March For Equality Outside The Lines Continues
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By DERON SNYDER
Bobby Mitchell paused and stared ahead for several seconds. Moderator Maury Povich had just posed a loaded question to the NFL Hall of Famer who integrated the Washington Redskins in 1962 and later served as the team’s assistant general manager for 20 years.
How come he never landed a top spot?
Several more seconds passed as Mitchell wrestled with his thoughts before finally giving an answer. “I never accepted the premise that I didn’t get the GM job because I’m black,” he said Wednesday night during the sixth annual Shirley Povich Symposium at the University of Maryland.
“From the start, I was handling all five departments in the front office,” Mitchell said. “I don’t know if anyone has ever done that. But this is a business. You have to be liked and you have to be wanted.”
Then he broke the tension with some levity: “I had the greatest job of anyone in football, because GMs get fired!”
