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CAMPOS: Affirmative inaction

Published September 18, 2007 at midnight

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I saw two football games this weekend, one live and one on TV, that each reminded me of what a complex issue affirmative action always is.

The TV game featured the San Diego Chargers, and I was shocked to learn that San Diego's new coach is Norv Turner. Turner has compiled a horrible record in a decade-long stint as an NFL head coach, but he keeps getting hired for some incomprehensible reason (San Diego is his third NFL head coaching position).

My guess is that Turner is one of those people who interviews well, and makes the men who run NFL franchises very comfortable with the idea of hiring such a personable and intelligent fellow as himself.

Either that, or he has a bunch of compromising photos of very important people in a safe somewhere.

The game I attended in person featured the Notre Dame Fighting Irish, led by their legendary coach Charlie Weis. What makes Weis legendary (besides in his own mind) is that he has managed to become one of the two highest-paid coaches in college football, while transforming Notre Dame into the worst major college football team in the nation.

Weis, who was hired with a very thin résumé for the position, leveraged a bunch of wins over bad teams into a 10-year, $30 million contract extension, despite the fact that he has never won a game against a good opponent. Notre Dame has now lost five games in a row, all by more than three touchdowns - a sustained record of ineptitude unmatched in the proud history of Notre Dame football.

What does any of this have to do with affirmative action? In the case of Turner's brilliant career, his curriculum vitae is Exhibit A if you're thinking the NFL should require its teams to interview at least one African-American candidate before deciding it would be a good idea to hire Norv Turner again.

As for Weis, my friend JJ explains why the different treatment given to Weis and his predecessor at Notre Dame, Ty Willingham (who is black), is an illustration of why race still matters:

"Look," he says, "why did the white guy get the 10-year contract extension in the first place? As I recall, there was plenty of excitement after Willingham's first year, too - maybe ND's athletic director sent him a nice fruit basket.

"I'm not saying ND's AD and president are sitting there saying, 'Well, Weis sucks, but he's white, let's give him another chance.' Obviously that's not what's happening.

"But I do think there's plenty of institutional racism, and this is a good case. Weis isn't getting another chance because ND's administration is overtly racist, it's because everyone at ND is just more inclined to think highly of Weis and poorly of Willingham.

"There might have been plenty of reasons to think Willingham wasn't the right guy - I'd have fired him too - but the fact is that there's just no reason in the world to think Weis is a superstar coach or ever will be. He was a risky hire to start with, a guy with a mediocre track record as a coordinator and no experience whatsoever with either being the head of an organization or with college football at all. By the way, a black guy with that résumé would have no possible chance of being hired at ND, but that's neither here nor there.

"(Florida coach) Urban Meyer could start a college football program from scratch and it'd be better than this by year three. If you've ever been routed five times in a row, under any circumstances, you're not a superstar coach, period. Occam's razor has spoken - the most likely explanation for the sheer awfulness of this team is that Weis is simply a bad college football coach.

"But Weis gets another chance, while Willingham gets the ax. One (Weis) is laughably unproven, one (Willingham) has been successful elsewhere. One's white, one's black."

Paul Campos

"I do think there's plenty of institutional racism, and this is a good case."

Paul Campos is a professor of law at the University of Colorado. He can be reached at .