The N.F.L.’s Minority Head Coaching Ranks Are Thinning

Hmmmm...the US demographic makeup is roughly as follows 53% white 22%hispanic 16% black 7% asian 2% native Non story here other than to perpetuate some perceived social injustice or to provide a divisive wedge.

The Rooney Rule was for another time when there were no black head coaches at all and none likely. The NFL is a brutally cold blooded business. You win, you stay. You lose, you don't. It's the same for all head coaches and the ones that were fired had all failed. Many have already been hired as assistants and may get other chances in the future. It's a bottom line business and the business is winning.

8 black coaches this year out of 32. That is 25% of coaches. African Americans are 13% of the US. Seems like they are more than fairly represented and I don't understand the issue.

Social engineering doesn't work when talent is required. The door is open but you have to be qualified to enter.

It's rare for a NFL head coach to be sacked when they garner more wins and championships than losses. . . regardless of their race. Silly me - here I always thought head coaches were picked based on their various strong skill sets and talent rather than their ethnicity alone.

I think the effective approach is to hire former African American players as coaches, and then over time, have more black head coaches, such as Flores. I believe he played at Boston College. The one problem with article was the statement “waiting until the Patriots are eliminated from the playoffs”. So New York. Dream on .... we have no expectations a priori up here in Boston, and that is the difference.

"The Dolphins are expected to sign Brian Flores, the linebacker coach of the New England Patriots, once his team is eliminated from the playoffs, but he is the lone minority head coaching hire following the 2018 season." "once his team is eliminated from the playoffs"... I'm sensing some NY bias here, what if the Pats win it all?

I trust front offices are hiring and firing based on performance. In the case of head coaches that means won/loss records. That's why Mike Tomlin is still the Steeler's head coach while Hue Jackson at 1 and 31 the past two years is no longer in Cleveland.

It has to be a conspiracy, right?

This is an absurd article and a non-story. Mr. Belson fails to mention the records of the black coaches who were fired. Or the disproportionately high percentage of players who are black. Why? Because it has nothing to do with race. The best players play, and the best coaches coach.

"the Institute for Diversity and Ethics in Sport at the University of Central Florida" That's a thing now? Prepare for more articles like this one.

The problem regarding minorities is not with head coaches. It is, quite simply, with Colin Kaepernick. Take the Denver Broncos, for example. They paid a journeyman QB 32 million instead of getting Kaepernick who had much better life-time statistics. No other team even signed him as a backup. All of these white owners and white GMs didn't want an "uppity" black man on their team.

I'm confident that the problem is that a bunch of old, rich, White guys, many with deep roots in the south in the 1950s and '60s, don't want a Black guy running their team. What if those Black guys started taking a knee. Fan me, darling, I feel faint.

Race may influence the hiring of an NFL coach, but retention is based upon wins and losses. The author's notion that the league has "taken a step back" is asinine. The NFL is a for profit business, not a social program. Darwin has simply expressed himself.

As Jerry Glanville and many others now say the NFL sands for Not For Long. Coaches come and go with winning and losing records. While I am not happy with the recycling of head coaches. The new popular is Sean McVay, so anyone associated with him Black or White will be getting interviews. Now will they be hired? That is the question? \

I don't know why but black coaches fail just as white ones. Many who are hired I really have no idea why anybody would think that they might be a success, especially when they failed and were just fired.

In watching the games there seem to be a myriad of minority Assistant coaches- so bias for just coaching does not seem to hold. But the head coach has the neck that gets cut for losing- and the color of that neck doesn't matter. J from Canada has a point Hue Jackson has been given ample opportunity to prove himself- and he has had a failing record- so keep him just because he can notch the one for the minorities card? Mike Tomlin won a SuperBowl, so did Tony Dungy. Jim Caldwell couldn't- but neither could Chuck Pagano. Art Schell couldn't will with the Raiders- but neither could Jack Del Rio. Why are more of the assistant coaches not rising ? Maybe they don't want the headaches and heartache- I don't think there is a lack of opportunity. But the owners have the rights to hire and maintain coaches that bring them positive results.. They owe it to themselves and the fans they represent to make sure they have the best coaching staff they can get, so they should compare as many as possible. If a team was told Bill Belichick and Hue Jackson were available to coach a team- who would YOU hire, based on past results?

