In 2021, NFL owners hired one Black head coach to fill one of the seven vacancies in the league. Meanwhile, there were eight NBA head coaching spots available and their owners just hired seven Black head coaches over the last two weeks to fill them.
It’s a glaring, embarrassing, and infuriating disparity.
Unfortunately, it’s not a surprise.
At the start of the year, the Jets, Lions, Falcons, Jaguars, Chargers, Texans, and Eagles all parted ways with their head coaches. For Black coaches, this was a prime opportunity for advancement. It was a period of much promise, particularly as the Chiefs’ Eric Bienemy and the Bucs’ Byron Leftwich and Todd Bowles were in the Super Bowl.
They all were responsible for top-ranked offenses and defenses. Biememy, in particular, was at the top of the Black coaching list and it seemed to be his time.
But one by one, the spots were filled until the Texans finally hired David Culley.
The process caused an uproar, and rightfully so.
Only one Black head coach was hired and it appeared that team owners steamrolled right over the Rooney Rule.
It was a disrespect to Black coaches, especially those with the experience, credentials, and proven track record to at least demand an interview.
Bowles was a former head coach with the Jets. Lovie Smith took the Bears to a Super Bowl. Jim Caldwell turned the Colts and Lions into winning teams. Anthony Lynn was the head coach of the Chargers and deserved a second chance, especially with a healthy team and bonified superstar quarterback, Justin Herbert.
Although Caldwell was linked to the Texans, all of the other aforementioned men didn’t get a call or a serious look. This is a consistent problem for Black head coaches in the NFL.
You can, as Professor Lou Moore said, be the clean-up man but you rarely get recycled.
It’s akin to being Franklin at Charlie Brown’s Thanksgiving dinner; you’re invited but sit alone on the other side of the table.
The NFL has a history of giving multiple chances to white coaches despite mediocrity. Jon Gruden is a prime example of this practice.
In his first four seasons with the Raiders (1998-01), Gruden went 38-26 in the regular season and 2-2 in the postseason.
He was traded to the Buccaneers in 2002 and won the Super Bowl that season. But don’t forget, Tony Dungy left him a playoff-ready team after his six years at the helm. Dungy brought respectability back to Tampa Bay before leaving after the 2001 season for the Colts.
After his Super Bowl victory, Gruden went 45-51 over his next six seasons. He left coaching for ten years and became a media personality for ESPN. Yet despite not having coached for a decade, the Raiders signed him to a ten-year, $100 million contract in 2018. Three years and $30 million later, his record is 19-29. Granted the team has slightly improved each season, but for the money he’s making, slightly should not be a barometer of success.
The roster of undeserving, yet rewarded, white NFL head coaches consists of names like John Fox, Adam Gase, and Matt Patricia. They’re given multiple chances and longer leashes than Black coaches.
The Steelers Mike Tomlin, the Dolphins Brian Flores and the Texans David Culley are the only three Black head coaches in the NFL. While the pipeline of Black coaches has improved this offseason, it still doesn’t solve the issue at hand.
The NBA
In stark contrast is the NBA.
Bill Russell, as the Celtics’ player coach in 1966, was the first Black coach in NBA history.
In 1975, the Cleveland Indians hired Frank Robinson, the first Black manager in MLB history.
Yet the NFL didn’t hire a Black head coach until 1989 when the Raiders hired Art Shell.
Over the last four weeks, NBA owners hired Black head coaches for seven of the eight vacancies.
Nate McMillan was officially named the Hawks’ head coach after his amazing run in the playoffs. The Mavericks and Blazers went the point guard route and hired Jason Kidd and Chancey Billups, respectively. The Celtics hired Ime Udoka, the Magic went with Jamahl Mosley and the Pelicans signed Willie Green. Over the weekend, the Wizards brought back Wes Unseld Jr., this time as their head coach.
The other head coaching job was with the Pacers, who went with Rick Carlisle.
