Black Press Business/Economic Feature Week of January 27, 2014
BUSINESS EXCHANGE
By William Reed
The Fritz Pollard Alliance
Over 100 million are expected to tune into the National
Football League’s (NFL) Super Bowl telecast. The NFL is a professional
American football league that constitutes one of the four major
professional sports leagues in North America. The NFL is a $9.3 billion
business composed of 32 teams divided equally between the National
Football Conference (NFC) and the American Football Conference (AFC).
The NFL runs a 17-week regular season from the week after Labor Day to
the week after Christmas with each team playing 16 games and having one
bye week. The NFL runs a 256-game regular season. The league has
approximately 1,600 employees. Of the league's 32 teams, six (four
division winners and two wild-card teams) from each conference compete
in the NFL playoffs, a single-elimination tournament culminating in the
Super Bowl, played between the champions of the NFC and AFC. The NFL
considers itself a trade association made up of and financed by its 32
member teams.
In the NFL 2014 Conference Championships, each NFC team’s starting quarterback was Black. Blacks comprise 70 percent of NFL rosters. Up to nine Blacks were starting quarterbacks during this last season. Seventy-five percent of the league’s office management is White. All owners are White. Discussions
of race always are heated in this country, but there's no denying
football is a predominantly African-American sport that has taken a step
back in hiring minorities as head coaches and in front offices. During the regular season there
were seven African-American coaches in the NFL. Over the last six
years, the plight of the Black NFL coach seemed to be taking some
strides. In 2006, when the Indianapolis Colts defeated the Chicago
Bears, we saw Tony Dungy and Lovie Smith make history as the first pair
of Black coaches to face each other in the championship game. In the
five years after that a Black coach appeared in four Super Bowls, with
Pittsburgh Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin appearing in two.
At
the end of this past regular season the Cleveland Browns, Minnesota
Vikings, Detroit Lions, Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Houston Texans and
Washington Redskins fired their head coaches. Leslie Frazer, former head
coach of the Vikings, was the only Black to lose his job. During the
January 2014 hiring cycle, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers announced their
hiring of Lovie Smith as their new coach. To confirm with the “Rooney
Rule” every team with a job open, at least went through the motions by
interviewing a Black for their opening. Smith and Jim Caldwell became
head coaches again in Detroit and Tampa Bay.
The
Rooney Rule requires teams to interview at least one minority candidate
for head coaching positions and has been a valuable tool in expanding
diversity and inclusion in hiring practices. Still there is more work to
do, especially around increasing and strengthening the pipeline of
diverse candidates for head coach and senior executive positions.
Additional “equal opportunity” steps that ensure more diversity and
inclusion are what professional football needs. Going forward there
needs to be more Black participation among NFL players,
head coaches, assistant coaches, owners, league management, referees,
team physicians, head trainers, and radio/TV announcers. Blacks should
exert more scrutiny regarding sports programs’ employment, development and equal opportunity.
In 1920, Frederick Douglass "Fritz" Pollard and Bobby Marshall were the first Black players in the NFL. Pollard became the first Black coach in 1921. From this legacy the Fritz Pollard Alliance was formed to promote diversity and
candidate talent development for coaching, front office executives and
scouting staff throughout the NFL. Black head coaches like Tony Dungy,
Lovie Smith and Marvin Lewis are involved in mentoring and networking
programs and educating team owners and managers regarding minority
candidates. The Alliance has suggested that the Rooney Rule cover
offensive and defensive coordinators and assistant head coaches. The
group doesn’t believe enough minorities have been given opportunities as
coordinators – especially those that call plays – and that if that
pipeline was expanded, more minority candidates could be given
opportunities.
William Reed is publisher of “Who’s Who in Black Corporate America” and available for projects via the BaileyGroup.org
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