BlackBalled: The NFL Coaching Dilemma

As the weather cools, we tend to all spend a little bit more time indoors. That extra time inside can be spent many different ways. Some people like to cook, some people like to play games, while others like to watch some good old fashioned football. It’s that time in the NFL, the postseason and if you aren’t watching you’re either not loving yourself or a bitter fan of a non-playoff team. Not everyone can make the playoffs or be the reigning defending champions (Go Birds!) but, that's okay some teams need these losing seasons to learn from and get better. Unfortunately though with improvement comes change in personnel. For the twenty teams that aren't playing in the postseason at least eight teams will have a new head coach next year.

Of the eight coaches that were fired in late 2018, five were Black, leaving just two Black coaches remaining in the NFL. This is unacceptable! The National Football League is 70% Black, so why are there only two Black coaches left to lead these young Black men? To add salt to the wounds, six out of the eight coaching vacancies have all been filled by white men. This is quite interesting, considering the league is consistently criticised the for its handling of Colin Kaepernick, team owners, and other racial issues. To be honest, some of the firings were statistically justified regardless of race (Hue Jackson 3-36, Marvin Lewis 0-7 playoffs) but it is hard to think that the hiring of all white coaches as replacements is a coincidence especially knowing that these black men all inherited losing programs.

Coincidence, I think not? The NFL has a history of not putting minority men in leadership, so bad that they actually have a rule that requires a team to interview them. The Rooney Rule, which is named after the leagues former chairman of its diversity committee, was put in place in 2002. It came after Black coaches, Tony Dungy (who had a stellar winning record) and Dennis Green, (who had his first bad season in 10 years) were unjustly fired; therefore, prompting civil rights lawyers Cyrus Mehri and Johnnie Cochran to get involved. The two lawyers released a study that shows that Black NFL coaches with positive performances were more likely to get fired in comparison to their white peers with equal records.

The National Football League then resolved the issue by requiring teams to hire scouts that have a specific purpose to find minority candidates to interview for Head Coaching jobs and General Manager positions. While these minority candidates have been interviewed, personally I don't believe these owners are actually listening or giving them the time of day.

Maybe this rule worked in 2002, as we can see it is not working for 2019. The league only has Mike Tomlinson of The Pittsburgh Steelers and Anthony Lynn of the Chargers both good coaches with very talented teams, but the league needs more. What can the league do to replace six Black coaches? What rule needs to be implemented to give everyone a fair shot regardless of blind or purposeful prejudice?