Buccaneers’ Todd Bowles on Black NFL head coaches: ‘We coach ball, we don’t look at color’

It’s not terribly surprising that Tampa Bay Buccaneers head coach Todd Bowles was asked about race in the lead-up to a clash with Mike Tomlin and the Pittsburgh Steelers. It is 2022, after all, and Bowles and Tomlin are two of the only four black head coaches in the NFL. 

They along with Steve Wilks, who just replaced Matt Rhule with the Carolina Panthers, and Lovie Smith of the Houston Texans make up a small fraternity within the NFL head coaching community, but is it really necessary to remind them of that fact every time they match up?

One reporter apparently thought so, but Bowles didn’t take the bait.

“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,” Bowles said, per ESPN.

“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.”

Of course — again because it’s 2022 and even sports media can’t help itself but to interject race or politics – the follow-up question to Bowles was about representation. Per ESPN, the phrasing of the question suggested that people who “look like them” and “grew up like them” could take inspiration from coaches like Bowles and Tomlin. 

Again, Bowles took exception.

“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 said. “I think the minute you guys stop making a big deal about it, everybody else will as well.”

Bowles better not hold his breath. The media, sports or not, isn’t going to “stop making a big deal about it” any time soon.