The time is coming that equality is being somewhat enforced. The NFL is now requiring that all teams hire a minority or female offensive assistant coach for 2022.
The announcement follows a wave of criticism over the lack of diversity among teams’ top ranks.
According to CNN, the league has also announced that its Rooney Rule will also require every team to interview at least two external minority candidates for the open head coach positions, and will expand to offer more opportunities for women to have front office roles.
The moves come as NFL owners met for their annual league meeting in Palm Beach, Florida.
The league also created a six-person diversity advisory committee that was made to review its hiring policies and practices with a “focus on senior-level coach and front office personnel positions.”
The committee and changes were put in place “to provide better outcomes in the hiring cycle.”
In February, Brian Flores, the former head coach of the Miami Dolphins and African American, filed a lawsuit against the league and three of its teams claiming racial discrimination.
However, the NFL and the three teams denied the allegations.
The offensive assistant coaches will be placed on one-year contracts and paid from a league-wide fund. They will work with the head coach and the offensive staff to gain experience.
Historically, the NFL says “head coaches have predominantly had offensive backgrounds.” However, the organization hopes that the changes will help source talented candidates in the early stages of their careers and also provide room for “developing the diverse offensive pipeline.”
As of right now, the NFL has seven Black general managers and 12 women coaches at the start of the 2021 season, which was an all-time high.
In January, the Houston Texans let go of head coach David Culley after just one season, that termination left the league with one Black head coach despite years of expressing its desire to increase diversity among top sideline jobs.
Culley was the second Black head coach fired in the same week after the Miami Dolphins fired Flores.
Pittsburgh Steelers Mike Tomlin remains one of two of the Black head coaches, the other is Hoston Texans’ Lovie Smith. This is a stark difference when you learn that nearly 70% of the league’s players are Black.
“We’ve worked for years and made progress in many areas to ensure that staff and leaders in our office and at our clubs reflect the racial and gender makeup of America, but we have more work to do, particularly at the head coach and front-office level,” NFL commissioner Roger Goodell said in a statement.
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