Whitlock: Baby-mama culture and Deion Sanders explain Eric Bieniemy’s failure to land a head coaching job

According to corporate media, one of the biggest stories at this year’s Super Bowl was the shared skin classification of the two quarterbacks, Patrick Mahomes and Jalen Hurts.

I use the word classification instead of color because Mahomes and Hurts do not share the same skin color. Classified as black, Mahomes is three or four shades lighter than Hurts because the Chiefs' quarterback is mixed race – half black and half white.

Regardless, you couldn’t tune into Super Bowl coverage on ESPN or Fox Sports without hearing about the historic clash between two black quarterbacks. Mainstream media outlets hailed the feat as a victory over white supremacy and anti-black discrimination. The prevailing wisdom states that the NFL discriminates against black men in the sport’s highest leadership positions – quarterback and head coach.

It’s not true. In its highest leadership positions, football discriminates against athletes developed in and scarred by baby-mama culture. This is a well-known fact. Deion Sanders, the NFL legend and now head coach at Colorado, inadvertently spelled this out last week on Rich Eisen’s popular podcast. Eisen asked Deion to explain what he looks for in a quarterback.

“We want smart, tough, fast, disciplined with character,” Sanders started out. “Quarterbacks are different. We want mother and father, dual parents. We want that kid to be a 3.5-plus GPA; he’s got to be smart. He can’t make bad decisions off the field. He has to be a leader of men. There are so many different attributes of what we look for. We would love a coach’s son. That’s what we look for in quarterbacks.”

Sanders can speak freely because he’s black. A white coach would be smart to avoid admitting this publicly.

But the truth is many young men are not getting leadership opportunities because of the decisions made by their parents. It has nothing to do with race. It has to do with foundational values. Young men disconnected from their fathers have emotional issues that limit their ability to lead. When 75% of black kids are being born to unwed mothers, it limits the opportunities for these children.

Corporate and social media did not make a big deal of Sanders’ honest remarks. Sanders’ comments were mostly ignored. Corporate media and social media influencers are incentivized to avoid uncomfortable truths. The top black broadcasters on any mainstream network know to blame any disparate outcome between black people and white people on racism. Their job is to convince black people that white people control their lives.

I could name names, but it’s unnecessary. It’s all of them on a mainstream platform, whether it’s a news or sports network. They’re paid distractions. They don’t want black people to connect the dots.

Let’s follow Deion’s dots. Deion rightly suggests that “leaders of men” are best developed in dual-parent homes or situations.

A head football coach would have to be considered a leader of men. Rather than blindly blame racist NFL owners for the fact there are only a handful of black NFL head coaches, why wouldn’t one of the talking heads at ESPN or Fox Sports ask whether the illegitimacy rate of black children contributes to the disparity?

I’m not picking on ESPN’s Louis Riddick, but he’s worked as an executive in the NFL. He knows (or should know) the kind of background profiles NFL teams use to find leaders. NFL Network journalists Jim Trotter and Steve Wyche, two guys I like and respect, have covered the league long enough to know what Deion Sanders expressed is true. Stephen A. Smith and Shannon Sharpe are paid to be characters and spit-stirrers on TV. They’re doing their jobs playing the race card. Most of the athletes on TV don’t know what they don’t know and have advanced degrees in Twitter logic.

Black America’s broken family structure explains the coaching and quarterback disparities far more than racism.

You would think ESPN’s black vanity website Andscape, which purports to cover the intersection of sports, race, and culture, would analyze the impact of single motherhood on black athletes. You would think Andscape would use Sanders’ comments as a jumping-off point for a bigger story.

But there’s no interest in truth. Obvious facts and trends are ignored to promote a narrative that white racism explains everything about black people.

The Houston Texans have hired three black coaches in a row, but the only reason Eric Bieniemy did not get the job is because of racism. Colts owner Jim Irsay, who previously hired Tony Dungy and Jim Caldwell as head coaches, signed Shane Steichen because of racism.

The narrative is a joke and a lie.

No different from the lie that Super Bowl LVII featured two “black” quarterbacks. The real similarity between Patrick Mahomes and Jalen Hurts is their two black dads.

Hurts’ parents are still married. His dad is a high school football coach. Mahomes’ dad divorced Patrick’s mother when Patrick was 11 years old. Patrick’s parents remained friends. Patrick and his father, according to media reports and appearances, remain close.

Countless studies show that the first five years of a child’s life are the most important. It is during this time that the “foundations for learning, health, and behavior” are established.

I would add my own twist to these studies. It’s the first five years and nine months. The nine months spent inside the mother’s womb are critical. Talking and reading to a child in the womb are critical. So is rubbing the belly of the mother. So is making sure the mother is in a stable, low-stress, supportive environment.

Parental neglect and irresponsibility do more to damage the future of a child than some random white dude who calls a black child “boy” on the playground or some racial hardship that a black child’s great-great-grandfather endured.

These statements aren’t remotely disputable or controversial.

Our worship of white people explains our commitment to improving them rather than improving ourselves.