It's worth listening to it. James Daniels and Jordan Lomax did a great job even though it sounds, at times, like they're being interrogated/on trial. I would have liked to hear more of them and less from the three hosts. Seemed like too many voices with five people on a podcast.
Really, Daniels was the one receiving a bit of interrogation, primarily because he was one of the loud voices in bringing this to everyone's attention.
There were 2 main areas that the hosts asked pretty pointed questions about:
1) Do you think Twitter was the right avenue to bring these issues to the coaches' attention? (or more accurately, justify the way this went down).
2) Explain, exactly, how Iowa culture is not compatible with black culture?
It was clear both the hosts and the guests were dancing around things, afraid to fully speak their minds. Things loosened up as it went on.
To the first question above, Daniels believes the public forum of twitter was the right avenue to address this. He did not clearly articulate why. He insinuated that he had engaged in prior conversations, with KF and Barta, about what needed to be changed, and some things were changed, but not enough. He also stated that specific complaints about Doyle were not mentioned in these meetings with KF and Barta; rather they focused on things like dress code and weightroom music. Later it was revealed that much of that hesitancy stemmed from the perceived tight bond between KF and Doyle, and how they felt KF would not be receptive to that criticism. What I read from this is players had serious concerns, but they did not feel comfortable discussing the heavy stuff, so they stuck to the more superficial stuff.
I think Daniels could formulate a much better response to this if he were to sit down and write out why this was the best approach. It is always a challenge to organize your thoughts when speaking off the cuff, especially in a setting where you are asked to justify your actions to people you know don't agree with you. A few things he mentioned that seem important is that he was having conversations with MANY black players and they were all reporting the same experiences. Many of the specific incidents that were discussed were never even brought to the public light. Also, as part of Chicago Bears OTAs Daniels had been having discussions about these things with his teammates, and he knew it was a big issue in all realms, and he knew he wanted to make a public statement that could influence change. Remember, his initial statement was just that
IF Iowa decided to kneel as a team, that would have a positive influence on Iowa culture. He and other players did not start coming out with more specific criticisms until fans on twitter were going at them to provide specific examples of what their perceived shortcomings in Iowa culture were.
One justification for taking the public route which he did not mention, but I think should be considered, is the voice this has given to players around the country. That positive change would not have happened if Iowa had kept this all in-house.
There was also difficulty in getting a specific answer on the 2nd question, with a lot of initial talking past one another. Lomax was such a steadying presence throughout this podcast, often times bridging the gap between where Daniels was at and where the hosts were at. The reasons were likely twofold: he is older and more experienced, and he experienced the transition from a predominantly black culture to a predominantly white culture (Catholic high school) well before he got to Iowa, so it was an easier transition for him. Others experienced this transition when they first set foot on campus at Iowa, and when this coincided with their first summer conditioning program with Doyle, along with the beginning of their academic careers, it was extremely taxing.
When addressing black culture and its compatibility with Iowa culture, Daniels kept coming back to superficial things like dress-code and music, but Lomax really laid it out there. It is about Iowa coaches respecting where their players are from, and trying to understand them. There can still be an culture of hardwork and accountability, but the understanding needs to go both ways. Without that, the perception of the treatment is different. White players and black players may very well have been treated the same, but if the white players felt understood and appreciated, and the black players did not, then the perception of that treatment would understandably differ.
If these exact same guys came back to this exact same conversation after a week to consider these topics further, I think the result would be even more elucidating, and I think the understanding between the 5 of them would improve. I am very happy that Daniels and Lomax were willing to voice their minority point of view, knowing they (particularly Daniels) have already caught much flak for the things they have said. It would be great to hear them in a different context as well when they could lead the discussion, as opposed to only reacting to WUW host questions.
Bottom line, they all felt confident that KF was up to the challenge of leading this positive reformation, none of them thought any more coaches needed to be replaced (though I wonder if in a different forum Daniels' opinion might have wavered, he seemed a bit more hesitant on this question than Lomax), and all of them are Hawkeye through and through.
