(TheLastPatriotNews.com) – Todd Bowles, one of the five black coaches in the National Football League, has dismissed the idea that racial identity politics should play a role in football.
Reporters questioned the coach of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers on his feelings about facing his Pittsburgh Steelers counterpart Mike Tomlin, another of the black coaches in the 32-team NFL.
Bowles insisted he didn’t take race into consideration, nor did the other black NFL coaches.
“I have a very good relationship with Tomlin. We don’t look at what color we are when we coach against each other; we just know each other,” he declared, as cited by The National Review.
“I have a lot of very good white friends that coach in this league as well, and I don’t think it’s a big deal as far as us coaching against each other, I think it’s normal. Wilks got an opportunity to do a good job, hopefully he does it. And we coach ball, we don’t look at color,” Bowles elaborated.
When asked by a reporter to comment on himself as a role model for other black coaches aspiring to the NFL, the Buccaneers coach argued successful minority careers in professional sports shouldn’t be deemed “extraordinary.”
He insisted that whenever media coverage dwelled on race, it had the effect of disparaging the black coaches’ accomplishments.
“When you say, ‘They see you guys,’ and ‘look like them and grew up like them,’ it means that we’re oddballs, to begin with. I think the minute you guys stop making a big deal about it, everybody else will as well,” Bowles told the media.
The National Review points out that in the past few years, the National Football League has been increasingly criticized for taking up “progressive programming and diversity, equity, and inclusion.”
It notes that even though millions of Americans “used to enjoy” football because of its political neutrality, the NFL seems to have taken a turn towards “infusing wokeness” into the game.
In July 2021, the NFL announced that “Lift Every Voice and Sing,” a song known as the “black national anthem,” would be played before every game.
Besides that, the league has appointed a “Senior Vice President for Social Responsibility.”
In June of this year, the NFL renewed 21 national grants for its social justice project “Inspire Change,” with a combined total worth of $6.5 million.
"I think the minute you guys stop making a big deal about it, everybody else will as well.”
Buccaneers HC Todd Bowles tells reporters to stop pushing race narratives.https://t.co/We1I2diTrR
— National Review (@NRO) October 14, 2022
