Hoodie Network
There’s a lot of news to cover this week in the NFL. Hirings, interviews, lawsuits, and a conversation about the lack of diversity, this article is going to be a doozy!
Recent Hires and a Hot Take
Here’s a rundown of recent HC hires:
Bears – Colts DC Matt Eberflus
Broncos – Packers OC Nathaniel Hackett
Giants – Bills OC Brian Daball
Jaguars – Former Eagles HC Doug Pederson
Raiders – Pats OC Josh McDaniels
Vikings – Rams OC Kevin O’Connell
Dolphins – 49ers OC Mike McDaniel
Texans – Texans DC Lovie Smith
Saints – Saints DC Dennis Allen
The last two teams to hire their new coach were the Texans and Saints. The Texans, well… I guess having a lack of talent on the roster and dysfunction in the organization doesn’t attract the highest level of candidates. That is why I had them ranked last in my article ranking the head coaching landings spots, *wink wink*. And although Sean Payton retired after the article was posted, the Saints would have been ranked BEHIND the Texans. Yes, I said it!
I know that seems very drastic, but remember – I’m not talking about how good the team will be. Certainly, the Saints will likely be better than the Texans. However, think about this. I’m a fan of stand-up comedy, and I also like to listen to interviews or podcast that feature some of my favorites. Almost every single comedian has shared a story that goes like this: “I had a show where I had to follow [insert comedian legend]. He destroyed the room. I mean… murdered it. That was my toughest show ever. It was impossible.” See what I’m getting at.
What coach would think following Sean Payton, a Saints and NFL legend, with no starting quarterback and already almost $80 million over the salary cap for next season? Now I’m a firm believer that the salary cap doesn’t exist in the NFL, but only to a certain point. $80 million seems like somewhere around that point. Being the coach that has to figure out how to navigate the “post Sean Payton” Saints seems like a tough ask.
Brian Flores Lawsuit
We can’t talk about the head coaching search without talking about the big news of the week. Brian Flores has filed a lawsuit against the NFL alleging a multitude of things:
- Racism in the hiring process and being involved in sham interviews only meant to comply with the Rooney Rule – for the Broncos in 2019 (in which many people, including GM John Elway, showed up noticeably hungover) and the Giants in 2022 (texts from Bill Belichick seem to show that the Giants had already made the decision to hire Brian Daboll before they had even interviewed Flores)
- Being offered $100,000 for each loss by Dolphins owner Stephen Ross, meant to incentivize tanking (it’s worth noting that this was the #TankForTua year)
- Being pressured by Stephen Ross to break NFL rules and collude/tamper with a top free agent quarterback – Flores was invited to owner Stephen Ross’s yacht for lunch. When he arrived, he was informed that this “prominent quarterback” was conveniently arriving at the marina for an impromptu meeting. Flores refused the meeting and left.
- He was “treated with disdain and held out as someone who was noncompliant and difficult to work with” and that the Dolphins upper management made him out to be the stereotypical “angry black man” as an excuse to fire him
The teams and the NFL have adamantly refused these claims. Many black coaches/players/executives have come out to back Flores and say that they have dealt with similar things. I personally find it interesting that within a few hours of the lawsuit being public, the NFL said that the claims were “baseless”. How exactly did they have enough time to do a thorough investigation? Or were they just defensive because they know it’s probably true? I know what I think.
Now, I don’t have much to really breakdown in regard to the lawsuit. I mean, is it really that much of a stretch to imagine the NFL and NFL franchises being racist or not considering minority coaches? There’s a reason the Rooney Rule had to be introduced in the first place. What I want to do is breakdown who was interviewed for the open coaching jobs, as is listed in this article by NFL.com, to maybe get a better picture of why black coaches feel like they aren’t getting an equal opportunity.
NFL HC Interviews & Talking Diversity
First, I want to give credit to the New Orleans Saints. I think if we are going to hold certain teams accountable for not including minorities in their coaching searches then we also have to give credit to the ones who do. Here’s who they have interviewed: Dennis Allen – Saints DC, Eric Bieniemy – Chiefs OC, Brian Flores – former Dolphins HC, Aaron Glenn – Lions DC, Byron Leftwich – Bucs OC, Doug Pederson – former Eagles HC (hired by Jags), and Darren Rizzi – Saints special teams coordinator. Of their 7 candidates, 4 are black, and 4 out of 5 of their out-of-house candidates are black. That’s around 57% (80% out-of-house) black candidates. For a league that is about 70% black, that is huge step in the right direction.
Here is a breakdown of the interviews for each team:
Team – # of black coaches/total # of coaches, top black candidates who didn’t receive an interview
Top Black Candidates
Brian Flores, Fired Dolphins HC
Eric Bieniemy, Chiefs OC
Todd Bowles, Bucs DC
Byron Leftwich, Bucs OC
Jim Caldwell, Former Lions HC
Saints – 4/7, no Bowles, Caldwell
Bears – 5/11, no Bieniemy
Broncos – 3/10, no Flores, Bowles, Leftwich, Caldwell
Texans – 2/6, no Bieniemy, Bowles, Leftwich, Caldwell
Jaguars – 3/12, no Flores, Bieniemy
Raiders – 2/4, no Flores, Bieniemy, Leftwich, Caldwell
Dolphins – 4/7, no Bieniemy, Bowles, Leftwich, Caldwell
Vikings – 4/10, no Flores, Bieniemy, Leftwich, Caldwell
Giants – 3/6, no Bieniemy, Bowles, Leftwich, Caldwell
Do I expect every team to hire a black coach? No. Do I expect every team to interview every black candidate? No. Do I even expect every team to interview every top black candidate? No. But as you can see, most of the teams are interviewing less than 50% black coaches (in some cases way under 50%) and most teams are not even interviewing the top black candidates.
Does this mean that every team has a racist agenda? Again, no. It’s much deeper than that. Black people are far less likely to be hired into an NFL coaching staff, despite making up around 70% of the NFL. Even the few black people who are hired have less of a chance of “climbing the coaching ladder” than white coaches. This pattern continues all the way to the top. It’s not that the general manager of your favorite team is a racist, it’s that black people, black players, black coaches, black executives are constantly overlooked and refused the ability to work up that ladder.
I notice that we “excuse in” white coaches and “excuse out” black coaches. For example, a white coach has back-to-back terrible seasons. “But he didn’t have good players. He didn’t have a quarterback. His guys got injured” We make excuses to keep that coach “in”. But Eric Bieniemy “doesn’t call the plays, Andy Reid does. He has a questionable past. He has Patrick Mahomes, can he do it without him?” We make excuses to keep qualified black coaches “out”.
The NFL has a long, long way to go. The world has a long way to go. One thing I see a lot is that “the Rooney Rule has failed”. It was never designed to be a fix-all. It was designed to help. It was a good first step towards diversity within NFL coaching staffs. It’s long past time for the NFL to take another step, not automatically feel the need to defend itself when accused of wrongdoing.
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