Black coaches matter in the renewed XFL

The Thursday Thoughts

The renewed XFL

In 2023, the XFL will return to playing professional football and unlike its prior iteration, the league will have an affiliation with the NFL that could help to keep it afloat!

Now, the XFL will not be a feeder or minor league for the NFL, per se, but according to principal owner (football/wrestling star turned Hollywood mogul) Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson, the league will test out new rules and concepts that could be adopted by the NFL. 

Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson

What stands out about the return of the XFL next year, and even the USFL this spring, is that both offer former college football players new avenues to continue their careers! This will include stars that played at HBCU's or other FCS, Division II, Division III, or NAIA schools who may not get an initial shot at the NFL; invariably, those who perform well in both the XFL (and USFL) may get chances to make it in the NFL, too. 

But what really excites me about the XFL is that of the eight future coaches that were named this week, four are Black men! Those who have followed my writings for some time will already know that one of my lingering beefs with the NFL is its perpetual struggle to promote talented Black coaches, many of whom were stars during their collegiate or NFL playing careers, but now find themselves routinely passed over by the “big” League.

So, without further delay, the newly named coaches include:

Coach Reggie Barlow

Reggie Barlow joins the league from Virginia State University, where he spent the past six seasons as Head Coach. After playing collegiate football for Alabama State University, he was selected in the fourth round of the 1996 NFL Draft by the Jacksonville Jaguars. Barlow also played for the Oakland Raiders and the Super Bowl XXXVII Champion Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

Coach Anthony Becht

Anthony Becht joins the league from Wiregrass Ranch High School, where he was the school’s offensive coordinator. A 12-year NFL veteran who was selected 27th overall by the New York Jets in the 2000 draft, Becht played for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, St. Louis Rams, Arizona Cardinals, and Kansas City Chiefs before retiring from the game.

Coach Terrell Buckley

Terrell Buckley's most recent coaching stint was at the University of Mississippi (Ole Miss), where he spent two years as the cornerbacks coach. A two-time consensus All-American cornerback at Florida State University, and winner of the Jim Thorpe Award for the nation's best defensive back, “T-Buck” went on to become a 13-year NFL veteran and Super Bowl XXXVI Champion after being selected fifth overall by the Green Bay Packers in the 1992 draft. Buck also played for the Miami Dolphins, Denver Broncos, New England Patriots, New York Jets, and New York Giants.

Coach Jim Haslett

Jim Haslett joins the league from the Tennessee Titans, where he spent two seasons as the inside linebackers coach. Over his 30+ year career, he has coached at the collegiate and professional levels with Penn State, the University of Buffalo, Cincinnati Bengals, Washington Redskins, St. Louis Rams, New Orleans Saints, Pittsburgh Steelers, and Los Angeles Raiders. Haslett also coached the Florida Tuskers of the United Football League and the Sacramento Surge of the World League of American Football.

Coach Wade Phillips

Wade Phillips has spent the past three seasons as the defensive coordinator of the Los Angeles Rams. Over his 40-year career, he has coached at the collegiate and professional levels at Oklahoma State University, the University of Kansas, the Houston Oilers, New Orleans Saints, Philadelphia Eagles, Denver Broncos, Buffalo Bills, Atlanta Falcons, San Diego Chargers, Dallas Cowboys, and Houston Texans.

Coach Bob Stoops

Bob Stoops rejoins the league from his position as Head Coach of the Renegades during the Covid shortened 2020 XFL inaugural season. Stoops was defensive coordinator during the University of Florida's 1996 national championship winning year, and went on to lead the University of Oklahoma (1999-2016) football team, where he won a national championship in 2000.

Coach Hines Ward

Hines Ward joins the league from Florida Atlantic University where he most recently was the wide receivers coach under Willie Taggart. Ward was selected in the third round by the Pittsburgh Steelers out of the University of Georgia in the 1998 NFL Draft, and he spent the next 13 years rewriting the Steelers record books—while winning two Super Bowls.

Coach Rod Woodson

Rod Woodson joins the league after serving as an analyst for NFL Network, the Big Ten Network and Westwood One. Woodson was a 17-year NFL veteran and three-time Super Bowl Champion after being drafted 10th overall by the Pittsburgh Steelers in the 1987 NFL Draft; he finished his career playing for the San Francisco 49ers, Baltimore Ravens, and Oakland Raiders. Woodson is a member of both the College and NFL Halls of Fame.

Indeed, with such a mix of talented coaches who understand the game in all facets, and an owner in "The Rock" Johnson who gets the big picture as well, I will be watching and supporting the renewed XFL with great interest!

The Spoils of War

As a student of history, I was not in the least bit surprised to learn that Russian soldiers stand accused of mass acts of rape in Ukraine since invading their neighbor this past February. While most militaries from time immemorial have committed atrocities, in the modern era, today's Russian soldiers are behaving quite similarly to their Soviet forebears during World War II. 

As Red Army units under the command of Marshal Georgy Zhukov pushed their Nazi invaders back into Germany during the last two years of the war (1943-45), Soviet soldiers were not just eager to kill Germans soldiers for military purposes, but many gang raped German girls and women, ranging in age from eight to eighty—including nuns in convents—to exact revenge for their collective suffering under the Nazi blitz of 1941 (and subsequent territorial occupation).

Kira Rudyk, a member of the Ukrainian Parliament, told reporters this week that "Rape is used as a tool of war in Ukraine to break our spirits, to humiliate us and to show us that we can be helpless to protect our women and children and their bodies."

Rudyk's words reveal to the world that today’s Russian troops are very much like their brutish Soviet ancestors; here's hoping that when the hostilities end, that the Russian rapists and commanders that are responsible for such barbaric acts are held to full account in war crimes tribunals!

Another day, another idiotic Republican remark

I don't know whether there are some asinine talking points circulating among Republican political leaders, but I am beyond sick and tired of hearing or reading these dumb (and stubborn) conservatives making false equivalences (or shallow references) to the Holocaust, Slavery, or any other period in world history where one group of people were treated inhumanely by another. 

The latest deplorable example hails from Tennessee, where Republican State Sen. Frank Nicely lauded none other than Adolf Hitler, the World War II era German dictator whose "Final Solution" led to the mass murder of 10 million Jews and Roma in Europe.

In a speech supposedly designed to encourage the homeless, Sen. Nicely remarked, “(Adolf) Hitler decided to live on the streets for a while. So for two years, Hitler lived on the streets and practiced oratory and his body language and how to connect with the masses, and then went on to lead a life that got him into history books."

Adolf Hitler observes SS troopers with the chief architect of the Holocaust, SS leader Heinrich Himmler (left)

No, no, no, Sen. Nicely, there are some thoughts that you shouldn't ever think—let alone say or write; it is wholly inappropriate to give a mass murderer like Hitler any positive consideration for anything! But I'm not surprised when considering that men and women like Nicely still believe the false narrative that American slavery was a net positive for my Black ancestors who they foolishly conclude lived better and had greater advantages for having been brought to toil and die here in America, then had they been left alone in Africa. 

What's worse is that with the incessant Republican attacks on teaching real history, far too many GOP leaders know that foolish remarks such as Sen. Nicely's will never compel the "Know Nothings" to cancel them for their wanton indifference to the barbarities that were committed by Hitler and his minions abroad, or Gen. Nathan Bedford Forrest and his Confederate and KKK cronies here in the States. 

Lest we forget…

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