Black coaches, best assistants, playoff upsets

(AP Photo/Don Wright)

Now that the Dolphins have fired head coach Brian Flores, there are two Black head coaches in the NFL – Mike Tomlin and David Culley – and two more coaches of color in Ron Rivera and Robert Saleh. In a league that has skewed more than 70% Black from a roster perspective for a long time, to have just two Black head coaches seems… less than representative. The Rooney Rule hasn’t really worked. Giving compensatory draft picks to teams who lose minority coaches and executives to other teams doesn’t seem to have any pull, either. We’ve talked about this for years, but is there any way to give coaches of color an equal opportunity at the highest levels of the game?

Doug: Sadly, I don’t think this is going to change. Because for all its talk about social justice and civil rights, the NFL doesn’t see a predominantly white group of head coaches as a problem. The league is good at providing lip service and putting rules in place when it’s challenged on this issue, but if those in power in the NFL really believed that coaches of color deserved more fair opportunities, those opportunities would happen. What we do know is that at the end of the 2018 season, five Black head coaches were fired, all five were replaced by white head coaches, and after that bloodletting, there were just two Black head coaches left – Mike Tomlin and Anthony Lynn. Now, there are two Black head coaches in the NFL – Tomlin and Culley. That’s not an accident, especially with so many coaches of color who have proved their potential. 

Luke: Yeah, I’ll believe it when I see it, Doug. I echo everything you just said. This hiring cycle will once again give NFL owners no shortage of qualified candidates, too. You want up-and-coming play-callers who deserve their first crack at the top job? Byron Leftwich, Patrick Graham, Eric Bieniemy. You want someone with head-coaching experience who deserves another shot? Brian Flores obviously, Todd Bowles and Raheem Morris, as well. We go through this every year, and as always, there will be no excuse if we don’t see this issue move in the right direction yet again.