By: Jeremiah Holloway (’22), Staff Writer
At the conclusion of the 2018 NFL season, the league was left with two African-American head coaches, one African-American general manager, zero African-American team owners, and (out of sixty-four positions) eleven offensive and defensive coordinators. In a league composed of over 70% Black athletes, these are disturbing numbers.
On the vein of the players themselves, there were a grand total of seven Black starting quarterbacks by the end of the season (excluding the Washington Redskins, who signed Josh Johnson to finish the season in place of Alex Smith). The quarterback is always considered the face of the franchise. They are expected to be leaders on and off the field with their mannerisms and their ability to handle the media. With that being said, only seven Black athletes in the world currently have this mantle.
Though I am a firm believer of letting the best players play, there is a mild sense of discomfort in the scarcity of Black starting quarterbacks. NFL scouts are, in part, responsible for this large discrepancy. As an example, Lamar Jackson of the Baltimore Ravens, who won the Heisman Trophy as a quarterback at Louisville, was asked to try out as a wide receiver during the NFL combine. Imagine being named as the best at your position and then being told to switch to a completely different craft. This ultimately misrepresents a player because it implies they are inept despite their impressive credentials. Misrepresentation is the last thing a Black quarterback needs when entering a league with few at this position.
As of today, Chris Grier of the Miami Dolphins is the only Black general manager in the NFL. Of the seven head coaches were fired last season, five were Black. Although the general managers possess the most responsibility regarding the hiring of coaches, the imbalance of Black head coaches is probably not correlated with the lack of Black general managers. The Rooney Rule was put in place in 2003 to make teams interview minorities for coaching positions as well as general manager positions. Despite the inclusion of the Rooney Rule, the league cannot seem to effectively provide a healthy sense of diversity.
There will always be a mild discomfort with powerful White people telling a large group of Black people what to do. NBA star LeBron James once accused NFL owners of having “slave mentality”, citing how the many White NFL owners have team first agendas rather than allowing athletes to express themselves. He even referenced the backlash Colin Kaepernick received from kneeling during the national anthem. While the concept of slavery is a bit extreme, James made a valid point that the White NFL owners essentially dominate a minority cultured league.
What can be done with this information? What is the long term solution for the lack of minority leadership in a largely minority populated league? These realities must be recognized and acknowledged, but finding a way to practically incorporate people of color into leadership positions to fix the numbers is a task that will take time.
Sources
- https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2018/dec/22/lebron-james-nfl-team-owners-have-slave-mentality
- https://money.cnn.com/2018/05/18/news/nfl-nba-mlb-owners-diversity/index.html
- https://ftw.usatoday.com/gallery/nfl-head-coaches-fired-in-2018-list
- https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/posteverything/wp/2018/05/24/there-would-be-no-nfl-without-black-players-they-can-resist-the-anthem-policy/?noredirect=on&utm_term=.3f01e438a99c
- https://www.forbes.com/sites/terencemoore/2019/01/02/nfl-teams-keep-firing-black-head-coaches-but-thats-not-the-problem/#1c04605b6a55
- https://www.pro-football-reference.com/
- https://www.si.com/nfl/2018/12/31/rooney-rule-explained-nfl-diversity-policy
