‘Learning moment’: The Rock backtracks on Joe Rogan after hearing racial slurs

WHEN SHOOTING YOURSELF IN THE FOOT 

REMOVE FROM MOUTH FIRST
Michelle Butterfield - Monday

© Getty ImagesDwayne 'The Rock' Johnson and Joe Rogan.

Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson appears to be reconsidering some of his personal support for Joe Rogan after a video was shared showing the podcast host using racial slurs repeatedly during his broadcasts.

In a tweet Friday, Johnson said he was not aware that Rogan had used the N-word repeatedly on The Joe Rogan Experience. Earlier in the week, Johnson had shared support for Rogan in response to the controversy surrounding his podcast exploring anti-vaccine theories and COVID-19 misinformation.

“Thank you so much for this,” Johnson — whose father is Black — replied to a tweet from author Don Winslow.



“I hear you as well as everyone here 100% I was not aware of his N-word use prior to my comments, but now I’ve become educated to his complete narrative. Learning moment for me.”

Singer India Arie shared a compilation video late last week showing 23 clips from Rogan's show; in the clips, he uses the N-word 24 times. It also includes footage of him making jokes about Black neighbourhoods and the movie Planet of the Apes.

Arie posted the video to explain why she asked Spotify to remove her catalogue from their streaming service.

Commentary:
Untangling the Neil Young vs. Joe Rogan-Spotify situation

“He shouldn’t even be uttering the word,” Arie said. “Don’t even say it, under any context. Don’t say it. That’s where I stand. I have always stood there.”

In an apology video posted on Instagram on Saturday, Rogan said it was the “most regretful and shameful thing that I’ve ever had to talk about publicly.”

During the video, Rogan said footage that emerged of him using the epithet had been taken out of context, but looked “horrible, even to me.”

"Now, I haven't said it in years, but for a long time, when I would bring that word up, like, if it would come up in conversation and instead of saying the n-word, I would just say the word — I thought as long as it was in context, people would understand what I was doing," he explained.

“It’s not my word to use. I am well aware of that now, but for years I used it in that manner,” he continues. “I never used it to be racist because I’m not racist.”

Fans of Johnson were divided last week after the former wrestler shared some words of encouragement on a video that Rogan had posted in response to the fallout.

In the video, Rogan said he would “maybe try harder to get people with differing opinions,” after several musicians, including Joni Mitchell and Neil Young, pulled their music from the streaming service, citing what Young called Rogan’s vaccine “disinformation.”

In response to the video, Johnson wrote: “Great stuff here, brother. Perfectly articulated.”

Video: Joe Rogan addresses Spotify controversy

He added that he looked forward to “coming on one day and breaking out the tequila with you.”

Media reports on Saturday said more than 70 episodes of The Joe Rogan Experience podcast had been removed from the Spotify Technology SA service.

Last week, Spotify chief executive Daniel Ek said it's important the streaming service doesn't "take on the position of being content censor while also making sure that there are rules in place and consequences for those who violate them.”

Read more:
Fans divided after Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson shares support for Joe Rogan

In a statement over the weekend, Ek said: “While I strongly condemn what Joe has said … I want to make one point very clear — I do not believe that silencing Joe is the answer … We should have clear lines around content and take action when they are crossed, but cancelling voices is a slippery slope.”

Should Rogan eventually leave Spotify, it appears a suitor has emerged: Rumble, a video streaming platform, has offered Rogan a spot for his podcast.



In a tweet on Monday, Rumble offered Rogan $100 million over four years should he choose to part ways with Spotify.

"This is our chance to save the world," a letter credited to Rumble CEO Chris Pawlovski said. "And, yes, this is totally legit."

— With files from Reuters

Appeals court rules in Biden’s favor on abortion referrals

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — Federally funded family planning clinics can continue to make abortion referrals for now, a federal court ruled Tuesday, in a setback for a dozen Republican attorneys general who have sued to restore a Trump-era ban on the practice.

The 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Cincinnati denied a request by the 12 states to pause rules for the federal government’s family planning program while their case is heard. The states were eager to stop implementation before the next round of federal grants starts rolling out in March

At issue are new rules from Democratic President Joe Biden’s Department of Health and Human Services that returned the federal family planning program, called Title X, to how it ran under the Obama administration, when clinics were able to refer women seeking abortions to a provider.

