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Tampa Bay coach Todd Bowles criticizes the media for picking Black NFL coaches and making race a ‘big deal’ for Bucs vs. Steelers: ‘It means we’re misfits at first… we don’t look at color’
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Tampa Bay Buccaneers coach Todd Bowles has criticized the media for spotlighting the race in the NFL.
His team will face Mike Tomlin’s Pittsburgh Steelers this weekend in what will be the first time this season that two black coaches will face each other.
Bowles downplayed the importance of the occasion when he called on the media to make racing a big deal and continue to emphasize representation in the sport.
“I have a very good relationship with Tomlin,” Bowles said on Wednesday when asked if they were two of the league’s four black coaches. “We don’t look at what color we are when we coach against each other, we just know each other.
“I also have a lot of really good white friends who coach in this league, and I don’t think it’s a bad thing if we coach against each other, I think it’s normal. Wilks got the chance to do a good job, hopefully he will. And we coach ball, we don’t look at color.’
Tampa Bay Buccaneers coach Todd Bowles has criticized the media for spotlighting the race in the NFL
A reporter then asked Bowles about representation and how that affects aspiring players and coaches from minority backgrounds who see people who “look like them” or “grew up like them.”
“Well, when you say ‘They see you’ and ‘look like them and grew up like them,’ that means we’re misfits to begin with,” Bowles replied. “I think once you stop making a point of it, everyone else will too.”
This happens against the backdrop of an NFL landscape with only seven color coaches, four of which are black.
Tomlin is the NFL’s longest-serving active black coach, having headed the Steelers since 2007
Earlier this week, Steve Wilks became the fourth active Black head coach in the league – when he intervened on an interim basis after the Panthers fired Matt Rhule.
The league has been increasingly criticized in recent years for its lack of diversity in its coaching staff. About 70% of the players in the NFL are black. Lovie Smith of the Houston Texans is the only other Black head coach in the league besides Wilks, Tomlin and Bowles.
In addition to those four, Dolphins head coach Mike McDaniel is biracial, Jets coach Robert Saleh is of Lebanese descent, and Ron Rivera is Latino.
Wilks is a plaintiff in a lawsuit filed by former Dolphins head coach Brian Flores. The suit alleges that the competition has racially discriminated against him in its hiring processes.
This week, Steve Wilks became the fourth Black head coach in the league with the Panthers
Wilks is part of competition lawsuit for racial discrimination started by Brian Flores