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Sports
The NFL’s record on Black head coaches remains abysmal
By JAIME C. HARRIS AmNews Sports Editor
One!
That’s the number of current Black head coaches in the NFL out of its 32 teams. It’s imperative to note that 70% of the league’s players are Black. The alarmingly low ratio should be a critical concern of everyone who is a proponent of equity in both the public and private workforce.
But to state the NFL’s collective hiring practices of head coaches is rooted in racial and cultural bias is not appropriately ascribing the dire circumstances qualified Black candidates face. The Pittsburgh Steelers’ 49-year-old Mike Tomlin, who has not had a losing season in 15 years at the helm, is the league’s lone Black man holding the position out of 32 franchises.
Troy Vincent, the NFL’s executive vice president of football operations, views the matter of assessing Black head coaches and potential coaches in comparison to white coaches as disproportionate.
“There is a double standard. I don’t think that that is something we should shy away from,” Vincent said to the Washington Post last week. “But that is part of some of the things that we need to fix in the system.”
Yes, the dearth of Black head coaches is inarguably systemic. There is no defensible reason why team owners continue to hire white coaches who have less experience and tangible skill sets than their Black counterparts. Ostensibly, the most obvious and logical supposition is that all but one of the NFL team owners are white. The exception is the Jacksonville Jaguars’ Shahid Khan. A Pakistani-American, Khan’s last head coaching hire, Urban Meyer, was an abject failure who lasted less than one full year before being fired a little over a month ago with a record of 2-11.
The implication is white owners feel far more comfortable and reassured placing their multi-billion dollar property in the hands of someone with a shared ideological background. The feeling of similarity is the unquantifiable elephant in the room that Black coaches cannot overcome. They are at a disadvantage due to factors that should not be but are paramount.
Entering this season there were only three Black head coaches, Tomlin, the Miami Dolphins’ Brian Flores, a Brooklyn native of Honduran descent, and David Culley of the Houston Texans. Flores and Culley were both fired this month following the end of the NFL
regular season. The 40-year-old Flores has been widely commended for establishing a winning foundation for the Dolphins in his three seasons as head coach, amassing a record of 19-14 over the last two. The 66-year-old Culley entered a dysfunctional environment marred by the sexual misconduct scandal hovering over the Texans’ star quarterback Deshaun Watson and instilled respectibilty and pride into a talent-deficient team that played hard all season despite going 4-13. While eligible to play, Watson requested a trade last January and did not dress for any of the Texans’ 17 games. The Pittsburgh Steelers Mike Tomlin is currently The only other so-called minority head the NFL’s only Black head coach coaches are the Jets’ Robert Saleh of Lebanese descent, born and raised in Michigan, and the Washington Football Team’s Ron Rivera, a California product and the NFL’s only Latino—Rivera is Puerto Rican—head coach. Today, there are eight NFL head coach openings to fill. History says most will be apportioned to non-Blacks. The outcry already should have been clarion. This is not a sports concern in a vacuum. It is a microcosm of society that has far-reaching significance.
(Bill Moore photo)
Brooklyn Nets host informative discussion for NYC youth
By LOIS ELFMAN
Special to the AmNews
Last Saturday, the Brooklyn Nets hosted their annual Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. celebration at which the team honored Dr. King’s lasting impact and inspiration. A group of students from Good Shepherd Services, a youth development and family service agency, attended the game. Also part of the MLK celebration, last week a group of employees in the Brooklyn Nets’ Black Alliance Network participated in a virtual panel discussion with the group from Good Shepherd to discuss career paths in the sports industry.
“A lot of times I find myself talking to people who are in college and often they’re already in sports management programs,” said Adina Erwin, general manager of Barclays Center, home of the Nets. “Whereas in high school and some of the younger people, they haven’t figured it out and they’re not exposed to information about how they can get involved.” The panelists described careers in the sports industry from creative design to operations to finance to sponsorships to arena management. They also discussed how the Black Alliance Network enables them to find a support system among other people of color working in the Nets organization and BSE Global.
“Sharing their stories and journeys and how that got them to work at Barclays Center,” said Veronica, 16, an aspiring graphic artist who participated in the discussion and felt a connection to the experiences of the panelists. In particular, a creative director spoke about how his interest in art fueled him.
Erwin told the students that she wanted to be a guiding light for girls of color to see what is possible. “Making sure that I do my job well so that little brown girls can see me in these spaces,” said Erwin. “When you see other people who look like you in spaces, then even subconsciously you begin to think, ‘I might be able to do this.’
“The second is to get opportunities like we did with Good Shepherd to have conversations with girls about all the different opportunities that exist in this space,” she added. The panelists also explained that there are possibilities to work in and around sports that do not involve a college degree. Mentoring is important regardless of the career path. “Once you get into these spaces, you need to be able to call on someone to help you navigate, to answer questions and be honest and authentic,” said Erwin. “The panel discussion helped me think about preparing myself for the future by knowing that others are facing the same situation,” said Veronica. “Hearing their stories and what got them to be the best of themselves uplifts me and makes me feel that I can make my dreams come true.”
AMNEWS 01/06/22
Adina Erwin
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(BSE Global) photo) 01034
