Lapchick Column

Since when are things in life fair? Nothing is and probably will never be, especially in the realm of sports. I am referring to the amount of minorities and women in professionals’ sports today. The 2006-2007: Racial and Gender Report Card by Richard Lapchick, shows how professional sports and collegiate sports hire individuals in comparison to the athletes chosen for the institution. Not too sound callous or ignorant, but is this something needed to be harped on in our society.

Lapchick’s study grades each sport by how well they hire minorities and women into an organization. The study also looks at the ratio between white athletes and minority athletes in American sports. While this may have been a highly debated topic years ago, I feel as if there are more pressing issues to be looked at.

The study shows how the NBA has over 76 percent of their players being of African American descent and the NFL has over 67 percent. In comparison, the MLB has only 8 percent African American athletes. These numbers are large because all three leagues are prominent in American society.

Could the breakdown of races have to do something with interests in the sports? With all do respect, yes. The interest of baseball has never been very significant in baseball with African Americans, but with Whites and Latinos it has been. Even after Jackie Robinson broke the race barrier in baseball the interest in baseball has never been extremely high, and seems to be decreasing year after year. Who knows if it has to do with the way people are raised or does it apply to a significant hero kid’s look up to and idolize that makes them participate in one sport or the other?

The race and gender study also shows these numbers to be lacking when it comes to the hiring of individuals for executive and coaching positions.

But why is this significant? It isn’t. The athletes are paid millions of dollars to perform and bring in the revenue for teams. Coaching and executive jobs should go to the highest qualified candidate. It should not come down to race or gender, but rather who is best qualified for the job.

Call me a racist or a sexist, but when an overqualified applicant gets passed over to meet a ‘quota’ in favor of a minority or a woman, something doesn’t feel right or just in the hiring practices.

However, the NFL has taken steps to combat the lack of minorities when it comes to head coaching positions. The Rooney Rule made it mandatory for NFL teams to interview at least one minority candidate. The rule helped to increase the number of African American coaches to seven in 2007, compared to only two in 2002. The rule was showcases in 2007 when two African American head coaches led their teams to the Super Bowl, and Tony Dungy became the first to win a Super Bowl championship.

Another breakthrough for minorities came when Robert Johnson became the majority owner of the Charlotte Bobcats. At the point of publication, Johnson was the only African American to be an owner of a franchise in any

professional sport.

While the Rooney Rule might be effective to a point, it is just another form of affirmative action. Many people agree with affirmative action, but as stated earlier, I find it hard to give a job to a person based simply on race. Also, the fact that there is only one African American owner in professional sports means diddlysquat. It all has to do with money. In the end the power of the all-mighty dollar outranks race. There are plenty of wealthy minorities in the world and in America. If one wanted to own a team and is willing to pay hundreds of millions of dollars to own it, then they should do so. But don’t wine to me about not getting an opportunity to own a team, especially when a league has over three fourths of a minority group.

This is the 21^st century. There is an African American in the White House. Granted, the survey was conducted a few years ago, but the opportunities are there for every race not just for Whites. Some of my favorite athletes are African Americans and the study seemed too preachy and whinny at times. I feel everyone should have the right for growth and opportunity, but it should ultimately go to the most deserving and credentialed applicant available.