On the first day of Black History Month 2026, the NFL proved that Brian Flores was right for filing a racial discrimination lawsuit against the NFL on the first day of Black History Month four years prior.
At the end of the 2021 season, there were three Black NFL head coaches– Pittsburgh’s Mike Tomlin, the Texans’ David Culley and Miami’s Brian Flores.
At the end of that season, only Tomlin remained.
Flores interviewed with multiple teams after being fired, yet didn’t receive a single offer despite the job he did in cleaning up the mess in Miami left behind by Adam Gase.
He was said to be a hot candidate and with nine openings at the time, most thought he’d have another head coaching job.
We were wrong.
Fast forward to 2026 and 2022 has repeated itself.
Being blanked from ten vacancies is a humiliating moment for Black coaches across the NFL, and an infuriating one for Black NFL fans. Not a single offer was made to a Black coach.
Vikings defensive coordinator Brian Flores and Broncos DC Vance Joseph both have previous head coaching experience. Carolina’s Ejiro Evero and the Dolphins Anthony Weaver were popular and successful defensive coordinators.
Over on the offensive side of the ball were Rams pass game coordinator Nate Scheelhaase and Patriots passing game coordinator Thomas Brown.
Six qualified, successful head coaching candidates for ten openings and not one received an offer.
The digital trolls, who lack thinking skills and basic English skills, were thrilled to share their ignorant thoughts about the situation.
“Great to hear DEI hires are over. Merit based is the only way to go,” wrote one.
“Always caring about race and not skills,” posted another.
These responses from accounts with more spelling mistakes than followers were fully expected and happily ignored.
But this hiring cycle’s abysmal outcome for Black coaches demonstrated that it was about race and a merit system which excludes those of a darker shade.
This isn’t a personal criticism of the new coaches. Instead, this is (yet another) rebuke of a continually biased system.
A biased and broken system that Black coaches aren’t responsible to fix.
Far too often, Black people are put in the position where they have to do something others don’t to receive what they rightfully deserve.
Black players were told they couldn’t play quarterback because it was a thinking man’s position and required leadership skills. Once Black QBs proved their worth, they were suddenly too talented to play QB and were told to switch positions due to their athleticism.
Black coaches were told they couldn’t lead and systems were too complex for them to understand. Once they proved those stereotypes wrong, particularly on the defensive side of the ball, the league’s focus suddenly shifted to young (and white) offensive coordinators.
Even Super Bowl winning OCs like Eric Bieniemy and Byron Leftwich were never given head coaching opportunities. Instead, their success was belittled by many who attributed their championship success to others.
The same goes for Lionel Taylor, who Lou Moore wrote about in this amazing story. Taylor was a brilliant offensive strategist who, in 1981, became the first Black coordinator in NFL history as the Rams’ OC. Yet despite smashing offensive records, Taylor was never given his shot. He realized what we all realize.
It’s not the Black coaches- it’s the owners.
“An owner has to consider how that audience will react to a black head coach…That’s why I was never that optimistic about a black getting the shot,” said Taylor at that time.
It took eight more years before a Black head coach, Art Shell of the Raiders, was finally hired.
Yet 45 years later, Taylor’s sentiment still holds true for outside of Robert Saleh, the new coaches are all white.
And the weak excuses are exhausted.
“They don’t interview well” or they need to be offensive minded are played out. The six aforementioned Black coaches interviewed well enough to be coordinators and both the Pats and Seahawks are coached by men hailing from the defensive side of the ball.
This isn’t about DEI or a mandate that a Black coach must be hired.
It’s about fixing an obviously broken system.
Like so many other instances, the goalposts always seem to be pushed back when Black people succeed.
“It seems like the criteria moves,” said Bills DC Leslie Frazier to the Washington Post.
That’s why Brian Flores was, and continues to be, right. Now it’s up to the league and its owners to change the mindset hampering the careers of Black coaches.
They need real opportunity, not a toolbox and the expectation to fix what others destroyed.
They don’t need “clean-up man” roles, where they lead teams through bad times only to be replaced by others despite their success.
If it’s about merit, then base it on experience and qualifications, not recycling, physical looks or a legacy last name.
When we voice frustration over Black coaches being passed over, the response is a flooding of “no DEI” and “merit hiring” retorts.
Yet where’s that same energy for when those with no coaching experience like Jeff Saturday, Trent Dilfer, JJ Reddick and Doug Gottlieb become head coaches?
2026 marks the fifth time since the implementation of the Rooney Rule in 2003 that not a single Black head coach was hired (2008, 2010, 2013 and 2020). This signifies the need for real change, not generic “we have some more work to do” responses from the commissioner during Super Bowl week.
Brian Flores ignited the fuse to foster change, but it’s not the sole responsibility of Black coaches to fix a system they didn’t create.
