Aww man, their ruining the game. - Dallas Cowboys Forum

jay cee · 07-11-2004

Just joking, I thought it was an interesting article.

July 10, 2004, 8:51PM

NFL looking into use of diversity training
49ers success provides model for treating issue
By DAMON HACK
New York Times

It was the final minute of the final day of spring minicamp. The San Francisco 49ers wanted to go home.

Instead, team officials summoned the players to the meeting room at their Santa Clara, Calif., practice facility. The players sat down.

"Let’s get this thing done so we can get out of here," one player announced, loud enough to hear.

Ronnie Heard, a free safety, sank into his seat, not wanting to stay, either.

"My mind-set was, 'Oh, man, not another meeting, I want to go home,'" Heard recalled in a recent telephone interview. " 'I don’t want to do this. I don’t want to have anything to do with this.' "

For the next 150 minutes, two strangers presented the 49ers with a seminar on diversity, complete with a film from the 1970s where blue-eyed students were told to pick on brown-eyed students. One part of the seminar, which occurred last month, had the players call out the names of prominent members’ of society different races and sexual orientations.

Many 49ers, after initially resisting, remained seated long after the presentation ended.

"It was powerful," Heard said. "It broke up cliques and brought us together as a team."

Cedrick Wilson, a wide receiver, agreed.

"At first, a lot of the guys wanted to go home, but it was an awesome class," Wilson said. "You got a chance to meet and greet different guys on the team, guys you had met before but not really found out about what he and his family have gone through."

Some players said they wanted the meeting to remain a secret from the other NFL teams. The workshop, they said, might give them a competitive edge during the 2004 season.

That the 49ers submitted to the workshop at all resulted from two incidents.

In 2002, 49ers running back Garrison Hearst (who is no longer with the team) said in an interview with a Fresno Bee columnist that he never would accept a gay teammate, a comment for which Hearst later apologized.

Last February, Lindsy McLean, the team’s recently-retired head trainer, said in an interview with ESPN the Magazine that he is gay, which had been known inside the 49ers organization by many players, team officials, even reporters.

In the article, McLean said he had sometimes endured taunts and humiliation from players during his 24 years with the 49ers, including harassment from one player who would intermittently grab McLean in the training room and simulate a sex act while the rest of the players stood by.

After the article, team officials met with San Francisco’s Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender Advisory Committee. The idea of diversity training was born.

"We want everybody to be fans of the 49ers," said Guy McIntyre, the team’s player development director and a former 49ers offensive lineman who won Super Bowl rings following the 1984, 1988 and 1989 seasons.

"We can’t go around doing anything that is going to harm that relationship. The organization did the right thing. We’re setting a precedent in the league. It’s very diverse in many different ways, not just sexual orientation but in gender, ethnicity and culture, and we have to be respectful of that because we are growing."

Greg Aiello, an NFL spokesman, said in an interview last week that the league is exploring how to apply a diversity workshop, perhaps similar to the one the 49ers used, on a wider basis.

Last week, Esera Tuaolo, the former NFL offensive lineman who, in 2002, revealed that he is gay (he retired in 1999), spoke to nearly 200 employees at the league office in New York about his life as a professional athlete. He showed a film of an interview he did on HBO.

Tuaolo also encouraged the league to put out a message of tolerance and acceptance so that a gay player can feel comfortable discussing his sexual identity and still coexist in an NFL locker room.

Aiello said the league may target its rookie symposium, which all incoming must players attend, as one way the league can promote tolerance.

"We are clearly evaluating that idea and how it can be done," Aiello said.

Many in the 49ers organization believe they have a head start thanks to their workshop, which was run by Stan Johnson, the president of Stan Johnson and Associates, which conducts diversity programs for the NCAA, among other organizations, and Charles Whitcomb, the vice provost for administration and personnel at San Jose State University, who has also worked on diversity in the NCAA.

The 49ers’ meeting included a discussion on the death of Matthew Shepard, a gay University of Wyoming student who, in 1998, was beaten unconscious in Laramie, Wyo., and died in a hospital five days later.

Johnson and Whitcomb also talked about how locker room jokes can lead to fissures that the players don’t even realize exist.

"No one knows who has a gay brother or, in the case of Dallas, who has a Japanese wife," Johnson said, referring to Parcells’ comment. "It creates mistrust. All of a sudden you don’t want to play with that individual or you don’t trust that individual.

"We’re trying to create an environment where we can talk about these things and eliminate the problems and violence that can take place, help them understand that they can create an environment that people can work in even if they are different," Johnson said.

NumOneQB · 07-11-2004

Very interesting article. I wonder if Dallas has or ever will allow this type of seminar to come through valley ranch.
I'd like to experience it first hand myself, seems like it would be worthwhile.

**MichaelWinicki** · 07-11-2004

JC your "Their" leaves me stupified.

**trickblue** · 07-11-2004

Quote:

Originally Posted by MichaelWinicki

JC your "Their" leaves me stupified.

