This coach refused to play the race card.
Tampa Bay Buccaneers head coach Todd Bowles pushed back against a question framed around race in a Thursday news conference.
Bowles was asked about facing Pittsburgh Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin on Sunday. Tomlin and Bowles are both black.
A reporter asked Bowles about his relationship with Tomlin, describing Bowles and Tomlin as “two of the few black coaches” in the league.
“We don’t look at color.” Tampa Bay Bucs HC Todd Bowles asked about coaching against Mike Tomlin, another black HC:
“You say, ‘you guys,’ & ‘look like them’ […] means we’re oddballs to begin with. I think the minute you guys stop making a big deal about, everybody else will.” pic.twitter.com/5wPEud8CLP
— Breaking911 (@Breaking911) October 13, 2022
“I have a very good relationship with Tomlin. We don’t look at… what color we are when we coach against each other. We just know each other.”
“I have a lot of very good white friends who coach in this league as well, and I don’t think it’s a big deal, as far as us coaching against each other. It’s normal.”
Bowles’ response evidently wasn’t clear enough, as another member of the media continued to push the race angle in a follow-up question.
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“But you also understand that representation matters,” the off-screen reporter claimed, using Bowles and Tomlin as examples of black head coaches.
“Well, when you say they see ‘you guys’ and look like them and grow up like them, [it] means that we’re oddballs to begin with,” Bowles responded.
“I think the minute you guys stop making a big deal about it everybody else will, as well.”
Bowles’ answer didn’t exactly line up with the progressive tendency to view everything through the lens of race and ethnicity.
Fans pointed to Bowles’ answer as a masterclass in treating others as individuals, regardless of their racial identity.
Quote of the century. So spot on.
— Erik (@winefishdawg) October 13, 2022
Sports commentator Clay Travis speculated that Bowles would find himself a target of woke ideologues for the answer.
But then woke culture and victim ideology took over — which is the direct opposite of sports culture — and now Bowles will get attacked by the tiny minority of blue checks who don’t remotely represent sports culture & many will get notice to spout their talking points or else.
— Clay Travis (@ClayTravis) October 13, 2022
Bowles’ Bucs are slated to face Tomlin’s Steelers on Sunday.
