Indianapolis' Dungy and Chicago's Smith will be the first African Americans to coach a team in the Super Bowl, which was watched by an estimated 140 million viewers in the United States in 2006.

Rarely do that many people see African Americans in such prominent and important positions.

"There will be people watching the game that normally wouldn't even be looking at football, meaning Tony and Lovie will be on a much bigger stage," said John Wooten, chairman of the Fritz Pollard Alliance, a group that monitors minority hiring for coaches in the NFL. "That's very real… those people will watch this game and see two African American coaches."

The significance of two African American coaches in the Super Bowl for the first time in 41 years is obvious for the league. The NFL long has been criticized for dragging its feet on hiring minorities as head coaches.

The pace of hiring minority coaches quickened after the league instituted the "Rooney Rule" in 2002, requiring teams to interview at least one minority candidate during the coaching selection process.

Cyrus Mehri is counsel for the Fritz Pollard Alliance. He also was one of the attorneys who released a report focusing on the league's lack of minority coaches in 2002.

"A sea change is happening in the NFL," Mehri said. "We have changed the way they do business and changed the way they look at all hiring decisions. There's a momentum shift."