Today is Black Monday, a day when the tenures of head coaches end and hopes arise with the ushering in of new regimes.
Arthur Smith, who went 21-30 in three seasons with the Atlanta Falcons, was the first casualty at midnight. Then this morning Washington released Ron Rivera, who went 26-40-1 in four seasons with the Commanders.
While more will soon follow, Black Monday is far from what it sounds like for Black coaches for over the last three years, the grim day has resulted in bleak progress.
At the end of the 2020 season, the Steelers’ Mike Tomlin and the Dolphins’ Brian Flores were the only two Black head coaches. There was a chance to add more as seven head coaching vacancies opened up but six were quickly filled and the seventh team, the Houston Texans, opted to lease by hiring David Culley, a Black coach, to be the team’s clean-up man.
At the end of the 2021 season, nine vacancies opened up but that included the firing of Flores and Culley, which left Tomlin as the NFL’s sole Black head coach. Then Lovie Smith was hired by the Texans (as its second clean-up man), Bruce Arians stepped down and handed the headset to Todd Bowles and Miami replaced Flores with the biracial “human”, Mike McDaniel. In week six, Steve Wilks joined the club when he was promoted as Carolina’s interim head coach, replacing Matt Rhule.
The next month on the first day of Black History Month, Flores dropped a bomb by filing a racial discrimination lawsuit against the NFL and its teams. The suit was later joined by Wilks and former Tennessee Titans defensive coordinator Ray Horton.
While the lawsuit continues, the end of the 2022 season brought no growth as Wilks was replaced by Frank Reich and Smith was replaced by DeMeco Ryans.
So over three seasons, Black head coaching numbers have experienced zero growth.
At the start of the 2023 season, the NFL had three Black coaches- Tomlin, Bowles and Ryans. When the season ended on Sunday, those three were joined by Raiders interim head coach, Antonio Pierce.
This weekend, Tomlin, Bowles and Ryans all made the playoffs. Even better, they all hail from the defensive side of the ball (Colin Cowherd listeners understand the significance of this).
Today, vacancies are open/will be opening up. The former is true in Carolina, LA (Chargers), Atlanta and Washington. New England is expected to open up and other possibilities could include Chicago, Tennessee, and Arizona.
The other question mark is Las Vegas.
Pierce rallied the team after Josh McDaniels was fired after a week 8 loss to the Lions. Over the final nine games, Pierce went 5-4 and both fans and players are pleading for Pierce to get the job officially.
While the openings aren’t as numerous as in 2022, teams have the opportunity to buck the trend of hiring young, white offensive coordinators, stop recycling the same white coaches and recognize and hire qualified and talented Black coaches.
McDaniels has been rumored to be Bill Belichick’s replacement in New England if the legendary coach isn’t retained, but he doesn’t deserve a fourth chance at a head coaching opportunity.
Eric Bieniemy, on the other hand, deserves his first head coaching opportunity. He was able to squeeze 3,946 passing yards and 21 TDs out of Sam Howell and craft the Commanders into a top-15 offense. Imagine what he could do with a talented QB like Justin Herbert or Atlanta’s offensive weapons.
Carolina is interesting but presents numerous challenges due to horrendous trades, lack of draft capital and David Tepper. It needs stability and leadership. Steve Wilks provided that in 2022, but Tepper blew it.
The list of qualified Black coaches includes Bieniemy, Detriot Lions’ defensive coordinator Aaron Glenn, Vikings’ defensive coordinator Brian Flores, Rams’ defensive coordinator Raheem Morris and former Bucs offensive coordinator Byron Leftwich, who didn’t coach this past season.
More experienced coaches include 49ers defensive coordinator Steve Wilks, 49ers assistant head coach/running backs coach Anthony Lynn and coaching veterans Jim Caldwell and Leslie Frazier.
In recent years, the executive suites have browned with the hiring of Sandra Douglass Morgan (Las Vegas Raiders President), Kevin Warren (Chicago Bears President & CEO) and Damani Leach (Denver Broncos President).
There are now eight Black general managers as well- Chris Grier (Miami), Brad Holmes (Detroit), Martin Mayhew (Washington), Terry Fontenot (Atlanta), Andrew Berry (Cleveland), Ryan Poles (Chicago), Kwesi Adofo-Mensah (Cleveland) and Rann Carthon (Tennessee).
Unfortunately, duplicating that success on the field has stalled. The head coach is the face of the franchise and to not see Black faces leading teams sends a bad message to all.
Today, owners can take the first step in 2024 to change the league’s biased hiring practices and hire a talented, qualified Black head coach to lead their team.
Now all they have to do is take it.
