A great letter regarding race and sports.

[devilgrrl]

Howdy DUer's, I just wanted to pass along this great letter to today's Buffalo News Sports page. This guy rocks and I wrote to him to let him know.

False conclusion

A recent letter writer drew the false conclusion that blacks are more talented as players in the NFL while whites make better coaches. Sadly, his false extrapolation of data merely parrots the long standing prejudice in sport that assumes that there are differences between the races on the field and on the sidelines based on biological factors. It reduces itself to the racist assumption that while blacks are superior physically in sports such as professional football, whites are more gifted intellectually.

Black players make up approximately 65 percent of the NFL, not because of any superior physical prowess, but owing to a complex nexus of historical, psychological, and sociological forces surrounding the false belief of young black men, fed by an unreflective media, that sports provides the best hope for success in American society. And white head coaches make up over 90 percent of coaches in the NFL, not because of any superior intellectual cupidity, but because the owners of NFL teams have systematically passed over qualified minority candidates. It is because of this sad record that the commissioner of the NFL polices the interviewing process, such as when Detroit Lions President Matt Millen was fined $200,000 for not interviewing black candidates.

Most disquietingly, the writer draws all his conclusions regarding black players and coaches based on the single factor logical fallacy that Jon Gruden, a white coach, had a better record when he took over for Tony Dungy, a black coach.

The hard statistical data from 1986 to 2002, found in the 2002 report, "Black Coaches in the NFL: Superior Performance, Inferior Opportunities," supports the proposition that blacks in fact, are better coaches than whites since black coaches in the NFL averaged 1.1 more wins per season than white coaches.

Teams coached by blacks went to the playoffs 67 percent of the time; teams coached by whites went a paltry 39 percent of the time; and, to show that mediocrity is a white luxury in NFL coaching.

In the season prior to being terminated, black coaches won an average of 1.3 more games than their white counterparts won in the season prior to their termination.

In the NFL, like the rest of American society, there is still not a level playing field for people of color.

DR. ROSS T. RUNFOLA
Professor of Sports Sociology
Medaille College

http://www.buffalonews.com/editorial/20030824/1004253.asp

[wryter2000]

1. Thanks

That guy has his head screwed on straight, for sure. The "blacks make good athletes" thing is just the other side of the "blacks are genetically dumb" coin. A very bad coin, and one we have to get out of circulation!

[devilgrrl]

2. Here's the letter I wrote to the author...

Dear Dr. Runfola,

I just wanted to write to thank you for your letter in today's Buffalo News Sunday sports page. Why that ought to quiet the knuckle dragging masses! Sadly, I've got a feeling that a whopping majority of News readers hold the exact same views that you so brilliantly torpedoed.

On a personal note regarding black coaches. My step-father (whom I love dearly), while a higher official at the University of Buffalo wouldn't shut up about the hiring of a black head football coach for the Bulls. He felt the university president gave into affirmative action and liberalism by hiring the guy. The team didn't do well and he was let go accompanied by the usual "I told you so's." Then the university hired a white coach with experience at famed Penn State University under legendary football coach Joe Paterno. My father was ecstatic! This would finally put UB into the national spot light! Lo and Behold, the team was just as awful and I think this "savior" has since been fired. I've always wanted to point this out to my step-dad. His shear hypocrisy and utter racism is maddening and he should be called on it but I'm afraid I'll make him have a heart attack or something awful.

Thanks for listening and thanks for a great letter, I'm going to forward it to several people. :-)

Sincerely yours,

andrea

[Character Assassin]

3. Dr. Runfola evidently didn't read the study and overlooked this footnote

That basically invalidates any of the claims that are being made about its results.

Dr. Madden, the author of the study, put the following , critical footnote into her study:

The small number of black coaches hired by NFL teams makes it difficult to conduct more formal statistical analyses of racial differences. While many of the racial differences reported here are strong enough that a statistical test dismisses chance or random variation as the reason for racial differences, in the end, there are simply too few black coaches for more formal statistical analyses to be appropriate.

As in innumerable other instances, statistics are inappropriately applied to further someone's agenda.

[spooky3]

5. not able to test for sig. dif.?

If that's the case, then the original writer about whom Dr. R complains is still wrong, in making his assertions based on race. The burden of evidence is on the person who wants to demonstrate racial differences to do so empirically; the null hypothesis, which we have to accept, is that there are no differences.

[PeaceProgProsp]

7. Just to repeat for emphasis, Runfola's point is that there is no...

...empirical evidence to support the original claim (that blacks can't coach) and, in fact, if you were to rely on the one study, it calculated (albeit without much weight due to sample size) that blacks were better coaches by 1.1 wins per season. Imagine for yourself what that number would be if there was a bigger sample size? .5%. Doesn't matter anyway. Runfola is arguing that there's nothing inherent in race that makes someone a better coach, although there are many social reasons (that can be remedied) which make it harder for a black person to get a coaching job in the NFL.

[Blue_Chill]

4. Maybe it was that way in the past

But with all the money riding on Football team success the best coach wins. It may take a while for more Black coaches to appear but I don't think that right now at this very moment racism is holding them back.

The numbers tell you what happened yesterday, not what is happening today.

[PeaceProgProsp]

6. I know a Runfola from Buffalo whose uncle was a Freedom Rider in the 60's

This might be the guy. It's almost definitely the family.

[AP]

8. The liberal tide. It's nice to see something like this

getting so much print in the paper, and then a little national attention via DU.