Who's the first to the race card?

It's espn.com, naturally, as they trot out Richard Lapchick to bemoan the firing of Willingham as coach of Notre Dame. Lapchick has the laughable title of "Director of the University of Central Florida's Institute for Diversity and Ethics in Sport," and he writes an occasional column for espn.com so that the latter can stay in the good graces of Jesse Jackson Inc. The arguments he sets forth in his column for why "this might be the saddest day in the history of college football" are too old and tired for a point-by-point rebuttal. Although I would like to respond to his suggestion that "the chances of African-American football coaches getting Division I-A jobs have been all but shut down now" with an exceedingly pedestrian prediction: Ty Willingham will be offered a Division I-A job some time in the next year.

I am a fan of Ty Willingham. Big time. Love the guy. I think that he should have been given at least another year. And Notre Dame's schedule, year in and year out, is absolutely ridiculous. One of the reasons I like Ty so much is that he stands for the pursuit of excellence, no excuses. Where does race enter into that? Nowhere. I suspect that Willingham himself would be disgusted by Lapchick's article and its insinuation that Willingham should have been left in because he is black. No, Willingham should have been left in because he is a great coach, and oftentimes great coaches need time to succeed. But I search Lapchick's article in vain for any praise of Willingham as a person or a coach.

Lapchick also says, "In 2002, White made the courageous decision to hire the best available coach for America's most prestigious football program. It was courageous because his choice was Willingham, who happens to be an African-American."

(I like that "happens to be" clause. The entire article is about the hiring of black coaches, and the man has the audacity to throw in a "happens to be".)

How was this decision courageous? As I recall, the whole world was falling all over themselves in their praise of Notre Dame for hiring a black coach. A 4-0 start that year was enough to land the Irish on the cover of Sports Illustrated. Did the KKK congregate outside White's home? Who, Mr. Lapchick, was opposed to this decision? I'd like to hear some names.

In reality, White's decision was, in fact, courageous, because he knew that he would catch the race-baiting heat that he is getting today if he ever had to make a difficult decision to fire the guy.