Superville Review

A few weeks ago West Virginia University lost its Head Football Coach Rich Rodriguez to the maize and blue tradition of Michigan. When it was determined that he would not coach the team in its Fiesta Bowl match with Oklahoma, Bill Stewart an assistant coach on Rodriguez' staff was tapped to fill the job for one night only. After an emphatic undressing of Oklahoma on the same field that saw them lose to Boise State a year ago, West Virginia hired Bill Stewart to be its new head man. Beloved by star quarterback Pat White and other players as well as the administration, Stewart's hiring brings up some unpleasant memories.

In the mid-90's as head coach of the Virgina Military Institute Stewart, tiring of watching a black player showboating through practice took the young man aside and quietly instructed him to not give people the reason to call him a nigger; likening this to his struggle to not present the image of a redneck from his native West Virginia. The player rightly reported the conversation to campus administrators and after being threatened with the termination of he and his staff, Stewart resigned in exchange for the continued employment of his staff, which included current Pittsburgh Steelers Head Coach Mike Tomlin.

ESPN reports that Tomlin called in his support for Stewart's hiring and West Virginia University President Michael Garrison made a point of alerting the public to this fact as well as the acknowledging that this incident was known by the university when Stewart was hired in 1999. So Stewart has a lot of black friends in high places and amongst the young men he coaches. By all accounts Stewart is an affable, friendly and honorable man. Which is why his advice to that VMI player more than ten years ago is so stupifying. It's shocking that anyone would equate hot dogging or show boating with blackness. Pistol Pete Maravich was one of the biggest showboats in NBA history. Larry Bird was a trash talker of epic dimension and in his very gaze was the arrogance of superiority over his opponents. Even more shocking is that Stewart felt like offering advice to this young black man needed to include his belief that showboating would create racial animosity; one wonders if it filtered in the Coach's mind that, suggesting a young man who must trust him and follow him, not do something to be thought of as a nigger would endear him to that player.

I would wonder, were it me, if my coach thought of me as a nigger based on flamboyance or showboating or whatever. While it might be true that too many players showboat and seek attention for plays that they should make, it is not true that nigger goes through the mind of those watching; they might think of said player as an ass or immature, but nigger? To Coach Stewart's thinking this is what goes through the minds of white fans.

Stewart says he has had no such incident before or after the VMI occurrence, but in his mind how does he truly view those black players who dance or perform after touchdowns or first downs? Are they niggers? Only Coach Stewart can answer that question. And it is a question that should be asked and answered before he's given leadership over a team full of young, impressionable black and white men.

Labels: Bill Stewart, Racism, University of West Virginia, Virginia Military Institute, West Virgina Football

Jesse Jackson ran for Presidential office on two occasions. Shirley Chisholm. Alan Keyes. Barack Obama, who some black pundits felt the need to point out wasn't a "real" African-America despite the fact his father is Kenyan, his mother a midwesterner, and he was born in the United States, actually won the Iowa caucus. Obama's platform of hope was able to resonate in Iowa, a state that is whiter than Antartica. I must admit I never though I would see this event. I hoped it was possible. I daydreamed it's happening, but in my mind I thought Senator Obama would be doing well coming in second place to Hillary Clinton. Sometimes America can surprise it's own.

Mike Huckabee? A month ago he was one of the many non-descript candidates on the GOP side attempting to delineate themselves from each other and distance themselves from the debacle of George Bush's presidency. But like Obama, Huckabee has shown himself to be different enough from the status quo and at once likeable and thereby able to garner enough support to topple "Slick" Romney and John McCain in Iowa. (And Guiliani finishes uh-oh last.)

New Hampshire awaits these new front runners, but there victory in the Live Free or Die state is far from guaranteed. But at least for one night one state of Americans truly seem to be telling the rest of the country that change can only come from politicians that seem to be less like politicians.