The fact that so many black coaches were fired may be a sign of integration. You can't fire that many black coaches if they don't have jobs. White coaches who lose are routinely fired and black coaches who lose will be routinely fired. That's the nature of the sport. In the case of Arizona you can make the argument that their white GM who hired Wilks was equally culpable in the teams performance the last few years. He also had an offseason DUI yet he was not only retained but he was instrumental in hiring the new HC and staff after a dismal failed season followed by two down seasons before Wilks got there. The double standard is troubling but over all the firings are a sign the Rooney rule is working. We need more black GM's and owners and we need more coaches getting opportunities in general. A larger pool of people creates more competition which is good for the game.

This analysis borders on sophistry because there is absolutely no reason to believe the ethnic breakdown of NFL coaches should match that of players (or even that of the country as a whole). If we are simply attempting to flesh out discrimination, we should first simply ask if the ethnic makeup of the NFL coaching ranks matches that of the qualified applicant pool--which are essentially successful NFL coordinators and elite college coaches--and if it doesn't match, we can delver further to understand if racist discrimination is at play. Another way to view it is like this: would we presume anti-male discrimination at a high school if the gender breakdown of teachers doesn't match the student population or the general population as a whole (which in this case happen to both be 50-50 obviously)? No, because it turns out the qualified candidate pool (experienced teachers; education degree holders, etc.) is 75% female. Now if you believe that we need more diversity for other reasons (i.e., not to eliminate discrimination at the NFL hiring level but something along the lines of affirmative action to redress for structural inequities), well then just say that. I would have a series of counterarguments against such a policy, but first let's just agree on what we are debating.

It might have been appropriate to emphasize that all the coaches fired not only had terrible records, but also lots of time to prove themselves (I mean, Hue Jackson? Come on.). Plus that there's an excellent case for firing Mike Tomlin as well. Plus that Brian Flores will be getting a huge promotion, moving up from linebackers coach.

One's ability to coach does not have anything to do with one's race. One's ability to play the game has nothing to do with one's ability to coach. We've seen great players try to coach and they were not as successful as they were as players. Mike Singletary comes to mind. We've seen great coaches that never played the game at the professional level - see Bill Belichick. So we should dispense with the idea that the percentage of Head Coaches should match - or correlate in any way - with the demographics of the players in the league.

Whites are two thirds of the population. I demand they make up the same proportion of players. NYTimes, you’re showing your liberal bias again. Knock it off.

Good grief! Coaches come and go as do players. I don't think that ethnicity/race is important to the owners. Just which coaches produce the results for an incredibly lucrative business. I certainly believe that racism has existed in the past but I don't believe that today's owners give a hoot about race as long as their teams are winning. Coaching is a cut-throat business.

"Thus far, the lone exception has been the Dolphins, who are expected to sign Brian Flores, the linebacker coach of the New England Patriots, once his team is eliminated from the playoffs." Eliminated? NYTimes chief augurist Ken Belson, ladies and gentleman.

Lovie Smith was the Chicago Bears' head coach for nine years (he was the third-longest head coaching tenure in the team's history, after Mike Ditka (11 years) and team founder George "Papa Bear" Halas (40 years). He went on to be the head coach for Tampa Bay for the 2014-2015 seasons. On January 6, 2016, Smith was fired by the Buccaneers after posting a record of 8-24 in his two years, including a 6–10 record in the 2015 season. Frankly, I don't look at the racial makeup of any NFL head coach. I look at their overall record of wins vs. losses. Mike McCarthy was the head coach of the Packers from 2006 to 2018, but led them to only one Super Bowl victory (XLV) and that was WITH Aaron Rogers. He should have been fired years ago. There are as many excuses why a coach is hired and fired as there are players. Honest to Pete, making this coaching story about race is as lame as Cody Parkey's inconsistent kicking abilities.

Why are there no articles saying that the playing ranks in the NFL need to reflect American diverse demographics more accurately?