Former head coach of the Miami Dolphins, Brian Flores has filed suit against the New York Giants and the NFL for racial bias in their hiring practices. The story he tells sounds horrifying and even includes allegations that the team owner offered to pay him $100,000 for every game his team LOST, in order to improve the team’s position in the draft. Soon afterward, former Cleveland Browns head coach Hue Jackson came out with his own accusations of bribes offered to tank games. Although the owners of these two teams are innocent until proven guilty, a quick Google search of their business careers will leave no doubt about the fact that both of them made billions doing business right up to a fine line over which lay criminal activity. At this point my presumption of innocence favors these two coaches.
But with the recent firing of Brian Flores, this means that the National Football League currently has exactly one black head football coach. There are 32 teams. The Pittsburgh Steelers coach, Mike Tomlin is the only black head coach. This, for a league where a full 70% of its active players and probably 80% of its best players are black. How is it then that in a league which is notorious for coaching turnover, that teams are willing to hire untested coordinators, unknown college coaches, or even mediocre former coaches before they are willing to hire a black coach? Has the current black coach in Pittsburgh proven himself a colossal failure? Mike Tomlin has been coaching the Steelers for 13 years, has taken his team to the playoffs nine times, won one Super Bowl and never had a losing season. So, no it can’t be that. What about past black coaches? Well, there’s Tony Dungy. All he did in his 13 years of coaching was win a Super Bowl, take his teams to the playoffs and win 65% of his games. Can’t be that. So, what is it? It’s difficult to come to any conclusion other than race. Many of the best white coaches were former players. Does anyone expect a rational person to believe that out of the literally thousands of black players who have played in the NFL, none of them are qualified to coach a team? None of them would do a better job than Mike McCarthy? Come on now…
Many years ago, the NFL adopted the Rooney Rule that mandated that at least one black candidate be interviewed for every coaching position. The 32 teams and their billionaire owners have made a mockery of the rule by bringing in a black candidate for a sham interview after they have already picked their guy. It is both humiliating and shameful for everyone involved in such a thing. What is behind all of this is the blackness of the heart which refuses to even consider a black candidate out of some perceived deficiency of intellect or leadership. That’s the issue that now hangs over the NFL as well as Major League Baseball, and many other sport leagues in America. On the field of play we demand the best players and if that means that 70% of them are black, fans never bat an eye. Why don’t those same fans demand the best candidates for the position of head coach instead of always hiring the same old retreads?
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