EDITORIAL ONE FOR THE AGES.IT'S fitting that when this year's Super Bowl is played in February -- Black History Month -- the world will watch history in the making. The two head coaches in this year's big game -- the Chicago Bears' Lovie Smith Lovie Lee Smith (born May 8, 1958 in Gladewater, Texas) is the head coach of the Chicago Bears professional football team of the NFL. Smith narrowly became the first African American coach to lead a team to the Super Bowl, only hours before Tony Dungy of the Indianapolis Colts and the Indianapolis Colts' Tony Dungy Anthony Kevin "Tony" Dungy (born October 6, 1955) is a former professional American football player and the current head coach of the Indianapolis Colts of the National Football League. Prior to that, between 1996 and 2001, he was the head coach of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. -- are both African-Americans. And Super Bowl XLI Super Bowl XLI was the 41st championship game of the modern National Football League (NFL). The American football game was played on February 4 2007 at Dolphin Stadium in Miami Gardens, Florida, a suburb of Miami, following the 2006 regular season. Kickoff was at 6:27 p.m. marks the first time for one, let alone two, African-Americans to coach in the big game. It's amazing to think that only a half-century or so ago Jackie Robinson Noun 1. Jackie Robinson - United States baseball player; first Black to play in the major leagues (1919-1972) Jack Roosevelt Robinson, Robinson risked his life crossing the color line in professional sports. And for decades, even when blacks were prominent as players in the National Football League, the racist myth persisted that blacks weren't up to the challenge of coaching. Coaches Dungy and Smith have shattered that myth, leading the two best teams in the game to the biggest game of them all -- a welcome sign of great progress. |
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