As I have previously discussed in my third journal entry, the National Football League has a long history of under-representing the 70% of African American men that play in the league. Out of the 32 teams in the NFL, there are only two black head coaches and two black general managers, and there is not a single black owner of a team. I went in depth about the history of black people either being under-represented or treated as lesser than by coaches and leaders of the organization, I want to focus on problems the league faces today. There is a very clear lack of black head coaches around the league, and more than enough qualified candidates that would be able to fill those roles but still can’t find the job. Currently, one of the clearest examples of this is Eric Bieniemy, the Kansas City Chiefs Offensive Coordinator. He has helped lead one of the best offenses in football of all time over the past 3 years, and has been great since 2013 when he joined the organization. He has led the Chiefs offense to 3 AFC championship games in the past three seasons, and a Super Bowl win in 2019. Bieniemy has arguably been the top candidate for a head coaching job over the past three season because he has been so good, yet he has held the same title of Offensive Coordinator. Another example is the Super Bowl winning Offensive Coordinator Byron Leftwich, who also did not manage to get a head coaching job despite his extremely impressive resume. This picture below shows the lack of black head coaches over time, with it getting worse recently.
However, this problem can only be solved through change at the owner level. As of today, there is not a single African American that owns an NFL franchise. Actually, there is only one owner across the NFL, NBA, and MLB that is, and that is Michael Jordan who owns the Charlotte Hornets. People are more inclined to hire those with similar experiences as them, so unless something changes at the executive level for the National Football League, there most likely won’t be substantial change. The league has recently been more public about supporting groups such as Black Lives Matter and standing up for change, but seem to not be doing anything about the problems in their own organization.
Sources:
https://www.forbes.com/sites/alexreimer/2021/01/22/nfl-teams-egregiously-passing-on-black-head-coaches-shows-rooney-rule-cant-change-biases/?sh=161a21f11802
https://www.nfl.com/news/eric-bieniemy-byron-leftwich-left-waiting-as-number-of-black-nfl-head-coaches-st
Well done. I think it is pretty easy to watch the NFL and not think twice about the lack of African-American head coaches and GMs since, as you brought up, the majority of players are in fact African American themselves. To have all of these African American players make up the league, but not to hire them as coaches is just sad. It is hard to believe that race is still a factor in the job hiring process. Who knows how much more the league could flourish if African Americans were not underrepresented in coaching and front office positions.