Minority Hiring

I had a more upbeat Flicker in mind for Memorial Day. Then I read Peter King's Football Morning In America column. King is one of best football writers. He's my favorite as he never ceases to approach football with a wonderful sense of curiosity. What he finds interesting about the game I find interesting. When he finds something interesting he really dives into it. This wasn't one of those fun, interesting columns. He doesn't like tackling the NFL's horrible track record of hiring minorities for head coaching and team management positions. There are loads of more fun, more exciting football topics. Even in May. Unfortunately, his job demands that he deals with some shitty topics on occasion. It isn't always pretty in the NFL. So, here I am, speaking again on the hiring inequality in the NFL. Thanks Peter.

In his column, King touches on nepotism within some of the league's teams as a possible reason for the lack of opportunities for minorities in the assistant coaching ranks. To get to one of the league's 32 head coaching positions, a coach has to start somewhere. If they aren't getting opportunities at the assistant coaching level they aren't on a track to get noticed. Is nepotism blocking some young minority coaches from getting that first opportunity in the league? King mentions it as a possibility. Head coaches fill their coaching staff with coaches they know and they do know their kids. King mentions four teams with father-son coaching combinations. The Minnesota Vikings, New England Patriots, Seattle Seahawks, and Kansas City Chiefs. He mentions the specific fathers and sons coaching on the Patriots, Seahawks, and Chiefs. It doesn't take long to detail those particulars as the assistant coaches in question are sons of the head coach. He doesn't mention the specific fathers and sons coaching with the Vikings. Perhaps that's because there are three fathers and three sons. It would take too long to explain each of the three. Or, perhaps it's because one of the Vikings' father-son tandems is African American.  Defensive Coordinator Andre Patterson is a long-time coaching friend of Mike Zimmer. It was only natural that Patterson would come to Minnesota when Zimmer finally received his first head coaching opportunity in 2014. It also felt natural that AC Patterson would get an opportunity to break into the NFL coaching world as an offensive quality control coach on his father's team. A young African American football coach has to get an opportunity somewhere, somehow. In this case, nepotism helped that young African American football coach.

Now to the heart of the minority hiring matter. Talking heads around the football world have often tackled this issue. Everyone with an interest in the sport probably has an opinion on it. From internet idiots that honk nonsense like "whatta bout white running backs!" to people actually thinking about solutions. All possible solutions come from the right place but they all dance around the reason for the problem. There are too many owners that don't want to hire a black head coach. If you throw 20 old, rich, white men into a room, I'll bet that three-quarters have racist ideals. We see racist tendencies every single day. Everywhere. From walking along the street to the highest levels of the government. Fortunately, the number of people that truly want to see things change are increasing in numbers. But there's so much catching up to do. In my lifetime, I've seen NFL coaching staffs go from zero, or damn near zero, black assistant coaches to modest representation across all 32 teams. I've seen black quarterbacks routinely moved to less "thinky" positions to actually leading their teams. These modest changes took more than 40 years. Very slow. Some of today's black quarterbacks are among the most dominant football players in the league. Before we celebrate these slow and modest changes, take a look at the drafts in which those quarterbacks were selected. In the 2017 NFL Draft, Mitchell Trubisky was selected before Patrick Mahomes and DeShaun Watson. Perhaps the Chicago Bears were just stupid, a team that simply missed something. A year later, Baker Mayfield, Sam Darnold, Josh Allen, and Josh Rosen were selected in the top 10. Lamar Jackson was selected with the 32nd pick. If the Ravens hadn't traded into that spot, Jackson would've fallen out of the first round. As much as the opportunities have inched forward for black quarterbacks over my lifetime, more often than not they are considered after the white quarterbacks. The quarterback position has followed the same integration evolution as the other "thinking" positions. Middle linebacker, center, safety. There was a time when blacks weren't allowed to the play those positions either. The evolution has just been much, much slower for the quarterbacks. The reason for that is obvious. They are the face of the team. As is the head coach. Maybe a decade from now the black quarterbacks of today will be quarterback coaches and offensive coordinators. Those are the assistant coaches that are typically tapped to be head coaches. The opportunities for blacks have to grow even more before there's enough black head coaching candidates that even racist owners can't ignore them. But nothing will change until owners want to hire a person of color to be their head coach. When was the last time an old, rich, white man changed his mind on anything?