Rules that Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost, who brought the lawsuit, wants permanently reinstated were put into place in 2019 under former President Donald Trump, a Republican. One required federally funded family planning clinics to be physically and financially independent of abortion clinics. The other required them to refrain from referring patients for abortions.

States joining the challenge are Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, Florida, Kansas, Kentucky, Missouri, Nebraska, Oklahoma, South Carolina and West Virginia. Not all states participate in Title X.

Yost argues the rules were intended as firewalls between family planning clinics, which can receive taxpayer funding, and their abortion services, which cannot.

U.S. District Judge Timothy Black rejected that argument in a ruling last month, denying a preliminary injunction that would have temporarily paused the rules. The 12 states appealed his decision to the 6th Circuit, which said they failed to prove they’d be irreparably harmed by the rules going into effect.

Black said opponents centered their case on a policy disagreement, not a legal one.

“The principle that money is fungible must have theoretical limits or else no government appropriations for specific purposes could ever be feasible,” Black wrote Dec. 29. “Title X no more subsidizes abortions than funding a homeless shelter subsidizes substance abuse.”

The Biden administration’s reversal of the Trump-era rules in October came as political and legal battles over abortion grow sharper amid burgeoning efforts by Republicans to overturn the landmark Roe v. Wade at the U.S. Supreme Court.

Yost emphasized that his lawsuit does not challenge the right to an abortion as guaranteed under Roe.

The prohibition against family planning clinics funded under Title X using public funds for abortions was contained in the Family Planning Services and Population Research Act of 1970, Yost said. Black pointed out that the Trump-era rules were in place for less than two years, during which time 1.5 million fewer patients participated in Title X-funded services.

The program makes available more than $250 million a year to clinics to provide birth control and basic health care services, mainly to low-income women, many of them from minority communities.

The rules established under Trump prompted a mass exit by service providers affiliated with Planned Parenthood, as well as several states and other independent organizations.

Groups representing the clinics said they hoped the Biden administration’s reversal would lead some 1,300 local facilities that left in protest to return.

Julie Carr Smyth, The Associated Press

Equal Rights Amendment: Three Senate Republicans urge archivist not to certify the ERA

LARRY,                                 CURLY,                                     MOE

By Veronica Stracqualursi, CNN  - Yesterday 


Three Republican senators are calling on the Archivist of the United States David Ferriero to commit to not certifying the Equal Rights Amendment as part of the Constitution, as ERA advocates demand Ferriero publish the amendment before he retires.

In a letter dated February 8, Sens. Rob Portman of Ohio, Ron Johnson of Wisconsin and Mitt Romney of Utah wrote to Ferriero, seeking his "reassurance" that he won't act on the ERA "until it has been properly ratified and legal questions regarding such ratification have been resolved."

Backers of the ERA have been pressuring Ferriero, who's set to leave office in April, to publish the ERA as the 28th Amendment to the Constitution as part of his ministerial duties, arguing that it has satisfied all the necessary constitutional requirements and in fact took effect last month. However, key legal questions remain unresolved such as whether states can rescind ratifications of an amendment and if Congress has the power to lift a deadline retroactively.

"In light of the calls for you to disregard your duty and certify the ERA, we write to ask for your commitment that you, and the acting Archivist who will take over in April, will not certify or publish the ERA," the Republican senators wrote to Ferriero, arguing that the ERA has "failed to achieve ratification by the states and is no longer pending before them."

CNN has reached out to the National Archives and Records Administration for comment about the letter. The Archives declined to comment to CNN on Thursday when asked whether Ferriero plans to certify the ERA, citing pending litigation.

All three GOP senators sit on the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, with Portman as its top Republican, which will consider the nomination of the next archivist and is one of the panels with oversight of the Archives.

The three Republicans' stance on this issue contrasts with their colleagues, GOP Sens. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Susan Collins of Maine, who cosponsoring a bill that would remove the ERA deadline.

Under Article V of the Constitution, three-fourths of the states -- or 38 states -- are required to ratify constitutional amendments.

Congress passed the ERA in 1972, sending it to the states with a seven-year deadline for them to ratify the amendment. It later extended the deadline to 1982.

But by then, only 35 states had signed off on the ERA -- and five of those states rescinded their support of the ERA within that time.

In recent years, Virginia, Illinois and Nevada approved the ERA, with Virginia claiming to be the 38th -- and thus final necessary -- state to ratify the amendment in 2020.

Advocates argue that states cannot rescind amendment ratifications and that the ERA's deadline had not lapsed since it was not included in the ERA's body text.

