial injustice are just rhetorical embellishments serving as tasteless icing on the bitter pastry of inaction. When Caucasians are hired they may celebrate the occasion; when Blacks are hired they turn the event into a worship service, sometimes acting as if a “saver” has evolved into a “savior.” When Caucasians are hired it is a simple process known as “confirmative action.”
More often than not when Blacks are hired for upper management in any upper level management position in any corporate setting or sports it is a process loathed and despised as a result of “affirmative action.” Since 1967 the only “statements” that the Pittsburgh Steelers seem to make are with their actions, not idle chatter.
About Post Author
