Take skin out of the game

Marcus Freeman, the Notre Dame head football coach, made history on Monday, becoming the first black head coach to lead a team from the NCAA’s Football Bowl Subdivision in a national championship game.

He qualified for that distinction on Jan. 9 by leading the Fighting Irish to a 27-24 triumph over Penn State—whose head coach James Franklin is also black—in the Orange Bowl, one of the College Football Playoff’s semifinal games. Freeman—who is also part Korean—missed out on becoming the first non-white head coach in college football’s 100-plus-year history to hoist his sport’s most coveted trophy when Notre Dame lost to Ohio State 34-23 in the national title game in Atlanta. Still, just being the first to coach in one was a historic achievement.

So, naturally, after the Irish won the Orange Bowl, ESPN reporter Molly McGrath asked Freeman about the significance of his accomplishment.

“I don’t ever want to take attention away from the team,” he replied. “It is an honor, and I hope all head coaches—minorities, black, Asian, white, it doesn’t matter, great people—continue to get opportunities like this.”

Great answer, coach.

Freeman’s response comes at a time when issues of race seem to be taking center stage in sports at a time when race should no longer matter, yet somehow still does.

It wasn’t that long ago that the NFL’s New England Patriots were celebrating the hire of their first black head coach, Jerod Mayo. One 4-13 season later, Mayo—who replaced Bill Belichick, who boasts more Super Bowl rings (six) than any NFL coach ever—is out. This had ESPN commentator Stephen A. Smith screaming, “Racism!”

“They call it Black Monday for a reason,” said Smith, referring to the day after the NFL season ends, when teams that struggled miserably typically give their head coaches the ax. “This certainly typifies it. I don’t know why it’s not called White Monday. Doug Pederson (who is white) got fired from Jacksonville. He deserved that firing.”

It also wasn’t that long ago that Time magazine named Indiana Fever guard Caitlin Clark its Athlete of the Year. Given that Clark all but single-handedly caused interest in women’s basketball to surge tremendously while she was setting records in college at Iowa and later in the WNBA, the honor was well-deserved.

And yet Clark sparked controversy by telling Time that she benefited from white privilege.

“A lot of those players in the league that have been really good have been black players,” Clark said. “This league has kind of been built on them.”

Clark likely had no choice but to say that—she’s been a target of bullying by black players since she entered the league. Even so, her comments drew praise from Southern California guard JuJu Watkins, Clark’s heir apparent as college basketball’s transcendent superstar.

“It’s super dope,” Watkins told Fox News Digital. “For her to kind of bring that to light was cool.”

Let me be clear: I’m all for black, Latino, Asian, and persons of any other race or ethnicity succeeding in sports. As legendary Georgetown men’s basketball coach John Thompson said in 1982 after becoming the first black coach to guide a team to the Final Four, all his accomplishment meant was that plenty of other good black coaches had been denied the opportunity. If someone has the knowledge of a given sport, leadership abilities, skills, etc., that are necessary to build or become a champion, that person deserves a fair shot—no matter what his complexion and/or surname might be.

That said, I’m looking forward to the day when race no longer factors into discussions of the accomplishments of athletes or coaches.

Perhaps I’m not the right person to say that given my own skin’s pigmentation. But I also know I’m not alone.

During the 2024 season, nine out of 32 NFL teams—more than a quarter of the league—boasted black or Hispanic head coaches. Asked about the spate of minority hires, Seattle Seahawks quarterback Geno Smith—who is black—said he’d like race to stop being part of the discussion. Tampa Bay Buccaneers coach Todd Bowles, who is also black, said something similar back in 2022.

“It’s 2024 and we are talking about minorities,” Smith told reporters a year ago. “So, it’s not encouraging. I think we have to get away from that talk and let people be people.”

I’m reminded of a quote at the end of the Jackie Robinson biopic 42: “A baseball box score, after all, is a democratic thing. It doesn’t say how big you are, or what religion you follow. It does not know how you voted, or the color of your skin. It simply states what kind of ballplayer you were on any particular day.”

Whether we’re talking about black, Hispanic, or Asian head football coaches, white basketball players, or anything else involving sports, race should no longer matter. On-field excellence should be the only thing that does.

Geno Smith is right: True equality means the conversation is no longer about race. That should be our goal.