Black Football Coaches Should Sue NCAA NFL http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qv9OpKw2u7k
As of now, the NFL’s available coaching jobs are being filled, and not one of the current hires is black. By contrast, the majority of NFL players by position are black, including 100 percent at the running back spot, and 66 percent at the fullback spot.
In 2011, the NFL had a record number of coaches of color: 8, here’s that list:
– Jim Caldwell, Indianapolis Colts
– Marvin Lewis, Cincinnati Bengals
– Raheem Morris, Tampa Bay Buccaneers
– Lovie Smith, Chicago Bears
– Mike Tomlin, Pittsburgh Steelers
– Leslie Frasier, Minnesota Vikings
– Hue Jackson, Oakland Raiders
– Ron Rivera, Carolina Panthers
Of all of the coaches in 2011, the year for which Dr. Richard Lapchick gave the NFL an “A” for race diversity in hiring, a year that saw this record number, 50 percent of them were fired in 2012: Hue Jackson, Jim Caldwell, Raheem Morris, and Lovie Smith. All of their replacements have been white coaches.
Thus far, the San Diego Chargers, Buffalo Bills, Philadelphia Eagles, Chicago Bears, and Kansas City Chiefs have all made coaching hires, and all of them are white. Andy Reid, who was with the Eagles and is now the HC with the Chiefs, has an almost identical record as Lovie Smith, yet had a much worse season, and was almost immediately hired by the Chiefs. By contrast, Smith, was not picked up by anyone. And both Reid and Smith are still being paid by their former teams.
The Eagles bring Oregon Head Coach Chip Kelly in to coach in Phili – a man with no previous NFL experience. And all of a sudden, the media’s floating the name of Seattle Seahawks Offensive Coordinator Darrell Bevell, even though the man didn’t even use a no-huddle package to take time off the clock in the Seahawks’ NFC Divisional Playoff Game against the Atlanta Falcons.
Bevell’s white.
Mike McCoy gets the Denver job, even though his resume is thin, and can’t compare to that of Hue Jackson’s. In fact, of all of the hires as of this writing, only Andy Reid and Marc Trestman have truly competitive NFL resumes.
It’s clear that the NFL and also the NCAA has a race problem. People who are in decision-making positions tend to see someone black who’s a coaching candidate, as a black person first, and not that person’s coaching ability, whereas they see a person who’s white and almost immediately give that person credit for being a good coach, just for holding a position, even though they make countless mistakes.
The only way this can change is for black coaches and coaches of color to band together and file a large class-action law suit. It’s clear the “Rooney Rule” isn’t working at all, and the only way to change society is to take dramatic action and force a fight. Too much is at stake not to.
The foremost problem is the idea that someone is smarter because they’re white. That age old view is a child of generations of racial discrimination, when blacks were not allowed to read. So, the person is denied an education by law, then told that they’re not smart because they can’t read. That was America’s history, even past the turn of the 20th Century.
But now, we’re past that, and have been since the 1950s – not too long ago. But just far enough away for us to have bred a new generation of African Americans who are every bit the equal of anyone regardless of color and then some. Many of those blacks are coaching at assistant levels in the NFL, but fear they will never get their chance because of a system that’s racially wired against them.
So now, we have a society that prizes diversity – finally. A society that has started to see that racism has blocked us from picking the best people for the job. That the NFL race problem has to go away is without question. But right now, it’s not going to unless drastic action is taken.
Stay tuned.