Karl Dunbar does not hide.
The Jets defensive line coach sees the stares and funny looks. He knows people who see him standing behind Rex Ryan on the sideline probably wonder what is wrong with the coach who has white patches on his skin.
He doesn’t care.
Dunbar was diagnosed as a teenager with vitiligo, a rare skin condition that affects about one percent of the population and results in a loss of pigmentation that leads to white patches on the skin.
“God gives his strongest warriors his toughest battles. I’m in this,” Dunbar said. “This is me. I can’t change this so I’m not going to turn away from it. I’m not going to go hide in the corner. I’m not trying to toot a horn or anything, but I’m going to be me. I’m going to do the things I’m supposed to do. I know one of the things I’m supposed to do is coach football.”
The Jets defensive line has become one of the strengths of the team this year. Muhammad Wilkerson is emerging as a Pro Bowl-caliber player. Rookie Quinton Coples has started to realize his potential. Mike DeVito has been a steady force all season. The man behind it is Dunbar, in his first season with the Jets.
Sitting in the Jets cafeteria last week, Dunbar flashed his big smile when talking about his unit and is extremely at ease when talking about his skin condition.
It wasn’t always that easy. As a kid in Louisiana, Dunbar acknowledges the barbs and cruel nicknames were tough to take.
“You can talk about my mom. You can talk about my girlfriend but if you said something about my skin, we had to fight,” Dunbar said. “Guys figure out what buttons they can push and what ones they can’t.”
The condition surfaced when Dunbar was in the seventh grade. It started with a white spot on his thumb and one over his eye. It soon spread to his knees and elbows.
Whenever Dunbar gets a scrape or cut, the pigmentation does not return. A few years ago he was diagnosed with sleep apnea. He began wearing a CPAP machine at night to help with the condition. The mask being over his face at night has caused him to lose most of the color from the middle of his face.
Dunbar views the condition as a blessing. The 45-year-old has used his platform as an NFL coach to inform people about vitiligo and he has teamed up with the company Coolibar to produce sun-protective clothing.
“It’s a great thing,” Dunbar said. “I don’t know how I would be if I didn’t have this because I think this has made me so much stronger.”
Dunbar’s skin is extremely sensitive to the sun and he must always cover up when he is outside. He did not wear a hat for the Jets game with the Jaguars last week because it was raining at kickoff. The sun later came out, which caused sunburn on his head.
“My wife said why didn’t you put on a hat?” Dunbar said. “I said we were playing so well in the first half, I couldn’t put on a hat in the second half and have us lose.”
An easy solution on game day would be for Dunbar to sit in the press box, where many coaches watch the game.
“No,” Dunbar said. “I’m a D-line coach and D-line coaches are like sergeants who need to be in the battle with their men. You need to be able to feel it. You need to be able to correct things on the fly on the field and you have to be able to see it and get your guys emotionally charged.”
Dunbar played at LSU before three seasons in the NFL. His last two years were with the Cardinals in 1994 and ’95, where a young Rex Ryan was the defensive line coach. After a brief stint as a police officer, Dunbar started coaching. Seventeen years later, Ryan added Dunbar to his staff.
The Jets defensive linemen can’t say enough good things about Dunbar.
“He has the ability to coach you in a way that you can be coached,” nose tackle Sione Po’uha said. “You have a lot of different players in the defensive line room and everybody has a different learning style, but his ability to adapt and focus to the way you learn just brings the best out of you as a player.”
Po’uha said Dunbar might just tutor an older player like him while giving a bigger schooling to his younger teammates. Dunbar is not big on yelling and screaming, either. He has better ways to get his message across.
“There are more ways than cussing and fussing,” Dunbar said. “I think the thing I like to do is if a guy isn’t doing what he’s supposed to do, I like to take him off the field. That hurts their pride more than anything.”
Then, they can stand next to him on the sideline. You can bet he won’t be hiding.