Opponents say the three states' ratifications are invalid and point to the five states' rescissions as part of why the ERA is not ratified. They also say Congress cannot change or remove its deadline after it expired.

They also note an opinion from an Obama-appointed federal district judge in March 2021 that the deadline to ratify the ERA "expired long ago."

The Department of Justice's Office of Legal Counsel also issued a legal opinion, under the Trump administration in 2020, that said the deadline to ratify the ERA expired and that the archivist cannot certify it.

The OLC said in a new opinion released last month that its 2020 memo is "not an obstacle either to Congress's ability to act with respect to ratification of the ERA or to judicial consideration of questions regarding the constitutional status of the ERA." The office did not withdraw the 2020 memo nor instruct the archivist to publish the ERA.

House Democrats passed their version of the bill to remove the ERA deadline last year, and are trying to pass a resolution that recognizes ratification of the ERA. It currently has 155 Democratic cosponsors -- including House Speaker Nancy Pelosi -- and was referred to the Judiciary Committee.

House Oversight Chairwoman Carolyn Maloney, a longtime advocate for the ERA, also wrote to Ferriero in October, urging him to "carry out your statutory duties to certify and publish the ERA without further delay."

This story has been updated with further developments Thursday.

Parliamentary committee grills CRTC chair on meeting with Bell CEO, reversal of internet decision

MobileSyrup- Wednesday


Ian Scott told the parliamentary committee of industry and technology his meeting with Bell CEO Mirko Bibic in an Ottawa pub was by the rules.

The Canadian Radio-Television Commission (CRTC) chair spoke at the committee on February 8th on the ongoing work the organization is completing. In his remarks, Scott said the CRTC understands the growing concerns by both the government and citizens to support competition and the affordability of internet service providers.

But his comments didn’t escape him from being grilled on the CRTC’s decision to reverse a 2019 finding that internet rates were too high in Canada and needed to be lowered. The decision came after the CRTC completed a review that lasted three years.

The decision was put on hold on May 27th, 2o21

“Now, why did we reverse course? To put it simply, we got the initial decision wrong. We couldn’t move ahead with rates that we knew were erroneous,” Scott said.

Liberal MP Nathaniel Erskine-Smith asked Scott how they got it so wrong. “How can we have confidence in your continued work if, after three years of a comprehensive review, you get it so completely wrong?”

Scott said costing processes are complex, and the CRTC made a decision that was believed to be correct. After getting appeals from some telecom companies, a “thorough analysis” was conducted and “additional information from all parties” was sought, Scott said, leading to the reversal.

Regarding his encounter with Bibic, Scott said all of his meetings are “pursuant to the rules.”

Scott addressed the meeting for the first time in a February 2nd article with the Toronto Star. He told the publication, “nothing inappropriate was done.”

Conservative MP Tracy Gray asked Scott if any individual or company was told about the reversal before it became public.

“No one gets advice, or advised, or communicated commission decisions in advance of their publications,” Scott said.

Since the article was published, the Competitive Network Operators of Canada (CNOC) filed an application with the CRTC asking Scott to rescue himself from decisions involving internet service competition until an appeal independent service provider TekSavvy filed with the Federal Court is heard.

CNOC’s application states the meeting his Bibic happened only one week after telecom companies, including Bell, filed an appeal against the CRTC’s 2019 decision.

Scott’s speech to the committee is available here.

Image source: CRTC (screenshot)

White House disputes reports of federal funds for crack pipes

Brett Samuels - The Hill - Yesterday 

The Biden administration on Wednesday pushed back on what it called "misinformation," saying a federal grant program meant to reduce harm to drug users does not include taxpayer funding for pipes that can be used to smoke crack or meth.

The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) put out a statement clarifying "no federal funding will be used directly or through subsequent reimbursement of grantees to put pipes in safe smoking kits."

White House press secretary Jen Psaki later told reporters at a briefing that reports that crack pipes would be included in the safe smoking kits being distributed as part of the program were inaccurate.

"Even though this has never been a part of what's been funded, we felt it was important to put out a public statement from the federal government to make that clear because we saw the spreading of misinformation and the fact that it was having an impact on a range of communities," Psaki said. "And we felt, even though it was never true, that we needed to put out a proactive statement."

