The National Football League (NFL) season is coming to a close with the Super Bowl this weekend. For most teams, the season ended in late December, they fired their head coaches, and are now looking to hire new coaches. Here are the following head coaching vacancies and the coaches who have filled them.
- Atlanta Falcons: Arthur Smith
- New York Jets: Robert Saleh
- Detroit Lions: Dan Campbell
- Los Angeles Chargers: Brandon Staley
- Jacksonville Jaguars: Urban Meyer
- Philadelphia Eagles: Nick Sirianni
- Houston Texans: David Culley
The scarcity of black head coaches is laughable in my opinion. Of the two teams headed to the Super Bowl, there are only four coordinators who are BLACK MEN! You have the following:
- Keith Armstrong: Special Teams Coordinator for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers
- Coach Eric Bieniemy: Offensive Coordinator for the Kanas City Chiefs
- Coach Todd Bowles: Defensive Coordinator for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers
- Coach Bryon Leftwich: Offensive Coordinator for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers
Yet, with all of this success, we still do not see diversity represented on the head coaching level. Currently, there are only four black head coaches in the NFL, which are Ron Rivera, Mike Tomlin, Brian Flores and now newly fired David Culley. The Rooney rule which was implemented in 2003 by the NFL requires every team with a head coaching vacancy to interview at least one or more diverse candidates. While yes this helps get black and brown candidates interviews, all it does is delay the inevitable, teams will hire the white guy. Look at the candidates this year, Dan Campbell was the Tight Ends coach, really?! He did not even run the offensive or defensive side of the ball! Let’s be real if that was a black coach he would have NEVER gotten an interview to begin with league.
Next up is Brandon Staley, who is now the new coach of the Los Angeles Chargers (which I thought was the best job available). He was a coordinator for only ONE YEAR with a defense that was led by the best defender in Aaron Donald and best defensive back in the game Jalen Ramsey, that job is not hard to do, just don’t mess up which to his credit he did not mess up. Also, five years ago this same coach was a defensive coordinator at John Carroll University, you ever heard of that school?, because I have not. For some context, during that same time, Coach Bieniemy has been with the Kansas City Chiefs as the running backs coach and for the past three years has been their offensive coordinator/assistant coach. During his time as offensive coordinator, the Kansas City Chiefs have been number one in offensive productivity and now are headed to the Super Bowl, yet again. The previous two coaches in the same role as Coach Bieniemy in Kansas City were hired as head coaches in less time than Coach Bieniemy has served in the role.
I love the Rooney rule because of its intent, but it has clearly not helped. We need another process, but more importantly teams need to hire General Managers, Presidents, and those with the power of high influence to have true conversations with owners of teams so they can pick the best and most qualified candidates as opposed the their “white buddies”.
