On Thursday night, Notre Dame eked out a 27-24 win over Penn State in the Orange Bowl, setting the Fighting Irish up to attempt to claim their first national title since 1988. The team was led by its head coach, Marcus Freeman, who has become quite a superstar in the college football world lately. He’s a class act and comes across as a pretty decent human in general, something even his opponents recognize (heck, he’s the reason my Georgia Bulldogs aren’t in the playoffs), and he’s obviously a great coach. The entire nation has celebrated Freeman for both of these accomplishments.
Well, the entire nation except ESPN. All the sports network seems to see is his race.
Ever since it was determined that Freeman or Penn State head coach James Franklin would be one of the two coaches in the championship game, ESPN has been beside itself, breathlessly reporting about this idea of “making history.” For the first time, a black man would coach a team in the College Football Playoff National Championship.
Fair enough. As I reported last month, it is historically significant, but it shouldn’t overshadow the accomplishments this man has achieved as an individual. But ESPN just won’t give it up. As soon as Notre Dame got the win last night, the network’s sideline reporter Molly McGrath interviewed Freeman and led with this question: “…you are the first black head coach to go to a national championship game in college football… how much does this mean to you?”
Freeman, who has already addressed this topic and seemed to think it was important but not as important as the sports media wants to make it, took some time to respond before saying, “I’ve said this before — I don’t ever want to take attention away from the team. It is an honor, and I hope all coaches, minorities, black, Asian, white — it doesn’t matter — great people continue to get opportunities to lead young men like this. But this ain’t about me. This is about us. And we’re gonna celebrate what we’ve done because it’s something special.”
Hellbound and Down 