Psaki said the safe smoking kits being distributed as part of a $30 million harm reduction program might include materials such as alcohol swabs, lip balm, clean syringes and other materials intended to promote hygiene and reduce the risk of spreading diseases such as HIV and hepatitis.

"I would note that what we're really talking about here is steps we're taking as a federal government to really address the opioid epidemic, which is killing tens of thousands, if not more, Americans, every single day, week, month of the year," she said.

The grant program through HHS funds safe smoking kits and supplies that could be purchased for communities trying to address the opioid epidemic in ways that might reduce the risk of spreading disease among users. The Associated Press reported that the grant solicitation did not specifically mention the inclusion of pipes for smoking, though such materials can be part of safe smoking kits.

Reports circulated on Fox News and other conservative outlets that the grant program was being used to fund "crack pipes," however, and the narrative quickly spread among conservative lawmakers.

Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) wrote to HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra expressing concerns about providing crack pipes, and she has tweeted multiple times about the issue this week.

"End government-funded crack pipes," Blackburn tweeted on Tuesday.

"Will you have to show your vaccine passport to get your crack pipe?" Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) tweeted mockingly.

"There is no end in sight for this lunacy," Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) said in response to the reports.

HHS spokeswoman Sarah Lovenheim called Rubio's comments "blatant misinformation," adding that the grants "must stick to federal, state, local laws or regs."

Rubio on Wednesday welcomed the comments from the White House about the program and said he would introduce legislation in the coming days "to make sure this program can never pay for crack pipes."

Updated at 5:39 p.m.

Tesla says California plans to sue over alleged discrimination, harassment

By Matt McFarland,  CNN Business - Wednesday



The California Department of Fair Employment and Housing will sue Tesla, alleging systematic racial discrimination and harassment, the automaker said in a blog post Wednesday.

Department spokesperson Fahizah Alim declined to confirm or comment on the expected lawsuit. If filed, the lawsuit would be the latest in a series of allegations of racism in Tesla's workplace.

A former Tesla employee, Owen Diaz, was awarded $136.9 million last year when a jury concluded he was subject to a racially hostile workplace. Other lawsuits have alleged a toxic culture. Last week Kaylen Barker, a Black woman who worked at a Tesla manufacturing plant, filed a lawsuit claiming the automaker tolerates "rampant acts of racism" in its factories. Barker's lawsuit focuses on her employment at Tesla in 2021.

Tesla said the anticipated lawsuit from the California DFEH appears to focus on incidents between 2015 and 2019. It called the expected lawsuit "misguided" and objected to the potential claims.

"Tesla strongly opposes all forms of discrimination and harassment," the blog post said. "Tesla continues to seek to provide a workplace that is safe, respectful, fair, and inclusive-—all of which are vital to achieving our mission."

Tesla also claimed that the department had been investigating Tesla in the past three years regarding discrimination and harassment and never found misconduct previously.

"It therefore strains credibility for the agency to now allege, after a three-year investigation, that systematic racial discrimination and harassment somehow existed at Tesla," the blog post said.

Tesla said it plans to ask the court to pause the lawsuit, once it is filed.

Kurt Zouma, West Ham United player, fined by club for slapping and kicking cat in video

By Hannah Ryan, CNN

West Ham United's French international defender Kurt Zouma has been fined by the English Premier League club and is facing an investigation from the UK's leading animal welfare charity after a video emerged online that showed him kicking and slapping a cat.

On Wednesday, West Ham released a statement on its website, saying Zouma and the club are "co-operating fully" with an investigation by the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (RSPCA) -- the UK's leading animal welfare charity.

The statement added "the player has willingly complied with the steps taken in the initial stage of the process, including delivering his family's two cats to the RSPCA for assessment."

The fine and RSPCA investigation comes after Zouma was filmed seemingly hurling shoes at his pet cat, slapping it across the face, chasing it around the room and kicking it across the floor in what looks to be a private residence.

The video was first published by the Sun newspaper on Monday. Laughter could be heard in the background of the footage. CNN has not independently verified the video.

West Ham added that the French defender is "extremely remorseful and, like everyone at the club, fully understands the depth of feeling surrounding the incident and the need for action to be taken."

The club also said Zouma had been fined for the actions: "Separate to the RSPCA's investigation and pending further sanction once the outcome of that process is determined, West Ham United can confirm that Kurt Zouma has been fined the maximum amount possible following his actions in the video that circulated.

"The player has immediately accepted the fine and has requested that it is donated to animal welfare charities."

