Significant
Impact of Tomlin's Hire Worth Discussion
By Ray Mernagh

When the Steelers chose a 34-year old African-American to head the most storied franchise in NFL history, it was a decision that caught many by surprise. The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review incorrectly reported the hiring of Russ Grimm as head coach was imminent mere hours before the actual pick, Mike Tomlin, was announced as Bill Cowher's successor. Now that some of the shock - not to mention egg - has been wiped off our faces, perhaps it's time to look at the racial significance of Tomlin being hired to lead the mighty Steelers Nation.

Whether you want to admit it or not, the decision is racially significant for both the NFL and the city of Pittsburgh - it just seems as if nobody wants to REALLY talk about it. Which leads to the following question: When is it okay to talk about race in sports?

Is it only relevant to talk about when star QB Michael Vick allegedly finances a dog-fighting ring? Or when a defensive back nicknamed "Pac Man" lives out the fantasy that's seen daily in rap videos on MTV and BET and, again allegedly, dumps $80,000 dollars on the stage of a strip club in Las Vegas? And who can forget Don Imus? The cases of Vick, Jones, and Imus have kept the media machine fed for the better part of six months now. The Imus story-and the ensuing controversy over whether rap lyrics justified Imus' use of the words 'nappy-headed ho's' to describe the college-aged black women on Rutgers' basketball team-even got Kansas City Star columnist Jason Whitlock, and his always contraire Devil's Advocate act, on the Oprah Winfrey show.

All three examples have a negative slant to them and are sensationalistic, hence the bombastic avalanche of coverage given to them. They're safe stories to talk about, fastballs thrown right down the middle of the plate. But the Tomlin hiring? That's a Hines Ward special. In other words, it's third and 13, Hines is going over the middle into triple coverage, and he better keep his head on a swivel- type story.

Jemele Hill is a columnist for Page 2, on ESPN.com, who notices the reticence some in the media treat the topic of race with.

Hill is a triple minority-she's 30-years-old, black, and female in the completely white male dominated society of sports writing. She pulls no punches when asked about the lack of discussion in sports media when it comes to race.

"Sports writers don't write about race because they fear the backlash," said Hill. "It's uncomfortable, to say the least. As much as people say ad nauseum that race isn't an issue, they sure do respond quite vigilantly and strongly whenever the subject arises, which only leads me to believe we really do want to talk about it."

Hill sees Tomlin's hiring as a big-time step for the NFL.

"Tomlin's hire says the NFL finally is starting to get it. In 1990, Art Shell was the NFL's first black coach in the modern era. And almost twenty years later, you not only have Tomlin, but two black coaches in the Super Bowl."

Hill also sees a difference from the era of Tony Dungy to Mike Tomlin in terms of willingness on the part of NFL owners to look at black coaches earlier in their careers.

"Even if you just trace the progress from Tony Dungy to Tomlin," says Hill, "it's impressive. Tony Dungy was passed over for numerous opportunities, and now you have a young, black coach who was hired to head one of the league's marquee franchises."

That marquee franchise is imbedded in the fabric of its city.

One could successfully argue that the Steelers are the heart and soul of Pittsburgh. In a city where black and white folks are more often than not segregated from each other, the Steelers bring everyone together 16-in good years it's 19-times a year.

Having THE MAN in town (and yes, the coach of the Steelers is THE MAN) be both young and black is incredibly important to the African-American community. Writer and musician Kevin Strasser is a Muslim expressionist known in Pittsburgh's music circles as A05. Count Strasser among those who are excited by the hire even if he wasn't shocked by it.

"What's the point of having the Rooney Rule if Dan Rooney never hires anyone in that position?" asks Strasser.

So when Tomlin came here as one of the candidates, Strasser felt like he was going to get the job. Strasser also points out the history of hires-Chuck Noll and Bill Cowher-within the organization that Tomlin fits into: young, defensive-minded coaches have served the Steelers Nation quite well.

