Gains in Diversity
The NFL has made great gains in recent years in its minority hiring practices, thanks in large part to a rule requiring each team with a head coaching vacancy to interview at least one minority candidate.
That rule has not been extended to interviewing for key front office jobs like general manager. But NFL teams have agreed that each club with an opening at GM or another key front office position should interview at least one minority candidate voluntarily, and the sport has been making progress on that front as well.
The gains are in evidence with the final four teams still playing this weekend.
The Baltimore Ravens have an African-American general manager, Ozzie Newsome. The Arizona Cardinals have an African-American front office chief, Rod Graves.
And it goes beyond the front office to other key positions on the sideline and on the field. The Pittsburgh Steelers have an African-American coach, Mike Tomlin. The Philadelphia Eagles have an African-American quarterback, Donovan McNabb.
There was a time not so long ago in the NFL when all of those positions--general manager, coach, quarterback--were essentially off limits to minority candidates.
The first African-American coach to win a Super Bowl, Tony Dungy, retired from the Indianapolis Colts last week. But the Colts already had designated their African-American quarterbacks coach, Jim Caldwell, to succeed him.
Earlier in this hiring cycle for coaches, the San Francisco 49ers took the interim tag off the title of Mike Singletary and made him their head coach. On Saturday, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers promoted 32-year-old defensive coordinator Raheem Morris to head coach, a day after firing Jon Gruden. Singletary and Morris are African-American coaches.
Certainly, there is more work to be done. The playing field still does not seem to be completely level. Not yet. But on conference championship Sunday, it should be pointed out that the system does seem to be working in the NFL these days, after so many decades of not working at all.
By
Mark Maske
|
January 18, 2009; 2:59 PM ET
| Category:
Diversity
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