African-American coaches in short supply in the NFL

The NFL has a problem related to its head coaches. Nearly 70% of the league’s players are black, but of the 32 coaches only three are African-American.

Despite the revamped Rooney Rule and other efforts to reduce disparity, the NFL has had only moderate success in increasing the number of coaches and managers from minority groups.

Here are some names:

AARON CURRY

RENTON, Washington – Aaron Curry was known a decade ago as a fiasco in the NFL. He was the fourth overall pick in the 2009 Draft and four years later he was out of the league. Curry hopes to be recognized in the future as a successful coach. He is in his third season working on the defensive staff of the Seattle Seahawks, the team that drafted him 12 years ago.

THE OBSTACLES

While the hiring numbers are promising for coordinator hiring in the NFL, overall the journey toward diversity and inclusion for head coaching and other positions remains turbulent.

Who says it? Two of the leading defense attorneys for the Rooney Rule: Troy Vincent and Rod Graves. Vincent, a former defensive back, once president of the players’ union and now responsible for the NFL’s sports operations, calls the hiring process “fractured.”

Graves, a former NFL manager and now director of the Fritz Pollard Alliance, says a “new system” is needed to ensure the viability of recognized candidates in the interview process.

TO THE HOLCOMB

CHARLOTTE, North Carolina – As an African-American who grew up in Queens, New York, Al Holcomb spent Sundays in the fall watching Tom Landry and the Dallas Cowboys on television and dreaming of one day becoming a head coach in the NFL. At 51, Holcomb has pursued the dream for more than a quarter of a century, a dream that has not yet reached to date. Despite 26 years as a coach, including 12 in the NFL, Holcomb was never interviewed for the NFL head coach position. This motivates him as he says: “I wake up every day with the mission that I have to be the best that I can and thus break the myths and stereotypes that exist and show that I am a smart coach who can be trusted to put together a plan of play and make the right decisions ”.

JOJO WOODEN

COSTA MESA, California. – JoJo Wooden is hopeful that last year’s interview for the Washington general manager job will serve as a catapult for other opportunities. Wooden, the Chargers’ director of athletic personnel, has built a strong resume in his nearly 26 years in the NFL, in which he went from scouting player with the New York Jets to overseeing search operations for professional and collegiate players on the Los Angeles team.

THE OWNERS

Over 100 years, about 110 people have owned or controlled NFL teams. Of that select group, all but two have been white people. This tally may offer a simple explanation for how, despite nearly two-decade-old rules designed to improve diversity, the league has struggled to build a base for hiring head coaches or managers among African-Americans or other minorities.

ADEN DURDE

FRISCO, Texas – Before he was the head coach in the NFL from England, Aden Durde worked to improve the access of young players from his country to the sport in the United States. He realized at some point that he wanted to coach, so he got a minority internship with the Dallas Cowboys, and that was the starting point. His big break came with Atlanta and now he’s back with the Cowboys as a defensive line coach.

THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE PATRIOTS

FOXBOROUGH, Massachusets. – The Patriots are one of the most successful teams in the NFL, with six Super Bowl championships. But they, like many clubs, have an unimpressive record when it comes to hiring minority assistant coaches. Only 13 (25%) of Bill Belichick’s 52 assistants in 22 years in New England have been minorities, down from the 35.6% minority assistants employed by the NFL in 2020. Of those Belichick has hired, only Romeo Crennel and Brian Flores have at some point been head coaches. Belichick says he supports the initiative to have more non-white coaches working in the league and started the season with five minority assistants, including four on scholarships from NFL programs.

TED COTTRELL

In the late 1990s, then-NFL Commissioner Paul Tagliabue began meeting with minority assistant coaches in the league. Tagliabue requested information on why so few of them were considered for the position of head coach or even coordinators. One of the people he met with was Ted Cottrell, whose defenses with Buffalo were so prepared and efficient that he dominated the AFC East Division, which included Miami Dolphins quarterback Dan Marino. Cottrell, who never rose to the head coach position despite outstanding defensive work with the Bills, Jets, Vikings and Chargers, recalls Tagliabue’s passion for a fair signing; the uneven field in which Cottrell and his African-American colleagues were working.

THOMAS BROWN

THOUSAND OAKS, California – Thomas Brown was a highly capable assistant coach, though little known at the collegiate level in his mid-thirties, when Sean McVay and the Rams abruptly changed their career trajectory two years ago. Brown understands that black coaches need more than skill to rise to the top of their profession. They need contacts, mentors and some luck. McVay’s confidence in his new assistant head coach is benefiting them both greatly in Los Angeles.

LESLIE FRAZIER

ORCHARD PARK, New York – As difficult as it was, Buffalo Bills defensive coordinator Leslie Frazier stood in front of his team after finding the courage to delve into their past and share with them the experience of growing up in a racially segregated community in Mississippi and the challenges he faced as an African-American player in Chicago, despite being part of one of the best defenses in the NFL in the 1980s. He spoke in the context of George Floyd’s death in an attempt to offer perspective to a group of players looking for answers.

VANCE JOSEPH

TEMPE, Arizona – Vance Joseph’s first experience as a head coach in the NFL was not a great one. Many have done the same. And you might do well if you get a second chance, one that many of your colleagues of color haven’t. That could change with Joseph, who has been Arizona’s defensive coordinator for the past three years, doing a good job, having the Cardinals as one of the best teams in the NFL. Joseph was the head coach of the Denver Broncos for two seasons before being fired in 2018.

KARL SCOTT

EAGAN, Minn. – Minnesota Vikings defensive backs coach Karl Scott is in his first season in the NFL, failing to beat a small group of his defensive players. He is respected among his pupils after his journey as a college coach with the powerful Alabama team.