"It's all about the black and gold and how they do things," says Strasser, "obviously the Rooneys know what they're doing when it comes to coaching hires, so I'm riding with them on this one."

Strasser brings up something-the Rooney Rule and whether Tomlin was hired because of it-that ESPN.com senior writer Michael Smith pointed to in a story penned shortly after the hire in which he called the search a "textbook example" of what the Rooney Rule was intended to do.

Smith commended the Steelers' diligence during the coaching search, while discounting the reports that had Grimm in the final group of two with Tomlin. Smith is well connected in NFL circles, so his revelation is believable when pitted against some of the aforementioned local coverage of the search. In the ESPN.com article Smith wrote the following:

"From the looks of it, Rooney (Dan) and team president Art Rooney II started the selection process with a clean slate. Meaning it wasn't Coach X's job to lose, though many believed the Steelers ultimately would promote former offensive coordinator Ken Whisenhunt or assistant head coach/offensive line coach Russ Grimm. The Rooneys didn't go for broke in a hurried pursuit of a big-name college coach. They didn't conduct courtesy interviews with members of the majority or token interviews with minorities…No side or backdoor deals, no circumventing. It was all legit. In fact, in the end the leading candidates were minorities - Tomlin and Bears defensive coordinator Ron Rivera, who is Hispanic. And while it is indeed fitting that Dan Rooney, who has been at the forefront of the league's movement to increase minority hiring, did his part to raise the number of active black coaches (to six), Rooney's obligation was not to make a social statement but to make the best decision for the franchise."

While making a social statement wasn't Rooney's obligation, Richard Purcell is still grateful that he did.

Purcell, a 31-year-old who's finishing his doctorate at Pitt, does social commentaries on NPR about race, media and sports, while his writings have been published in various academic journals. He enjoys living in Lawrenceville, has been in Pittsburgh for 10 years now (he's a Staten Island, NY native) and has come to appreciate it as a "great mid-sized city." Purcell finds the racial dynamic in the city, and how the Steelers affect it, fascinating.

"I would say the segregation in Pittsburgh is on par with other cities of the same size in this region of the country, only Pittsburgh isn't as racially or ethnically diverse as cities on the east and west coast, so you feel the black/white segregation more than you would in other places where it's much more diverse in terms of class. You'll generally have a middle class in bigger cities, but because of its size and the lack of diversity in class, you just FEEL the segregation more in Pittsburgh."

When asked what breaks that segregation down, Purcell's eyes lit up like Mike Singletary's.

"Steelers football! Some of my best times here have been going to different bars during a Steelers game. During the week the crowds are pretty homogenous but on game days you find all kinds of people, students from different parts of the country/world, people from the Hill District, people from Shadyside, all screaming their heads off for the Steelers. My favorite part of living here is seeing how people rally around their team."

Purcell identifies with Tomlin on a personal level, and admits his hiring brought up some uneasy feelings.

"I've been here long enough to recall the way Kordell Stewart was treated-and I admit he wasn't very good for some of his time here-and that concerns me should Tomlin struggle early on, which I think is a distinct possibility as the team was 8-8 last year," says Purcell.

The academic also winces at the media's focus on the Vick, Jones and Imus stories. "When you have this constant barrage of the loud, black athlete with the 20-inch rims on the Benz and scantily clad women surrounding him - people think that's the norm. They don't see folks like myself, or Tomlin, who planned their futures and are becoming professionals. The reason why lies in deeper issues like marketing schemes to sell shoes. It's disturbing."

Jemele Hill concurs.

"The longer we try to act as if race isn't an undercurrent in everything we do, feel and say, the more ill-equipped we'll be to discuss it when it's pertinent to do so."

Mike Tomlin is only three years older than sneaker salesman Allen Iverson and according to Hill "is just as much a product" of the often vilified hip-hop loving generation as Iverson. Yet it's the norm to ignore that, or even more insulting, to treat men like Tomlin as exceptions.

Are we ready to talk about that?

Ray Mernagh is the publisher of Hoopfactor.com and is authoring a book on the Mid-American Conference.