West Ham said it wanted to "reiterate our condemnation of Kurt's actions and make it clear that the matter continues to be handled with the utmost seriousness."

The club said it believes "it is now important to allow the RSPCA to conduct their investigation in a fair and thorough manner" and that it will be "making no further comment at this stage."

In a statement issued to CNN on Wednesday, an RSPCA spokesperson said: "The two cats are now in RSPCA care. Our priority is and has always been the wellbeing of these cats.

"They've been taken for a check-up at a vets and then will remain in our care while the investigation continues.

"We're grateful to everyone who expressed their concern for these cats. We were dealing with this issue before the video went viral online and are leading the investigation."

In the wake of the incident, Adidas told CNN Wednesday that it was dropping its sponsorship of the player.

"We have concluded our investigation and can confirm Kurt Zouma is no longer an adidas contracted athlete," an Adidas spokesperson told CNN on Wednesday.

Meanwhile, West Ham has seen one of its sponsors -- Vitality, a health and life insurance company based in the UK -- suspend its relationship with the club.

In a statement posted to Twitter on Wednesday, the company said it was "very distressed by the video" of Zouma and that it condemned animal cruelty and violence of any kind.

Vitality said it was suspending its sponsorship of West Ham effective immediately and would be "engaging with the club to understand what actions they will be taking to address the situation."

A petition on Change.org calling for Zouma to be prosecuted for animal cruelty has over 100,000 signatures.

In a statement to CNN on Tuesday, London's Metropolitan Police force said: "We have received and are aware of such reports and have been in contact with the RSPCA who look into, and if necessary, investigate any complaints made about animal welfare."

Zouma's management team did not immediately respond to CNN's request for comment.

Mask mandates to remain at University of Alberta and University of Calgary

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Advanced education minister directed universities to align

policies with provincial plan

Madeleine Cummings · CBC News · Posted: Feb 11, 2022

The University of Calgary and the University of Alberta plan to keep mask mandates in place when they open for in-person learning on Feb. 28. (David Bell/CBC/University of Alberta)

The University of Alberta and the University of Calgary have announced that students will return to campus on Feb. 28 as planned and masking will remain mandatory for the time being. 

Advanced Education Minister Demetrios Nicolaides said on Wednesday that as of March 1, post-secondary institutions will be able to return to pre-pandemic delivery without physical distancing, masking and vaccine mandates.

"It is my expectation that all of Alberta's universities, colleges and polytechnics will align their COVID-19 policies and practices with that of Alberta's Government," he wrote in a letter to board chairs.

If hospitalizations continue to decrease, the provincial mask mandate will be removed on March 1.

The University of Calgary announced on Thursday that it would be removing its vaccine mandate for future semesters. Masking will still be required indoors until the end of the winter term and while the City of Calgary maintains a mask bylaw. 

SAIT announced Thursday that students and employees no longer need to be fully vaccinated to attend class in person and as of March 1, masking will become recommended, not mandatory.

In the U of A's Thursday update, the school said academic accommodations are available for immunocompromised students.

MacEwan University is expected to announce its plans Friday and Concordia University of Edmonton, the King's University, Mount Royal University and NAIT are reviewing their policies and future plans. 

What do students think?

Nicole Schmidt, president of the students' union at the University of Calgary, said there has been a mixed response from students over Thursday's announcement, with some expressing concern over the vaccine mandate going away.

"We obviously want students to feel safe and to feel protected attending in-person classes once they are able to do so," Schmidt said. 

Austin Ashbaugh, a third-year U of C masters student who is also a teaching assistant, said students are tired of being thrown back and forth between in-person and online learning.

"If we immediately throw students back to in-person, there is going to be a level of social anxiety that is so astronomically high," he said. 

Ashbaugh said he is also concerned about disappearing vaccine and mask mandates because that could create "the perfect playground" for COVID to adapt and spread

Rowan Ley, president of the students' union at the U of A, said about 500 students responded to a survey about Nicolaides' letter to board chairs.

He said 80 per cent were opposed to the minister's letter, but there is some appetite among students for removing restrictions.

"The broad consensus is that the mask and vaccine mandates are popular — gathering restrictions less so," he said.

Trevor Liu, a fourth-year software engineering student, said he would support a hybrid model, where students choose between learning online and in-person. 

U of A has not yet announced whether its vaccine mandate will stand.

Liu, who is vaccinated, said he hopes the school gets rid of it.

