NFL: Coaching In The NFL Remains A Black And White Issue
The NFL continues to do a poor job promoting top-flight assistants who are African-American to head coaching positions.
By Noah Davis
UsFANS.com
Senior Writer
Every year I envy just 31 people — limited to 31 now that I can no longer even fool myself into thinking I can make an NFL roster — the 31 NFL head coaches.
With only a handful of teams making coaching changes in any given year, the possibilities of anyone becoming an NFL head coach dwindles even further. Apparently, if you’re an African American you have even less change of entering this elite fraternity — the Lucky 31.
In the NFC there are four new head coaches — Dallas” Dave Campo, Green Bay’s Mike Sherman, New Orleans” Jim Haslett, and St. Louis” Mike Marsh. They all have three things in common:
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Not one of them is younger than 45.
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Not one of them had ever been a head coach before, on any level.
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Not one of them is, or ever will be, African-American.
Despite the NFL ratio of 70 percent African American players, less than 7 percent of NFL head coaches are African American. That’s right; Tony Dungy, and Dennis Green are the only men of color in the Lucky 31. (Art Shell and Ray Rhodes are the only other African Americans ever to be head coach of an NFL franchise.)
Don’t get me started on the quarterback situation.
That Caucasian Americans get the head coaching jobs available in the NFL is surprising considering some research done by the UsFANS crack research staff. Comparing the four African American head coaches to four Caucasian head coaches who were given a SECOND chance to coach in the past couple of years (Bill Belichick, Bruce Coslet, Dave Wannstedt, and Wade Phillips), this is what we found.
The African-American coaches, going into 2000, had coached a collective 23 seasons, with a whopping 14 playoff seasons, and just 4 losing seasons. Going into 2000, their Caucasian counterparts had coached a collective 22 seasons, with a whopping 14 LOSING seasons versus just 4 playoff seasons.
Hmm, a pattern. It seems that not only can’t white men jump, they can’t coach, either. It also seems that mediocre-at-best Caucasian coaches are given second chances before their worthier black brethren are given a first.
And there are more than enough qualified African-American candidates than you can shake a stick at. Aside from the aforementioned Shell (who won a Coach of the Year award) and Rhodes, Sherm Lewis, Emmitt Thomas, and Johnny Roland are itching (and deserving) to enter the Lucky 31 club.
Even more frustrating to Lewis has to be watching three of his former prot’g’s, Steve Mariucci, Jon Gruden, and Andy Reid, get the call to lead a team before he gets his own shot. Or if you’re Emmitt Thomas with multiple Super Bowl rings, watching a college coach with a career losing record (Mike Riley, 8-14 with Oregon) get the San Diego position.
Only one thing is certain: at the end of the year, if not sooner, some head coaches” heads will roll and new vacancies will open up to join the Lucky 31. Let’s just hope that African-American coaches start getting their due, and their foot in the door.
That’s about as black-and-white as it gets.
Article courtesy of
UsFANS.com
