The NFL’s problem with Black coaches has never…

(AP Photo/Paul Beaty, File)

There is no simple answer to that question, unless you go with the correct and default response: The NFL doesn’t see a problem here, no matter what it says, and therefore, change will not be coming. The Rooney Rule doesn’t work — if it did, it would have already. Mostly, the Rooney Rule gives Black candidates interview practice for jobs they were never in line to get. Giving teams draft picks for elevating minority candidates is the rough equivalent of putting spackle on a wall that fell down years ago.

People tend to be comfortable with what they know. For people in charge of NFL teams to go out of their ways to break the glass ceiling, they’ll have to do so with intent, and decidedly against the grain. When you add that to the risk-averse preferences most teams take in hiring, it’s a tough nut to crack.

Assuming that ownership of color will automatically skew things in a more progressive direction is far from automatic. Shad Khan, a man of Pakistani-American descent, has owned the Jaguars since December, 2011. Since 2012 the Jaguars have had five head coaches, and all of them have been white: Mike Mularkey, Gus Bradley, Doug Marrone, Urban Meyer, and Darrell Bevell. Meyer was one of the splashiest and worst coaching hires in NFL history.

Owners obviously have every right to hire whoever they want to coach their teams, to their benefit or detriment. But it’s abundantly clear that Black coaching candidates have been woefully under-represented throughout NFL history, and when you consider the world today, that’s never been more true than it is now.