It's a good thing that Ward Connerly doesn't have anything to do with running the NFL. If he did, Lovie Smith and Tony Dungy wouldn't be making history as the first two Blacks coaching in the Super Bowl. Former University of California Regent Connerly is the nation's number one opponent of Affirmative Action; he's sponsored ballot measures to outlaw Affirmative Action programs here in California, Texas, Washington and most recently, in Michigan, where a Connerly sponsored ballot measure overturned a U.S. Supreme Court decision permitting Affirmative Action at the University of Michigan.

Connerly argues that Affirmative Action is immoral because it violates the spirit of the nation's civil rights laws and the philosophy of Dr. King's dream of a color blind society where race plays no factor in job hiring, promotions or university admissions and where those decisions are based only on a person's education, experience and qualifications. Connerly views the world from tunnel vision goggles where he either doesn't see or ignores the discrimination that still exists in American society.

After Art Shell, Denny Green and Ray Rhodes were hired as the NFL's first Black head coaches in the early 90s, there was a period of almost a decade where only two Blacks were hired as head coaches despite numerous head coach openings.

Many of the current Black coaches in the NFL attribute former 49ers head coach Bill Walsh's summer boot camp program for Black and Hispanic assistant football coaches as instrumental as preparing them for top NFL and Division NCAA head coaching jobs. Walsh has long been a proponent of utilizing Affirmative Action to increase the number of Black NFL head coaches, with Walsh assistants Green and Rhodes two of the first three Black NFL coaches, and Green being one of the first NCAA Black football head coaches. Despite Walsh's efforts, NFL owners seemed content to hire White coaches fired from other pro teams, White college head coaches or White assistant coaches rather than consider the many qualified Black assistant coaches around the league and in the college ranks.

The lack of Black NFL coaches was brought to the attention of the late attorney Johnny Cochran Jr, who threatened to file a lawsuit against the NFL for not giving Black assistant coaches an opportunity to compete for head coaching positions. That threat inspired the NFL to come up with the "Rooney Rule" that required NFL teams to interview at least one non white person whenever a head coaching position became available. When the NFL instituted the Rooney Rule in 2002, the policy was denounced by Connerly and other Affirmative Action critics. In a 2003 article Connerly accused the NFL of "caving in to the shakedown-artists and diversity-mongers attempting to bring racial hiring "initiatives" (read: quotas) to the game."

When the Rooney Rule was implemented in 2002 Dungy and Herman Edwards were the only Black NFL head coaches. This past season seven African Americans were head coaches of NFL teams, and despite the the firing of Raiders head coach Art Shell and Phoenix coach Denny Green, there will be at least six Black head coaches in 2007 with Monday's hiring of new Pittsburgh Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin. The number of Black coaches could reach seven if an African Americans is selected to replace Bill Parcells, who Monday announced his retirement as Dallas Cowboys head coach..

With the exception of Shell and Green, how have Black coaches done since the implementation of the Rooney Rule? Black coaches hired since 2003 have collectively an 80 percent winning record and have put their teams in playoff contention two years after being hired head coach.

Compared the NFL's post Rooney Rule record of Black coaches to the NCAA, which has no Rooney rule or other mandatory programs to increase diversity in the top coaching ranks. The NCAA only had five Black head coaches last season out of the 119 Division I-A this past season. NCAA President Miles Brand says a Rooney Rule would be unfeasible for college football because not only would such a rule remove a university's hiring autonomy, it could also create a conflict with states that have anti-Affirmative Action programs.

Critics of both the NFL and the NCAA football programs say the systems are steeped in the good ol' boy network where personal relationships are key factors in hiring and promotions. For decades, White head coaches were part of the network of owners and general mangers who make head coaching decision, but most Black assistant coaches didn't have that access and were thus shut out of the hiring process. The Rooney Rule required the NFL to bring at least one African American to the table to showcase his talents and ideals to NFL owners and general managers.

That's what Affirmative Action is all about. Making an effort to insure that non-Whites traditionally excluded or discouraged from oppoturnities know that those opportunnities exist and to make sure that they get a chance to prove they have the experience, skills and education to do the job, and do it well.

With Ward Connerly talking about expanding his anti-Affirmative Action crusade to up to ten more states, the success of Dungy, Smith and other African Americans hired after the NFL made a proactive move to diversity its head coaching ranks should put to rest claims that Affirmative Action benefits the unqualified and hurts the concept of meritocitiy.