There's also a study floating around that reports black coaches in the NFL are statistically more likely to win. To read Lewis' full column, click on the post title link ____________________________________________
While acknowledging the jobs Mike Tice, Mike Holmgren and Jon Gruden have done coaching their respective teams, a convincing case can be made that the three leading candidates for NFL Coach of the Year are (in order) Tony Dungy, Lovie Smith and Marvin Lewis.
Dungy's Colts are four wins shy of becoming the first team to go through the regular season unbeaten in more than three decades and the first since the league went to a 16-game schedule in 1978. If Indy makes history, I'd have to think Dungy would be a lock for Coach of the Year.
In just his second year in Chicago, Smith's Bears are tied for the NFC's second-best record behind a defense that is second to none and a quarterback who is in his first season. In any other year, Smith would be the guy.
Lewis has coached the Bengals to their first winning season in 15 years and has them on track to win the AFC North. In just two-plus seasons, he's succeeded in changing the losing culture in Cincinnati, a transformation evident in Chad Johnson's recent comments regarding the Bengals' chances in the AFC title game at Indianapolis (good, according to Johnson). For turning that franchise around, and so quickly, Lewis might be the coach of the decade.
All so deserving, and … oh, by the way, have I mentioned that Dungy, Smith and Lewis all are African-American?
No, I hadn't. Because you know what? The fact that arguably the three best head coaches in 2005 are minorities is, while historically significant, purely coincidental. Just as (news flash!) race with regard to performance is totally inconsequential.
At this point, frankly, anyone who isn't completely color-blind is blind, deaf and dumb.
Look at what Romeo Crennel is doing with the Browns, what Dennis Green will (eventually, let's hope) do in Arizona. His team has struggled this year, but Herman Edwards remains the only coach in Jets history to take them to the playoffs three out of four years. Is their complexion the reason why these coaches have the magic touch? Absolutely not. They're good coaches. Not qualified or capable minority coaches. Just good coaches. Period. Dungy likely will make history this year by becoming the first black head coach to guide a team to the Super Bowl. Huge. But Dungy doesn't need to reach the Super Bowl to validate himself or his African-American peers as quality coaches.
By now, even with the bottom-line numbers still skewed (six out of 32) you'd like to think that the concept of a "black coach" is going the way of that of a "black quarterback." The latter is something we don't even notice anymore, it's so common. As one executive who likely will be interviewing head-coaching candidates this offseason said, "When you're in the position I'm in, you don't look at black or white. You look at, 'Can the guy coach?'"
