On October 10th, the Panthers suffered an embarrassing 37-15 defeat at the hands of the San Francisco 49ers. That loss signaled the end of Carolina’s failed Matt Rhule head coaching experience.
Sitting at 1-4 and owning a downward trajectory, Panthers’ owner David Tepper named team defensive coordinator Steve Wilks the interim head coach and tasked him with righting the ship.
Wilks’ new role was reminiscent of his brief time in Arizona. There he inherited a defense ravaged by bad managerial decisions, an atrocious offense and a rookie quarterback in Josh Rosen who wasn’t worthy of his first-round selection.
In other words, he was destined, arguably set up, to fail.
Arizona ended up firing Wilks, a defensive coach, in favor of Kliff Kingsbury, an “offensive minded” coach.
It was a humiliating end to Wilks’ first head coaching opportunity.
The Cardinals gave Kingsbury four years and he responded with a 28-37-1 record. At the end of this past season, he was fired and fled to Thailand.
Steve Wilks deserved the luxuries afforded to Kingsbury. He deserved the opportunity to coach Kyler Murray and DeAndre Hopkins and the time to develop a team.
Seeing Black head coaches put in undesirable positions and then fired in the NFL isn’t, unfortunately, a rare occurrence.
Last season we witnessed it when the Dolphins fired Brian Flores after back-to-back winning seasons and Houston fired David Culley after he cleaned up the mess left behind by former Texans’ head coach Bill O’Brien. We witnessed it again this season when the Texans fired Lovie Smith after doing the best he could with Houston’s talent-challenged roster.
This means that the Texans humiliated three Black head coaches (Romeo Crennel took over after O’Brien was fired) in a row for failing to win with meager resources.
This past Thursday, the Panthers chose Frank Reich over Steve Wilks. Why?
Because Reich was a more “offensive-minded” coach.
That term has infiltrated and influenced the vision and decision-making process of NFL owners over the last few years, and it appears to be failing them in many cases.
Just look at Nathaniel Hackett’s time in Denver and Josh McDaniel’s first year in Las Vegas. Check out the results of the aforementioned Matt Rhule, Bill O’Brien and Kliff Kingsbury. And let’s not ignore Kevin Stefanski, who has gone 11-5, 8-9 and 7-10 in his three seasons as the Browns head coach.
They were expected to forge success.
Instead, they’ve combined for 3 total playoff wins during their head coaching careers.
Their failures magnify the fact that qualified Black head coaches are shunned in favor of alleged offensive coaching genius.
And it illustrates how the “offensive-minded” terminology has evolved into coded language.
When NFL owners want to hire a head coach, they can justify hiring a white coach by pulling the “offensive-minded” card. They know that the majority of Black coaches, with very few exceptions (Eric Bienemy, Byron Leftwich), are defensive minded, so it’s easy to camouflage their decision.
Now, before you get all emotional, I’m quite aware that not all white coaches offensive-minded. Bill Belichick, Pete Carroll, John Harbaugh and Brandon Staley all hail from the defensive side of the ball.
And yes, I know the Texans just hired former 49ers defensive coordinator DeMeco Ryans as their new head coach (only after humiliating their two previous Black head coaches with one-and-done seasons).
But when qualified Black coaches are consistently bypassed for offensive-minded head coaches who are white, something we’ve seen over the past two seasons, a grave problem exists.
Now, are all owners racists? No.
But the process definitely is and Carolina’s decision not to hire Steve Wilks exposes it. It also becomes more fuel for Brian Flores’ racial discrimination lawsuit that Wilks later joined.
The Carolina native led a 1-4 team to a 6-6 record (7-10 overall), and almost won the NFC South title and a playoff birth. He focused on the run game and strengthening the defense, which elevated the team and energized its fan base.
Wilks deserved to be Carolina’s head coach. His performance spoke volumes and the players fully supported him.
Yet Tepper hired Frank Reich, who was fired by the Colts after a 3-5-1 start.
For those supporting Reich, yes, I know he’s a good person. But this is not about him. Rather it’s about the system that oftentimes unfairly elevates him over qualified Black coaches.
At one point, there was talk of Reich and Wilks working together as head coach and defensive coordinator, respectively. Yet after Wilks’ performance this season, why couldn’t it be the other way around?
It’s time to change the narrative, thought process and usage of coded language in head coaching searches.
Hopefully, Indianapolis and Arizona are paying attention.