"I know some people who do not prefer to get vaccinated because of personal reasons or personal choice," he said. 

Amber Mckenzie, a third-year nursing student at MacEwan, said she wants to feel safe knowing everyone around her at school is vaccinated and masked. 

"Every other restriction could be lifted, but leave the vaccination requirement and masking in public spaces," she told CBC.

Mickey Tidsbury, a fifth-year anthropology student in her last semester at the U of A, said she thinks schools moving back to in-person learning is reckless.

"Getting hospitalized and dying from COVID is not the only serious thing about COVID," she said. 

Union representing contracted grounds crews for WestJet say they're close to calling a strike

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The IAMAW union and employer ATS have been negotiating

 since September 2021

Lucie Edwardson · CBC News · Posted: Feb 11, 2022 

Negotiations between the company that WestJet contracts its grounds crew from and the union representing the workers have reached a critical juncture, where a strike could be called with 72 hours notice at any time. (Darryl Dyck/The Canadian Press)

Contract negotiations between the union representing WestJet's grounds crew and baggage staff at the Calgary Airport have reached a boiling point with their employer, Airport Terminal Services (ATS).

The two parties have been in negotiations since September, but haven't been able to come to a new agreement. 

Union representative Kevin Timms with the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAMAW) says ATS recently provided employees a "substandard" offer.

"We held a vote on Monday for a tentative agreement that was voted down — rejected, and voted in favour of a strike in very high numbers," Timms said.

• WestJet cuts 20 per cent of flights in March, calls for reopening timeline

Since then, ATS has asked the union to come back to the table, and negotiations have been rekindled.

But, if an agreement can't be met, Timms said the union is ready to provide ATS with the mandatory 72 hours notice prior to striking.

Without grounds crews, Timms said ATS would have a hard time getting planes moving off or onto gates.

"When people drop their baggage off at the counter it goes on the conveyor belt into the back room where it's these employees that bring them to the aircraft, these employees that load and unload the aircraft," he said. 

"They are in charge of pushing that aircraft out for the departure, as well as when the planes come in, they would be in charge of parking it in the proper spots … emptying the lavatories as well as filling the potable water and towing the aircraft from gate to gate."

ATS did not respond to a request for comment, but in an emailed statement WestJet said it has been informed that both parties are committed to negotiating an agreement.

Minority NFL head coaches hired to lose amid lawsuit over alleged racial discrimination

Morgan Campbell- CBC - Tuesday

On Monday afternoon the Houston Texans promoted defensive coordinator Lovie Smith to head coach, a routine transaction if you focus on the merits.

Smith, 63, spent nine seasons as head coach of the Chicago Bears, compiling 81 wins and 63 losses, and leading the team to its first Super Bowl appearance since its mid-1980s glory days. The Bears fired Smith in 2012, after the team went 10-6. In 2014 he resurfaced in Tampa Bay, where he went 8-24 over two years with the rebuilding Bucs.

The other main candidate for the Texans' head coaching job? Recently retired quarterback Josh McCown, who has never coached in the NFL in any capacity.

A simple decision if you're seeking the best résumé.

Except McCown is white, and if you follow NFL head coach hiring patterns, you know that detail gives McCown more than an inside track in a job competition against a Black person. It gives him a head start, too. And sympathetic race marshals.

A week ago, McCown was the favourite to win the Texans' job, vacated when the club fired David Culley. Smith surfaced late in the coaching search, even though he was already on the Texans' staff. His name appeared in media reports last Friday, and by Monday the Texans had named him their new on-field boss. In promoting Smith, the Texans become only the second franchise in NFL history to hire two consecutive Black coaches.

If you're curious about who did it first — it was the Indianapolis Colts who replaced Tony Dungy with Jim Caldwell in 2009.


© Darron Cummings/The Associated Press

Former Miami Dolphins head coach Brian Flores is suing the NFL for racial discrimination.

The Flores effect

And if you're wondering how Smith went from afterthought to top candidate in 48 hours, credit the Flores effect.

That's Brian Flores, the former Miami Dolphins head coach who, after being fired, then enduring what he calls a sham interview with the New York Giants, sued the NFL and three of its teams for racial discrimination. Flores, who is Black, alleges that the Giants and Broncos interviewed him only to satisfy a league-mandated diversity requirement, and not to offer him a legitimate chance at their head coaching jobs. His class-action suit contends that Black coaches labour under systemic racism that limits head coaching opportunities, and double standards that threaten job security.