Their, they're. there... it's all greek to me... oh wait...

All About the D · 07-11-2004

Only in California

DLK150 · 07-12-2004

Diversity training is becoming more prevalent in businesses of all kinds, so this isn't exactly groundbreaking. It's good to see it penetrate pro sports such as football. Especially if it brings a team closer together on top of raising people's awareness.

A company I worked for a couple of years ago had a decent percentage of minority workers, and the entire company underwent a seminar aimed at increasing diversity awareness. The presentation was interesting, but I can't say it had a huge impact on me.

jay cee · 07-12-2004

Quote:

Originally Posted by MichaelWinicki

JC your "Their" leaves me stupified.

Sorry Mike. They are ruining the the game.

Thanks so much for pointing that out.

Bill Wooten · 07-12-2004

Too bad San Fran didn't try this while Garcia and Owen were there together. I doubt it would have gotten through TO's head anyway.

kbduke · 07-12-2004

Gentlemen,
How can you say diversity training is a bad thing! What in the hell is wrong with you people? With so many talented quality people to choose from why are there no black owners in the league? How many white blind *** balding farts are there
as officials? How many hispanic or asian head coaches are there in the NFL?
What about hispanic owners, hispanic officials, hispanic sports casters? It is time all of us got some diversity training. How many times have I heard someone say we gotta get that black guy out of here so we can have a white quarterback and win? More often than I would like to! How many people clammered after Doug Williams after he took the Washinton Redskins to the Super Bowl and Won! I'll give you a hint! 0, ziltch, nada, none, n/a, nobody, ZERO! People need to wake up!
My personal hero other than Marion Morrison was MLK who stated I have a dream...where a man is judged by the content of his character and not by the color of his skin. (paraphrasing) How many african americans do we see on television calling each other the "N" word! Eliminate the hate! Stop....get out of your little bubble and think. We need to realize not only as a country but as a world that diversity is our stength. We are a melting pot of people coming together to live in this nation with the same basic beliefs. I wanna say what I wanna say, I wanna worship who I wish too, I want to live a lifestyle limited only by my ambition, and most of all.....I want to be free. Well we may or may not be there either....But if we as human beings can step outside ourselves, identify other people different that us, accept we are all human beings on planet earth and get along....then maybe we won't kill each other and fry this little planet into a cinder. NFL playeres going to a diversity class......thats something my kid should see. Maybe it will help the heroes return to sports...where a legend is someone who lived it and not just spoke of it. Tom Landry ring a bell?

No fun?.....Much needed!

PEACE YA'LL

TB4L
DUKE

**MichaelWinicki** · 07-12-2004

Quote:

Originally Posted by jay cee

Sorry Mike. They are ruining the the game.

Thanks so much for pointing that out.

Sorry about that JC. That's just one of those things that makes me snap.

jay cee · 07-12-2004

Quote:

Originally Posted by MichaelWinicki

Sorry about that JC. That's just one of those things that makes me snap.

I know you had nothing but the best of attentions. It must be tough editing all the posts on an internet forum.

jimmy40 · 07-12-2004

Quote:

Originally Posted by kbduke

Gentlemen,
How can you say diversity training is a bad thing! What in the hell is wrong with you people? With so many talented quality people to choose from why are there no black owners in the league? How many white blind *** balding farts are there
as officials? How many hispanic or asian head coaches are there in the NFL?
What about hispanic owners, hispanic officials, hispanic sports casters? It is time all of us got some diversity training. How many times have I heard someone say we gotta get that black guy out of here so we can have a white quarterback and win? More often than I would like to! How many people clammered after Doug Williams after he took the Washinton Redskins to the Super Bowl and Won! I'll give you a hint! 0, ziltch, nada, none, n/a, nobody, ZERO! People need to wake up!
[View Full Quote]

I just got through with my diversity training for this year. I works wonders. I now hate everybody equally.

**MichaelWinicki** · 07-12-2004

Quote:

Originally Posted by jay cee

I know you had nothing but the best of attentions. It must be tough editing all the posts on an internet forum.

No, not all of them...

But damn that title has to be right!

TwoDeep3 · 07-12-2004

Not sure how this fits in, but I read an article a year or so ago which addressed the fact that the Cowboys have a high school coaching workshop each year.

They bring in highschool coaches and instruct them on the finer aspects of the game of football.

By the way, the coaches they bring in are African-American only.

keds · 07-12-2004

I agree with diversity training for changing peoples' attitudes and behaviors toward others when those behaviors and attitudes are hurtful and and make people feel uncomfortable.

On the other hand I disagree with any quota system that demands that there are X number of minority NFL owners, general managers, etc, etc.
In fact how the term minority is used by some today is perhaps outdated... A lot of times the term implies that as a minority the person is somehow at a disadvantage.

There are minorities that succeed in various sports and non-sport fields. Minorities given a level playing field and equal opportunity will succeed.
Nobody is preventing a group of black or hispanic investors from pooling their funds to buy an NFL franchise and then installing their own general manager and coaches.