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| Michael Wilborn photos by Steed Media Service |
Esteemed
Washington Post sports columnist Michael Wilbon’s entertaining
exchanges with fellow Post scribe Tony Kornheiser on ESPN’s “Pardon the
Interruption” spans the spectrum of issues, including race. So it’s no
surprise that Wilbon would address the oft-inflammatory issue of
minority representation in the coaching ranks. He spoke briefly with
rolling out at the site of Super Bowl XLIII in Tampa, Fla.
Rolling Out:
How does it make you feel to see an African American in the White House
and another [Mike Tomlin] become the third African American NFL head
coach in the Super Bowl?
Wilbon:
“Good. Because I covered those guys when they were assistant coaches
and they couldn’t get a job. I covered Tony Dungy when he couldn’t get
a [head coaching] job and he should have had one a looooong time ago.
So now that Tomlin is in there, and we’re a lot less stressed about it,
and that’s good. And hopefully, there will be a black coach and we
won’t even notice. That’s the real, true measure of progress.”
RO: What do you believe is the reason for the dearth of African American coaches in the collegiate and professional ranks?
Wilbon: “Historically, it’s
discrimination and that becomes less overt and more subtle over the
years. But there’s a reticence for people to sort of accept folks that
don’t look like them. And that’s anybody. And that’s any walk of life,
not just the NFL. It’s in journalism. But we’re seeing a breakdown of
that. We just saw it, enabling a man to get to the White House, so I
know we can see it in professional football.”
RO: Why is “Pardon the Interruption” such a smash hit with viewers?
Wilbon: “It’s about building
arguments as columnist. Tony and I are not TV people. We’re columnist.
We both write for the Washington Post for half a hundred years, it
seems like. We didn’t come into [television] like other people you see
on ESPN, [who are] television professionals. We came at it from the
standpoint of reporting and building arguments. And we’ve been doing it
for years, long before there was a camera on it. ESPN allowed us to
bring it to television.”
Wilbon theorizes that with an increased presence of African American
and minorities along the corridors of power in America – and on the
playing field – fewer barriers will be impenetrable enough to dissuade
or preclude blacks from manifesting their maximum potential. –terry shropshire