Flores, 40, also alleges that Dolphins owner Stephen Ross tried to bribe him to lose games — $100,000 US per loss, the lawsuit says — hoping the team could finish last and get the top pick in the 2020 draft.

Soon after the lawsuit made news, the NFL published a statement saying Flores' claims, which haven't been proven in court, were "without merit," even though it hadn't investigated them, and even though the league implemented the Rooney Rule in 2003 hoping to jolt teams out of racially biased hiring patterns.

While Flores might have set his long-term head coaching goals aflame in taking the NFL to court, smart money said that in the short run, just to try to weaken his argument, one of the NFL's open head coaching jobs would go to a candidate of colour — a Black person, if possible.

Of course, it's always possible. Qualified Black coaches — paging Jim Caldwell — outnumber head coaching vacancies every off-season. This winter, Flores lost his job after leading a denuded Miami roster to its second consecutive winning season. The public pressure his lawsuit created possibly vaulted Smith past McCown for the Houston job, and helped get Mike McDaniel hired in Miami.

If you have googled McDaniel and seen his picture, you might wonder about where he fits into a discussion of the job market for Black football coaches. Hold your questions. I'll address them. I promise.
Doomed to fail

First, let's discuss what else we knew about the places new Black head coaches would land: At jobs with drawbacks, big red flags waving alongside the Stars and Stripes at the team facility.

Smith, for one, was hired to lose, just like Culley was last year. DeShaun Watson, the club's franchise quarterback, is facing 10 criminal complaints, and lawsuits from 22 massage therapists, alleging a broad range of non-consensual sexual touching. He spent last season in limbo, and if he ever plays again, it likely won't be in Houston.

His absence leaves second-year pro Davis Mills, who, unlike Watson in his peak years, can't lean on All-Pro receiver DeAndre Hopkins, who was traded to Arizona in 2020. The Texans could, potentially, pivot to a Tennessee Titans-style, run-first offence. Except Tennessee has Derrick Henry, while Houston's leading rusher, Rex Burkhead, totalled 427 yards last season.


© Brett Coomer/The Associated Press

Lovie Smith speaks at an introductory press conference as new head coach of the Texans on Tuesday at NRG Stadium in Houston.

So Smith inherits an offence about as robust as the job market for Black head coaches, at 63 years old, on a team that picks third in the upcoming draft. It all points to the Texans installing him as a placeholder and foundation-builder, who will move or be moved aside once the team looks ready to contend.

McDaniel, meanwhile, goes from coordinating the San Francisco 49ers' formidable run game to directing a team whose featured running back is Myles Gaskin, and whose star quarterback, Tua Tagovailoa, doesn't even show up on the first page of NFL.com's list of 2021 passing yardage leaders. McDaniel will also work for Stephen Ross, whom Flores alleges offered bribes when more organic ways to torpedo the team's 2019 results failed.

The glass cliff

Workplace equity experts identified a pattern years ago — award a long-overdue promotion to a member of a marginalized group, then put them in charge of a project that's doomed to fail. They call it the glass cliff, and if you see parallels in this winter's cohort of new Black head coaching hires, you're not wrong.

But McDaniel? Is he Black? By phenotype, not really. But he identifies as biracial. Many people, including some former co-workers, didn't realize it until McDaniel clarified it to correct a Deadspin article that had, erroneously, labelled him a "white guy."

For the record, McDaniels' paternal grandmother is African-American, which makes him Black under the One Drop Rule, and gives him a legitimate claim to African-American identity, if he chooses to exercise it. For an NFL team looking to burnish its diversity record by hiring a visible minority candidate it makes him more than Black enough.

And the hire came the week after podcast host Joe Rogan, who apparently has discovered 70 contextually appropriate uses for the N-word, Jordan Peterson, who left his tenured position at the University of Toronto to protest… something, declared that African-American scholar Michael Eric Dyson is not Black.

Rogan and Peterson were referring to Dyson's skin, which, they discovered, to their amazement, isn't literally black. But in missing the point on race, they, along with NFL teams under sudden pressure from Flores, highlighted a fundamental feature of colour lines.

They're less fixed barriers than velvet ropes, and they bend, open and close at white people's discretion.

Next year's off-season hiring cycle might look like this one did, but for now, Smith and McDaniel are members of an exclusive club. They should each send Flores a thank you card, and a bottle of whatever he's drinking.

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