In the 2012-13 season, there were 14 Black NBA head coaches. Then attitudes, preferences, and strategies changed. Analytics were favored and former players were not. That contributed to the decline in the number of Black head coaches. Three years later, that number was cut in half.
But the NBA recognized the situation and addressed it.
This year, three of the four teams in this season’s conference finals were helmed by a Black head coach. Monty Williams is the lone one standing in the Finals.
The NFL’s inability, or refusal, to recognize their broken hiring practice hasn’t affected the league’s pockets. In March, they signed a new broadcast deal. Starting in 2023 and running through 2033, the monstrous $113 billion deal will pay the league over $10 billion per year.
But it established a disturbing trend.
NFL and Tradition
Certain names are recycled or regurgitated when NFL openings arise. Even more frustrating is the current mold in which many of their hires are patterned after that excludes many of a different physical appearance.
The Rams’ Sean McVay appears to be the cast that owners are using. The Cardinals’ Kliff Kingsbury, the Bengals’ Zac Taylor, the Packers’ Matt LaFleur, the Rams’ Brandon Staley and the Eagles’ Nick Sirianni all have similar traits and backgrounds. Young, white, offensive-minded coaches (Staley is the group’s exception as he was a defensive coordinator). While this will be the first year for both Staley and Sirianni, the others have molded their teams into offensive focused squads, which follows the league’s direction.
Absent from those ranks are Eric Biennemy and Byron Leftwich, the only two Black offensive coordinators in the league and the two offensive coordinators who led their teams to the Super Bowl this past season.
Their qualifications and success are irrefutable, so what’s preventing them from ascending to the head coaching ranks?
Are they not experienced enough? Do they lack head coaching experience? If so, that applies to the aforementioned coaches of a lighter shade as well, yet they were presented with their opportunity.
This is the barrier that frustrates aspiring Black head coaches in the NFL. It appears that the physical look of the coach is part of the qualifications checklist. It feels like some owners are searching for a particular face to lead their franchise, which is a long-standing feeling in these discussions.
Hall of Fame coach Tony Dungy echoed this sentiment in a powerful letter he penned to NFL owners this past February.
“I have to tell you it hurts even more to see African American coaches going through the same thing almost 30 years later. And it will hurt to see four African American coordinators in this Super Bowl who will be questioning whether they will actually get an opportunity to be a head coach in the foreseeable future. And this is hurting our league.”
This is the very same issue that plagued the NFL quarterback position for decades. The prototype was a tall pocket passer with a rocket arm and limited mobility. Shunned from that category were Black quarterbacks who added mobility to the position.
But their talent was shunned in favor of a prototype. And it’s one that some traditionalists still hold, as we witnessed with Bill Polian’s ridiculous pre-NFL Draft comments in 2018 about how Lamar Jackson should convert to wide receiver. To his credit, Polian eventually admitted he was wrong.
“I was wrong because I used the old, traditional quarterback standard with him, which is clearly why John Harbaugh and Ozzie Newsome were more prescient than I was,” Polian told USA TODAY Sports.
A Lesson to Learn
The NBA, in general, has been quicker to adapt to change than the NFL.
International players were drafted. Big men transitioned to the perimeter. Physical play and defense are shunned for more offense and scoring.
The NFL has fiercely held onto tradition and only recently (and reluctantly) opened its arms to embrace different ideas. Spread offenses, the read option, and mobile quarterbacks have finally been accepted.
But basketball moved much quicker.
The NBA and its owners recognized the direction its hirings were taking and decided to forge a better path. One where talent isn’t determined by a particular look. One where experience counts.
Is it perfect? No.
The recent NBA hires come with controversy and concerns. Many question the backgrounds and events surrounding Jason Kidd and Chauncey Billups.
But the NBA’s ability to open their eyes much wider and expand their searches beyond the unwritten statutes of what a head coach looks like is a lesson NFL owners should learn from and adopt.
