Sports: Black coaches still being slighted in the NFL?

-- Maurice Draine

I challenge each and every person who reads this article to answer one question: How can the NFL, which is made up of 65 percent black players, only have 19 percent (6 out of 32) of black coach representation? Fritz Pollard was considered the first black pro football coach in 1921. He coached the Akron Pros; another black coach wouldn’t get a sniff for 68 years.

In 1989, Art Shell, former Oakland Raiders’ player, became only the second black coach to ever professionally coach and the first in the NFL. This is very disturbing, and though things are slowly changing because we now have six black coaches, the NFL shouldn’t be patting itself on the back just yet. We still have a long way to go.

What the world really should know is that the NFL didn’t just wake up and say, " You know what? We don’t have enough minority coaches in our league, let’s do something about it." Three years ago, attorneys Johnnie Cochran and Cyrus Mehri threatened to sue the NFL over its lack of minority coaches. In response, the NFL’s Workplace Diversity Committee came up with the "Rooney Rule," named after Pittsburgh Steelers’ owner and committee chairman Dan Rooney. The new NFL rule required that all teams would have to interview at least one minority candidate when looking for a head coach.

This was a great thing when it first came out and it still is. Black and minority hopefuls were really excited and thought they had a real legitimate chance of getting an NFL head-coaching job. Before the "Rooney Rule," when a job opened up, they weren’t even getting mentioned to fill it. To make sure their new ruling was been fulfilled, the NFL decided to implement a $250,000 fine to any owner who didn’t give a qualified minority an interview before selecting a head coach.

Seven months after the threat of a large fine went into effect, the Detroit Lions hired Steve Mariucci without interviewing any black candidates. Several were invited but declined because the whole entire world knew that Mariucci’s hiring was a foregone conclusion. NFL commissioner Paul Tagliabue hit team president Matt Millen with a $250,000 fine to send the rest of the league a message.

"In many ways it may have been the best thing that could have happened because it showed this was a rule with some teeth," said Mehri. Cochran passed away in March. So what did other GM’s and owners do that subconsciously vowed to themselves never to hear black coaches? They started giving "token" interviews to minorities knowing they weren’t going to hire them no matter how the interview went. It was just a ploy so the league wouldn’t fine them.

This 2005-06 off-season had a lot of surprises for black and minority coaching hopefuls around the league. There was an NFL record, 10 open NFL head coaching jobs and out of all those jobs, only one black was hired. Most sports columnists don’t even count that hire because Herm Edwards, a black coach for Kansas City, already had a head job the previous year in New York. That was a lateral move.

So, in essence, there were nine open positions and white candidates filled them all. Fifteen qualified minority coaches will not be head coaches this year. They all were passed over for people that looked more like the owners of the teams. In half these hires, the white candidate came with far less experience. So, I guess I’ll say what minority hopefuls have been hearing for years, "Maybe next year."

Here’s an example of far less experience. It took Romeo Crennel, Cleveland Brown’s head coach, 35 years to get his first head-coaching job in the NFL. That’s more than a quarter of a century. Even with all his expertise, owners wouldn’t give him the time of day. Crennel still had to help Bill Billicek win not one, but three Super Bowls before he was finally recognized for the great football mind that he is. Then, the New York Jets give his 35-year-old understudy, his pupil, Eric Mangini, a head-coaching job the first time he made his name available.

New Rams’ head coach, former Minnesota Vikings’ offensive coordinator, Scott Linahen, has only been in the NFL for four years and he leap-frogged many good minority candidates with far more experience than he had.

Right when former head coach Mike Tice got fired, Ted Cottrell, the defensive coordinator thought he’d be a top candidate to replace Tice. That wasn’t the case. After a three-hour interview with Vikings’ owner, Zygi Wilf— which Wilf said went very well—the next time they spoke, Cottrell was being told that franchise was heading in another direction and would be hiring Brad Childress, offensive coordinator for the Philadelphia Eagles.

Aren’t you tired of hearing that more black head coaches should win head jobs this off-season because of the success this season of Tony Dungy, Marvin Lewis and Lovie Smith? Are you kidding me? What that says to me is, had those three black coaches failed this year, that would’ve been it for all the other minority coaches waiting in the wings. How fair is that? What if it were the other way around? What if white coaches were never hired ever again because of the consistent lack of success of Norv Turner, Dom Capers and Dick Juron? If white coaches were looked at as black coaches are, the Green Bay Packers new head coach, Mike McCarthy, would never have gotten his first head coaching job this early in his career.

But, white coaches are judged individually, as all should be, and not collectively, as black coaches are. In other words, when one black coach fails, they all fail. What pressure on each coach? And even though we’re supposed to be entering an off-season where all the unfairness of being judged all together is supposed to work in the favor of black head coaches, it hasn’t transpired 0-for-9.