Did anyone ever think that love-fest with Croom...

[BCash]

and his "great character and high integrity" was sort of racist in itself? Everyone went on and on about how he was a great man, had high integrity and character etc., as if that is odd for an African-American male. People talked about his character as if they were surprised a black man could be such a good person and role model.
On top of that, what it created was a bunch of middle-aged white guys on message boards that would preface every statement about Croom with "Croom is a great man" or "I respect Crooms incredible integrity, but...." just so they wouldn't seem racist.

 

[Porkchop.sixpack]

find a post somewhere on here from me about the soft racisim of low expectations.

 

[rowdydog]

chrisrockku

 

[FlabLoser]

[No message]

 

[Turd Fergusondawg]

Those types of statements about Croom being "well spoken" and upstanding, etc., all implied that it was unusual for a black man, which isn't the case. But the whole "maroon is the only color that matters" bit contradicted the mood at the time completely: it was all about color.

For that matter, giving him more than five years to turn things around is more of those same low expectations--as others have noted, any white coach would've been canned in a shorter time. Just saying.

I don't recall who the other candidates for the job were, but given the impending NCAA sanctions, LT made a political hire to soften the blow. Wasn't that even the consensus opinion in 03?

I don't buy that Croom was literally the only guy who'd take it.

If nothing else, the fact that he'd been out of the college game for <span style="font-weight: bold;">17 years</span> and had never been a successful coordinator should've put him behind almost any other viable college coach who was interested.

 

[thatsbaseball]

Exactly who was the statement/motto aimed at and why was it needed.

 

[FlabLoser]

Exactly who was the statement/motto aimed at and why was it needed.

Ironically, it was Croom's statement to deflect all the coaching discussion from being about color. Croom clearly wanted his era to be about MSU instead of about race. And I think he handled that as well as it could have been handled.

 

[DerHntr]

he did deflect it pretty well except for that. and unfortunately when he got canned he had to answer a bunch of questions from reporters about it again.</p>

 

[thatsbaseball]

nm

 

[Turd Fergusondawg]

Nor tell everybody to show up wearing them for the first couple of years he was there.

I even remember him trying to downplay being the "first African American Head Coach in the SEC" in interviews.

It sure as hell mattered to everybody else, though.

 

[UpTheMiddlex3Punt]

I thought calling Croom a man of character was kind of like saying a girl has a great personality.

 

[DerHntr]

the nail on the head

 

[MagnoliaHunter]

that was funny.