Kick Out the Sports!
by Bob Cook

Bob Cook's weekly ruminations on sports appear Mondays in Flak.

Despite the presence of Tony Dungy, Marvin Lewis and Lovie Smith in this year's NFL playoffs, so far the offseason head coaching hiring in the NFL has been, with the exception of Herman Edwards moving from the New York Jets to Kansas City, whites only. Advocates for more minority hiring can't help but notice that while Cleveland Browns head coach Romeo Crennel needed 35 years of football experience before being offered the job, Crennel's successor as New England defensive coordinator, Eric Mangini, needed 34 years of existence on this spaceship Earth before being offered the New York Jets' head coaching job.

But this column is not going to dwell on the black-white issues of NFL coaching. That's because there's another minority whose presence and impact in pro — and college — football leaves it sorely underrepresented in the coaching ranks. That group is Polynesians.

More college football programs are extending their hands to the Pacific Islands. They're declaring, give me your Samoans, your Tongans, your native Hawaiians yearning to bash somebody's head in while they go to college for free. Hundreds of Pacific Islanders, whether native, or born and raised on the US mainland, are taking the field on Saturdays — or Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Thursdays or Fridays, depending on whether they play for one of those mid-major schools desperate to get on TV.

Reader Email "The impression if you talk to many in the three Polynesian communites was that they like Polys to be recruiters and play ball — but not be the head coach." More ›

The NFL's first Polynesian — the Washington Redskins' Al Lolotai of Samoa — came to the league in 1945, and each year there are about 25 to 35 on league rosters, mostly playing defensive line, linebacker or tight end, thanks to their generally bulky frames. The most prominent defensive players in the Super Bowl — Seattle's Lofa Tatupu and Pittsburgh's Troy Polamalu — are of Samoan descent.

And yet there hasn't been an NCAA Division I-A head coach of Polynesian descent since Larry Price left the University of Hawaii to become Honolulu radio's No. 1 morning man after the 1976 season. The NFL has never had a Polynesian head coach. Some college programs — notably Brigham Young University — have employed Polynesian assistants, but as much as anything, their job is to recruit Polynesians to play.

What's the matter, athletic directors and general managers? What are you so afraid of? Sure, you love to have Polynesians play for you, but coach? Do you think they're going to wear a lava lava on the sideline or something?

The number of Polynesian players took off in the 1970s — partly because of prominent pro and college players such as Manu Tuiasosopo, Mosi Tatupu (Lofa's father) and Jack "The Throwin' Samoan" Thompson, and partly because of modernization efforts for American Samoa begun under the Kennedy administration that included the introduction of football. Naturally, you'd think by now there would be a large pool of coaches to choose from.

In fact, there are.

Reader Email "You overlooked a coach of Samoan origin who has ample coaching experience in the pro ranks..." More ›

At least two NFL teams have Polynesian assistants. Tennessee offensive coordinator Norm Chow, a native Hawaiian, held a similar position for USC's recent national championship teams and, for 23 years at BYU, turning the school into Quarterback U. with future pro players Gifford Nielsen, Marc Wilson, Jim McMahon, Steve Young, the 1984 national champions' Robbie Bosco and Heisman Trophy winner Ty Detmer. Kennedy Pola, Troy Polamalu's uncle, just finished his first year as Jacksonville's running-backs coach. He kept Fred Taylor's hamstring in one piece, no mean feat.

The college ranks have a small but very capable cadre of Polynesian assistants. The man considered most likely to ascend to head coach (athletic directors and overly white boosters willing) is University of Nevada-Las Vegas offensive line coach Keith Uperesa, who was head coach in 1995-96 for Snow College, a two-year school in Utah. One might think Duane Akina, co-defensive coordinator at Texas, might get some sniffs coming off a national championship year.

One might be wrong. For whatever reason, the head coaching ranks are off-limits to Polynesians. Just ask Brian Cabral. Colorado's linebackers coach, who was interim head coach in 2004 when Gary Barnett was suspended during an investigation into a team recruiting and sex scandal, got passed over for the head job at Northern Colorado, which next season begins play in Division I.

Now I'm not going to come out and say the nation's athletic directors and general managers are blatantly anti-Polynesian. After all, most Americans do not grow up thinking ill or creating deep-seated stereotypes about Polynesians, unless a charity "Hawaiian Night" party or the design of a tiki bar is involved. Most of the country does not have groups organized to guard the borders against illegal Tongans.

Given this lack of enmity, perhaps in the whole black-white argument over coaches, a Polynesian would be the perfect way to settle it. It takes only one brave soul to break down the lava lava barrier.

E-mail Bob Cook at bobc@flakmag.com.