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Leagues and Governing Bodies

NFL, Rooney Rule Face Scrutiny Over Recent Coaching Hires

Eric Bieniemy, other Black coaches appear to face different standard for a head coaching jobGETTY IMAGES

With six of the seven NFL coaching vacancies this offseason now filled, it appears being Black "still does matter when it comes to getting hired in the first place," and that has "become a problem the NFL seems increasingly unable -- or unwilling -- to fix," according to Tim Dahlberg of the AP. There are no new Black coaches in the group hired, though Robert Saleh was hired to coach the Jets as the NFL's first Muslim head coach. The Rooney Rule that requires minorities be interviewed for all head coaching openings "gets Black applicants a foot in the door," but the door "seems to close when it comes to making the actual hire, and recent tweaks to the rule haven’t been enough to change that." The NFL currently has only four minority coaches, just two of them Black, pending the Texans' coaching hire. That is "simply unacceptable in a league where 70 percent of players are Black." NFL efforts to diversify the head coaching ranks "simply haven’t worked," and once "hailed as trailblazing, the Rooney Rule now seems almost irrelevant" (AP, 1/21).

DIFFERENT STANDARDS: USA TODAY's Mike Freeman writes this is "one of the bleakest hiring cycles in recent NFL history." The criticism of it is "less about the hires themselves, and more about who gets the opportunity, who does not, and why." New Lions coach Dan Campbell's hiring is "one of the best examples yet" of what Chiefs offensive coordinator Eric Bieniemy and other Black coaches "face when it comes to getting one of these jobs." The "standards for them are stratospheric and always shifting," while the "standards for their white counterparts are neither" (USA TODAY, 1/22).

NO EXPLANATION: In California, Mark Whicker writes the Chargers "do not have to apologize" for hiring new coach Brandon Staley, who is white, after firing Anthony Lynn, who is black. Staley is "sharp, humble and surpassingly confident." But neither the Chargers nor anyone else "can sufficiently explain to anyone," particularly Bieniemy, why the "composition of NFL head coaches somehow can’t get beyond the pale." Whicker: "Nobody wants quotas." But in a league in which around 70% of players are Black, "you might think" the number of Black head coaches would be "more than two" (ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER, 1/22). USA TODAY's Nancy Armour writes, "The only plausible explanation is the same as it’s always been: NFL owners are happy to employ people of color as players, maybe even as position coaches. But they’ll be damned if they’ll allow a Black or brown man to be the public representative for their prized possession. So they move the goalposts to explain passing over people of color while contorting themselves to justify their hiring of equal or lesser white candidates" (USA TODAY, 1/22).

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