Quote:
Originally posted by magicmike
A lot of job interviews are indeed based on intangibles, such as skin color or cultural differences. No one can deny that is a fact of life.
Personally I tend to believe that the person who has acquired or earned the power to hire for his organization ought to have wide latitude in making that decision, but I recognize and accept that too many people have abused that power too often, so now in America we aspire to and expect higher standards.
But your point is well taken. I do think that on paper Croom's experience seems objectively stronger and more relevant than Shula's, so Jackson at least appears to have a leg to stand on in this case. Is the University of Alabama's athletic department run by racists? I would like to think not, but I have no facts upon which to form an opinion one way or the other, and neither do most of the rest of you. Does Jackson believe the University of Alabama's athletic department is run by racists? Well, I don't know, but so far as what he's trying to accomplish I don't think it really matters.
I agree that Jackson takes foolish positions far too often for his constituents' own good, but you have to admit that he accomplishes something by taking actions like this one, in the sense that similarly situated decision makers in the future are forced to consider the ramifications of what they choose to do. So I think folks like Jackson and his supporters would say that yes, it does "help" to criticize one high profile program, to set an example others need to consider.
Anyway, does anyone else other than me think the University of Alabama should have been able to get someone a lot better than Mike Shula?
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Yeah. Mike Price.
Seriously though, I agree with Eck that it's very difficult to judge from one situation like this whether or not racism was involved. For me to come to that conclusion, I would need to see a definite pattern in Alabama's hiring of coaches in all sports over, say, the past five years. Unless it's totally obvious, like if Alabama interviewed Croom and the athletic department janitor, and chose the janitor, then I think there is a serious sample-size issue and it's very dangerous to throw around things like racism.