MIAMI
The NFL has kept a steady number of Black head coaches, while slightly increasing the ranks of Asian and Hispanic players, earning a B+ in an annual diversity study Wednesday.
However, the league didn’t get a grade for gender diversity for the fourth year in a row. The NFL is the only pro sports organization that refuses to share its league office data with University of Central Florida’s Institute for Diversity and Ethics in Sports, which also conducts annual studies on the NBA, Major League Baseball, WNBA, pro soccer and college athletics.
The last time the NFL shared its data, for the 2004 study, it received a D+ for gender hiring practices.
“We prefer to focus on our own initiatives to enhance diversity and inclusiveness in our workplace,” NFL spokesman Greg Aiello said.
Richard Lapchick, report author and head of UCF’s diversity institute in Orlando, Fla., said the league data would probably BE better than the NFL’s most recent grade. At the team level, 18 percent of senior administrators were women for 2007, along with 11 percent of vice presidents, according to the newest report.
Lapchick compiled that information from media guides for the NFL’s 32 teams. He goes through the same process for other sports, then usually sends a compilation to the league for feedback and corroboration. All but the NFL respond, he said.
