Lewis' California-based agent, Bob Lamonte (who also represents Packers head coach Mike Holmgren), told The Times that "there are a very strong group of black assistants livid over the fact Sherman never got an interview. They are still livid." Tagliabue, who had met with nine black assistants in March and commissioned a study of the league's hiring practices, freaked. After all, on January 4, he had written in The Times that "all of us in football--professional and college--must do better in identifying top coaching talent from a diverse, growing pool, including African-Americans."
By late January, Lewis got his interview with Jerry Jones--two, in fact, plus a stay at Jones' Highland Park mansion.
Then what did Jones do?
He offered the job to former UCLA coach Terry Donahue, a white man with absolutely no NFL experience who had sat out the past two seasons working CBS-TV's college-football TV broadcasts. When Donahue balked at the low-ball salary Jones was throwing his way, Jerry then turned around and brought in "mystery candidate" Chan Gailey, offensive coordinator for the Pittsburgh Steelers--a team the lowly Cowboys had crushed at the beginning of the season.
Lewis, once thought to be Jones' second choice after Donahue--who was really no choice at all, especially since so many of the veterans were terrified at the prospect of being led by yet another college coach--was left out to dry. Again.
When he was hired on February 12, Gailey was quickly embraced by the local sports media. Fellow Americus, Georgia, native Dan Reeves--the man who recommended Gailey to Jones--was selling Gailey's virtues to every radio sports-talk show that would have him. Michael Irvin and Troy Aikman were paraded before the media to sing the praises of the man whose team they always used to beat. The Sunday after Gailey's hiring, The Dallas Morning News ran an allegedly in-depth interview with Jones detailing the hiring process--and not once was Lewis' name even mentioned in beat writer Jean-Jacques Taylor's puff piece.
Meanwhile, Sherman Lewis once more became the invisible man. According to Green Bay Packers public relations man Jeff Blumb, Lewis decided to disappear for a while. The ordeal had left him tired, and he wanted to take a long vacation away from the world of football. He could not be reached for comment, nor could his agent Lamonte, but it's doubtful Lewis would speak ill of Jones anyway.
"Part of his difficulty is, if he speaks out, it's going to hurt his chances more," Lapchick says. "He's got to have other people speak out for him. That's the last thing an owner wants, to hire someone who might speak to the press about racial disparities once he's hired. He's in a very tough position."
Green agrees, adding that "once it's done, it's too late."
The Vikings coach says that "Sherman Lewis is not going to tell you how he feels once it's done. It has to be done beforehand. The commissioner is trying to tell people our credibility is on the line. We have to be careful. We think guys are good enough to play, but they're not good enough to be coach. That's a bad signal."
Aside from Green's comments to the Dallas Observer, there has been a telling silence from those who are in a position to come to Lewis' defense. When contacted by the Observer, Buccaneers head coach Tony Dungy refused to comment. A PR person at Tampa Bay explained that "Coach Dungy won't be able to discuss the Sherman Lewis situation." (To be fair, Dungy has been outspoken on the issue in the past, though he has decided to clam up in the days since the Lewis non-hire.) Eagles coach Ray Rhodes didn't return calls either.
The sports press has been equally silent. A computer search of major U.S. newspapers reveals that only a handful of columnists took issue with Jones' decision to hire Gailey over Lewis; articles appeared in the New York Daily News, The Times-Picayune in New Orleans, and the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. But the list ends there, and the Morning News once more rewrites history while the Fort Worth Star-Telegram and the local TV stations ignore it altogether.
It has been reported that in the end, Jones didn't hire Lewis because he was "too accommodating" in interviews and Jones didn't want a "yes" man--as if! At least, that was the excuse ESPN's football reporter Chris Mortensen offered in his wrap-up that appeared last week on the sports channel's Web site. Yet, Mortensen added, such an explanation is likely just a "weak alibi and ultimately an insult to Lewis, who is obviously qualified."
Which is supposed to be, in the end, all that matters. Sherman Lewis is qualified to be the Dallas Cowboys' head coach--more so than Chan Gailey or Terry Donahue or any other white man Jerry Jones wants to hire today or tomorrow.
Perhaps the most telling comment comes, again, from Green. When asked whether black assistants were surprised when Lewis was passed over yet again, Green says, simply, no. Of course not.
"A lot of guys weren't surprised at all," he says. "A lot of guys felt they [the Cowboys] weren't going to do it anyway. When you're discouraged, that glass is always half-empty; it's never half-full. You know that the system's not going to be fair and that they're not going to take the very best man. If they were, hands down it's Sherman Lewis."
Some day, some smart team owner will figure that out. And when it happens, pray to God Sherman Lewis beats the hell out of the Dallas Cowboys.
