The Indianapolis Colts made a somewhat surprising move on Monday when they fired their head coach, Frank Reich.
The Colts, fresh off an anemic 26-3 loss to the New England Patriots on Sunday, made the decision shortly thereafter and announced it Monday morning:
The Indianapolis Colts have parted ways with head coach Frank Reich.
— Indianapolis Colts (@Colts) November 7, 2022
Reich, 61, has presided over the Colts since 2018. He finished his tenure in Indy with a record of 40-33-1. He never won more than 11 games in a season but also never lost more than nine games. If “aggressively average” is a desirable coaching trait, then Reich may be elite in that regard.
Naturally, an NFL team cannot be without a head coach. Given that, it was little surprise that the Colts moved swiftly to replace Reich, and they chose a familiar fan favorite: Jeff Saturday.
We have named Jeff Saturday interim head coach.
— Indianapolis Colts (@Colts) November 7, 2022
Saturday was an undrafted rookie who, after a short practice squad stint with the Baltimore Ravens, went on to become a veritable star offensive lineman for the Colts. He was the starting center on the Indianapolis team that won Super Bowl XLI. Saturday also earned a pair of first-team All-Pro awards as well as a pair of second-team All-Pro honors and was a six-time Pro Bowler.
He was inducted into the Colts Ring of Honor in 2015.
This is all to say: Saturday was a legit player.
However, there are some legitimate criticisms about the hire.
Saturday has zero experience as a football coach at the college or pro level. He did coach high school football from 2017 to 2020, but as anyone who has ever played football can tell you, high school is an entirely different animal from college, which is an entirely different animal from the pros.
He also wasn’t an internal promotion, which is very odd for an interim head coach hire. Typically, when a coach gets fired midseason, the assistant coach or coordinator with the most head coaching experience or time on the team will take the interim reins. Having familiarity with the team is an obvious plus.
Saturday was nothing more than a “consultant” for the Colts at the time of his hire.
Those are fair criticisms.
You know what’s not a fair criticism? Crying racism about the Saturday hire.
And yet, predictably, the usual talking heads came out to whine about an (and this can’t be stressed enough) interim coaching hire.
Here’s noted racist Jemele Hill chiming in, because it’s physically impossible for her not to see racism in everyday mundane events:
I like Jeff Saturday and enjoyed working with him at ESPN. This is not a critique of him, but rather a NFL system that constantly moves the goalposts for white coaches, but holds Black coaches to tighter standards. A Black coach likely would never be in Jeff’s position.
— Jemele Hill (@jemelehill) November 7, 2022
Ian Rapaport, an official NFL reporter, for crying out loud, reported that minority coaching candidates “no doubt” have “noted” the Saturday hire:
From NFL Now: The #Colts hire Jeff Saturday as their interim coach, a move that no doubt highly qualified candidates who are minorities have noted. pic.twitter.com/BU0RgY35LX
— Ian Rapoport (@RapSheet) November 7, 2022
Here’s a reporter and alumna from the University of North Carolina (Saturday’s alma mater) making things about race again:
No disrespect to Jeff Saturday, and of course I love to see Tar Heels succeed… but really? How? This feels like a “we’ve got nothing to lose” hire.
And not to make everything about race, but some things are about race. Minorities NEVER get the “we’ve got nothing to lose” jobs. https://t.co/bveKgIItSJ
— Simone Scott (@Simone_Scott) November 7, 2022
Mike Florio’s ProFootballTalk whined on Twitter that this hire was in violation of the “Rooney Rule“:
We’ve asked the league whether the hiring of an interim coach from beyond the current staff requires compliance with the Rooney Rule. At one point, it did. There’s no reason to think that has changed over time.
— ProFootballTalk (@ProFootballTalk) November 7, 2022
Of note, as The Athletic noted, Florio’s team is just flat-out wrong in that regard. Interim coaching hires do not have to comply with the Rooney Rule.
Again, there are certainly valid criticisms about the Saturday hire. But to paint this as some racially motivated misdeed is irresponsible and flat-out wrong.
Occam’s razor is the scientific and philosophical rule that (in greatly simplified terms) states that the simplest of competing theories is often the correct one.
Well, here are the two competing theories on the Saturday hire:
Do you think the Colts are a racist organization?
Yes: 8% (3 Votes)
No: 92% (34 Votes)
1. The Colts are a racist organization with a racist owner that is intentionally hiring Saturday so it can violate the Rooney Rule down the road when it comes time to find a permanent head coach. In fact, the Colts are so racist, that they have to violently grit their teeth as they promote some of their top players, such as All-Pro linebacker Shaq Leonard and All-Pro running back Jonathan Taylor.
2. The Colts are waving the white flag on the season, accepting that this isn’t their year. In order to drum up some short-term interest in a lost season, they hired a beloved fan-favorite player from yesteryear.
Seems like an obvious choice.
