On Wednesday, Buccaneers head coach Todd Bowles, who is black, quickly shot down the attempt of several left-wing reporters to inject race into questions about his relationships with his players and coaches.
The first attempt to make it all about racism came when Bowles was asked about his upcoming coaching matchup with the Pittsburgh Steelers Mike Tomlin. The reporter raised the question because Tomlin is black, as well.
But Bowles rejected the parsing of the matchup along racial lines. He noted that he has a good relationship with Tomlin but added, “We don’t look at what color we are when we coach against each other. We just know each other.”
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Bowles added, “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.”
Steve Wilks, who recently became the NFL’s third black head coach, was mentioned because he was recently hired to lead the Carolina Panthers.
But the left-wing press wasn’t done trying to force a racial component into the press conference. Much to Bowles’ annoyance, another reporter ridiculously asked if he thinks it is good for the players to see an NFL coach who “looks like them” and possibly “grew up like them.”
Bowles was not happy with the question at all.
“Well, 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,” Bowles replied a bit impatiently. “I think the minute you guys stop making a big deal about it, everybody else will as well.”
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