Now that we know which teams will play in Super Bowl LVI it’s time to focus on who should be hired to fill head coaching jobs for teams that have vacancies.
There are five teams still searching for head coaches. They include the New Orleans Saints, Jacksonville Jaguars, Minnesota Vikings, Miami Dolphins and Houston Texans.
Since most of the standout players in the NFL – much like in the college ranks – are African-American, team owners should have no problem hiring Black head coaches to run their teams from the field. But it seems most, if not all of them, have an issue with it.
I was told by someone within the Dallas Cowboys organization that White team owners and front office management don’t have a problem working with anybody, as long as White people are always in charge! They don’t have a problem with Black players being on the team or working as assistant head coaches. But putting Black people in leadership positions probably won’t happen. And if it does happen, that person is on a short leash with little room for error. So even though NFL rules force teams to interview diverse candidates, they don’t have to hire them.
If I was in charge of hiring for head coaching jobs my pool of candidates would include people with winning track records. Yet none of the five teams looking for head coaches wants to interview Black assistant coaches from the four teams that just finished playing in the AFC and NFC Championship games.
Click on the video above to find out who those undervalued assistant coaches are. And what they should do about it.
Steffanie Rivers is a freelance journalist living in the Dallas-Ft. Worth metroplex. Email her at [email protected] with your comments, questions and speaking inquiries. Follow her @tcbstef on Instagram and Twitter.
