The Las Vegas Raiders are widely expected to hire Seattle Seahawks offensive coordinator Klint Kubiak as their next head coach after Super Bowl LX. And if that happens, an NFL offseason hiring cycle featuring a record-tying 10 head coaching vacancies will result in zero Black candidates landing those jobs.
Only one minority candidate was among the 10 hires. Robert Saleh, the former New York Jets head coach and son of Lebanese immigrants, was hired as head coach of the Tennessee Titans.
During his annual Super Bowl week press conference on Monday, NFL commissioner Roger Goodell addressed the lack of diversity in head coaching hires, with the effectiveness of the Rooney Rule and the league’s efforts to increase the minority hires in question.
“Since [2019], [the NFL has] expanded the Rooney Rule, you have put in a mandate to try to address the offensive side of the ball with the coaching fellowship program, and you also put candidates in front of the decision-makers,” a reporter said to Goodell. “But everybody knows that this cycle is 0-for-10 for Black coaches, [1-for-10] for coaches of color. So, should you just be resigned to the fact now that basically nothing you do can move the numbers between three to seven on coaches and three to seven on general managers, those historic numbers that we’ve seen?”
“You know me too well to say I’m resigned to something where I think we need to continue to make progress,” Goodell responded. “And I believe that. I believe diversity is good for us. I think we have become a more diverse league across every platform, including coaching.”
“But we still have more work to do,” Goodell said. “There’s got to be more steps. We’re reevaluating everything we’re doing, including our accelerated program, including every aspect of our policies and our programs, to meet the challenges of today and tomorrow rather than yesterday.”
“So, we need to be looking at that and sort of say, ‘Okay, why did we have the results this year?'” Goodell continued. “‘What it is that we can be doing in training or education?’ And that goes for not just the candidates, but also the clubs. And how we can try to continue to increase the opportunities and the outcomes, ultimately.”
Just three of the 32 NFL organizations currently have a Black head coach: the New York Jets with Aaron Glenn, the Houston Texans with DeMeco Ryans, and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers with Todd Bowles. With all of the NFL head coaching positions filled, this will remain a huge storyline into next offseason.
About Matt Clapp
Matt is an editor/writer at The Comeback and Awful Announcing.
He can be reached by email at mclapp@thecomeback.com.