ORLANDO Fla.
The NFL’s rule that at least one minority candidate be interviewed for each head coaching vacancy is the reason there are now a record seven Black head coaches, six more than 16 years ago, says one of the leading experts on sports diversity.
The University of Central Florida’s Institute for Diversity and Ethics in Sport credited the league’s “Rooney Rule,” adopted in late 2002, for the improvement.
“It’s been really fast-tracked in a big-time way,” says Dr. Richard E. Lapchick, the study’s author. “I’ve always felt [NFL] commissioner [Paul Tagliabue] had high on his priority list to improve the record for diversity, but until then he just didn’t have the leverage.”
The number of Black general managers also increased, from two in 2003 to a record five at the beginning of this season, after the Houston Texans hired Rick Smith.
Others at the position, not always called general manager but with equivalent duties, are the Baltimore Ravens’ Ozzie Newsome, Arizona Cardinals vice president Rod Graves, Martin Mayhew with the Detroit Lions and James Harris, vice president of player personnel with the Jacksonville Jaguars.
There were never more than four minority head coaches throughout the 1990s. And until the Indianapolis Colts hired Tony Dungy in 2002, no Black head coach had ever been fired by a team and rehired elsewhere.
