How football players can really change the game.

SO I was watching the movie 'The Express' yesterday. It's a touching sports movie about Ernie Davis the first black man to win the Heisman Trophy. I guess you could think of him as the Jackie Robinson of football. The movie has that 'Remember the Titans' sort of feel that makes you want to call up your white friends and invite them fishing. This blog isn't a movie review, however the movie got me to thinking, and whether my thoughts were original are not thats what I wrote about...

People always accuse my generation (generation X) of being lazy, unappreciative, and brainwashed. And we always defend ourselves by saying we're the generation that created the internet, perfected the cellphone and elected the first black president. Both are interesting arguments but I think the old timers that say we never fight for anything or work hard have a compelling point. I can't imagine participating in protests that would end with vicious police dogs and water hoses on full blast. I can't imagine walking alongside the leaders of a movement like MLK or Malcom X. In fact, since the legends of the civil rights movement the black community hasn't had any memorable leaders. My peers will be quick to name a couple of rappers that inspire black people to "stay on they hustle" but I believe that's why we as a people haven't advanced since the '60s. Sure there are plenty of black actors, doctors, lawyers, and college graduates but those are individual accomplishments. As a community things aren't going to well; AIDS and HIV are infesting our women, the black-white test score gap is at an all-time high, and the only thing dying faster than black men is the black family. (I really hate being the barer of bad news)
So how do we solve this? You cant tackle it all in one day, but you have to start somewhere and why not start where blacks are the best at...football.

You may be thinking, "football? why football?" and your right our emphasis on success through sports has curtailed our potential for success in the classroom but hear me out. I'm sure it's no surprise to you that 46.1% of college football players are black. The other 54.9 is a bunch of other races or mixed people. So blacks make up basically half of college football but there are only 4 black head coaches out of 119 teams? That don't even sound right. Where dey do dat at? America the land of the free and equal opportunity. It honestly doesn't make logical sense. Blacks make up most of college football and the NFL so it's not far fetched to say that blacks are some of the best football players. If we can teach ourselves to play it and we can teach our sons to play it, why won't the NCAA hire more black coaches? It's puzzling. I must say there are a few myths out there "explaining" why black coaches don't get hired. One of them is the Schmooze factor . This is the belief among college presidents and athletic directors that black head coaches can't charm the alums and the predominantly white media, raise the money for new facilities and, otherwise, make boosters comfortable. However, this isn't true, Barack Obama who I think is a black guy, raised millions of dollars in his campaign for the presidency- a race which is basically to see who can raise the most money and who the media is most fond of.
Obviously the Schmooze factor is incorrect.
Another myth is the Lure of the NFL. This is the belief that all the good black college coaches take their talent straight to the NFL and the big bucks and don't waste their time trying to coach college. That is just completely unbelievable. I know plenty of black dudes that need a job. Why would they pass up a great job like being a college coach? And contrary to popular belief thousands of great college football players graduate every year but don't go to the NFL. They could/should become a protege of a coach or an offensive/defensive coordinator so one day they could get paid to hold the big whistle, but it hardly happens.
This isn't a knock against white coaches, I know plenty of white men that know the game like the back of their hands, all I'm saying is if race doesn't matter when it comes to playing the sport why does it matter for coaches? I go to the University of Maryland and when our football team walks into the diner it looks like a free Gucci Mane concert just let out. So wouldn't it make more since to have a coach who knows who Gucci Mane is instead of one who listens to Kenny G? Even the white guys on the team act/talk black (yall kno wat i mean) so I'm sure they wouldn't have problems with a black coach.
So while I was watching the movie it came to me, the black community can finally kill two birds (or 2 dogs in Michael Vick's case) with one stone. We can have black coaches and create unity between our people like during the civil rights era. How can we do this? Boycott college football. If black players make up nearly have of college football imagine if on the first week of the season they all said "We're not playing a game this season until the NCAA vows to put more coaches that look like me in this league." Its called a strike. The NBA had one before where the players stopped playing until they received better benefits from the owners. The NHL recently had one for the exact same reason. Even the writers of movies and television shows had a strike for more money, I think it's time for black athletes. College football is a cash cow generating billions annually in merchandise, ticket sales, and television programming. So if the black college athletes (and other races who can participate white, asian, etc.) decide to hit the NCAA where it hurts, there pockets, they could really see some immediate change in the game around them.
A big reason that this hasn't happened already is that the players are fed the idea that they're all going to play in the NFL and be rich and get groupies so why jeopardize all that for anyone. They also are told that the university gave them a scholarship to do one thing and that is play football, so if you decide to do anything else you'll be dealt with. This is all true, but anything worth having is also worth a big risk. I guess that easy for me to say since the closest I get to college football is on XBOX....but hey, i'm just saying.

P.S. to all my ladies out there that go to my school and are groupies for the football team let them read this while you're cleaning they're underwear (yall know Im just playin)but seriously let them read it.