Subj : As I See It To : All From : Ed Grinnell Date : Mon Nov 27 2000 05:19 am * Crossposted in SPORTS * Crossposted in NFL Detroit vs New England Minnesota vs Dallas New Orleans vs St. Louis Tampa Bay vs Buffalo Philadelphia vs Washington San Diego vs Kansas City Jacksonville vs Tennessee Pittsburgh vs Cincinnati What do these games have in common? The answer is that AT LEAST one of the starting QBs in each game was black (Including an all-black matchup between Pittsburgh and Cincinnati) and that black QBs were 6-3 (5-2 if you didn't include the game between the Steelers and the Bengals) as starters. In 1970, you'd be hard pressed to find a black QB on the roster, let alone as a starter or a backup and 11 teams started one in the year 2000 (Baltimore and Cleveland also started black QBs this year plus the starting QB for New Orleans before he went down is black). 30 years ago we were told that blacks didn't have the intelligence to be QBs and now, we know this not to be true. One of the tenets of affirmative action is IF you give someone a chance, they'll do as well as anyone and this is one prime example. Maybe the NFL might want to take stock and stop using excuses for not hiring blacks as head coaches because they're as good or as bad as their white counterparts and deserve a chance to prove that. The NBA has embraced coaches of all colors and they've even allowed them to be GMs - something that MLB and the NFL needs to do more of. I'm not saying that the NFL should hire every black assistant, just that they give them the same consideration as whites. The NFL overlooked Sherm Lewis because they said that he never called his own plays and the very next year, hired a white coach who didn't call his plays, either. The rules change as they go along and unless the players take up the cause, the coaches will always get the shaft. I think it's time that the players exert enough influence to get their brethren an interview. --- TrekEd 1.00 * Origin: Bill James, James Dunlop. Coincidence? (1:170/1701) .