The really remarkable thing about about
three CFL teams hiring three black coaches in the span of just over
week is how unremarkable it all was.
The decision by the B.C. Lions to hire
DeVone Claybrooks, the Argonauts to bring in Corey Chamblin and the
Ticats to promote Orlondo Steinauer weren’t lauded as progressive
moves in and of themselves. Instead, they were universally praised as
smart football decisions, teams and their general managers hiring
experienced CFL coaches with extensive track records in the game and
a boatload of potential.
Given that general managers often like
to go outside the box with these hires to prove how much smarter they
are than everybody else – usually with disastrous results –
perhaps the fact that all three teams did the intelligent and
predictable thing is the most stunning development of all.
But the fallout from the end of the NFL
regular season provides an interesting contrast. Five
African-American coaches have been fired this season, leaving the
league with just two remaining: Mike Tomlin of the Pittsburgh
Steelers and Anthony Lynn of the Los Angeles Chargers, who will play
in the wild-card playoff game against Baltimore.
It’s set off another round of
discussion around the NFL’s “Rooney Rule” that requires teams to
interview minority candidates for head coaching and senior football
operation jobs after a number of high-profile black candidates were
consistently passed over. It’s been in place since 2003 and while
it’s impact has been a source of debate since its inception, recent
developments would indicate the league still has a long way to go.
Meanwhile, the CFL has been at the forefront of racial integration in football for decades. Willie Wood of the Toronto Argonauts became the league’s first black head coach in 1980, nine years before Art Shell would take over the NFL’s Oakland Raiders. In 1995, the Birmingham Barracudas made Roy Shivers the first black general manager in football and the Riders made Shivers and head coach Danny Barrett first black management tandem five years later.
Micheal “Pinball” Clemons, Danny
Barrett and Kavis Reed have all held head coaching or upper
management roles while Chamblin’s stint with the Argos is his
second after spending five years with the Riders.
Anecdotally, many of the black American players I’ve covered over the years have talked about how things feel different in Canada. As I wrote about a couple of years ago after the shooting death of Saskatchewan Roughrider Joe McKnight, the nature of race relations and the spectre of gun violence is very different in the U.S. And that was before Donald Trump took over as president and Colin Kaepernick situation exploded into prominence.
Meanwhile, the CFL has launched its very successful “Diversity Is Strength” campaign to pay tribute to its past and emphasize the multicultural nature of its present. While these types of things have their challenges – chiefly that it can allow issues to be ignored the other 11 months of the year – it’s hard to be critical of something that draws attention to the contributions of people like Bernie Custis or Obby Khan. That Chris Jones’ Neal Hughes t-shirt became a talisman to the Riders’ season was one of those happy coincidences. Hughes is worth reading about, too.
But “Diversity Is Strength” is just
mockable catchphrase if you don’t live it and the hiring of
Claybrooks, Chamblin and Steinauer was further proof that the CFL
makes its decisions based on ability and not on race. That seems like
a pretty simple and obvious thing in the opening days of 2019 but it
isn’t always, as our neighbours down south are reminding us yet
again.
