Conservatives Applaud Bucs Coach Todd Bowles Comments Ripping ESPN Reporter’s Race Question

Tampa Bay Buccaneers head coach Todd Bowles was praised by conservatives after scolding the media for “making a big deal” about race when a White reporter from ESPN pressed him about diversity. 

“The minute you guys stop making a big deal about it, everybody else will as well,” Bowles said. 

Bowles, who is Black, was taking questions from the press on Wednesday ahead of the Buccaneers’ upcoming game against the Pittsburgh Steelers. Instead of asking about football, one reporter pointed out that the Steelers also have a Black coach.

Tampa Bay Buccaneers head coach Todd Bowles was praised after scolding the media for “making a big deal” about race. (AP Photo/Chris O’Meara)

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“You and Mike Tomlin are the few Black head coaches in the league, I wonder what your relationship is like with him and your thoughts on Steve Wilks joining that,” a reporter asked. (Wilks was recently named the interim head coach for the Carolina Panthers to become the fourth current Black NFL head coach. Lovie Smith of the Houston Texans is the other.)

Bowles said he has a very good relationship with Tomlin, but they don’t “look at what color we are” when their teams face off.

“I have a lot of very good White friends that coach in this league as well, and I don’t think it’s a big deal. As far as us coaching against each other, I think it’s normal. Wilks got an opportunity to do a good job, hopefully he does it, and we coach ball. We don’t look at color,” Bowles said. 

Head coach Mike Tomlin of the Pittsburgh Steelers coaches his team against the Cincinnati Bengals at Paul Brown Stadium in Cincinnati, Ohio, on Sept. 11, 2022. (Andy Lyons/Getty Images)

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ESPN’s Jenna Laine, who is White, pressed Bowles, asking if he “understands that representation matters” across the league.

“You have aspiring coaches and football players, they see you guys — they see someone that looks like them, maybe grew up like them,” Laine said. “That has to mean something.”

“When you say, ‘see you guys,’ and, ‘look like them,’ and ‘grew up like them,’ it means that we’re oddballs to begin with. And I think the minute you guys stop making a big deal about it, everybody else will as well,” Bowles said. 

OutKick founder Clay Travis blasted ESPN’s Laine for “lecturing” Bowles about race. 

“A white woman at ESPN telling a black NFL head coach why his race matters is a perfect distillation of the broken sports media culture ESPN has created. It’s all left wing identity politics and cancel culture there. Good for Todd Bowles for his answer,” Travis wrote.

“Good for Todd Bowles. ESPN offered the race-bait and he refused to take it,” OutKick’s Ian Miller added. “Bowles is entirely correct; endlessly pointing out the race of black head coaches makes their job about their skin color, not their performance… but that’s

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