(Column)
A firestorm of criticism fell upon the NFL this week when former Miami Dolphins head coach Brian Flores filed a lawsuit claiming discriminatory practices in his interview process with a handful of teams.
He claimed that Denver Broncos ownership was late and hungover from the night before in one of his interviews. And he also produced texts from his former boss, Bill Belichick, mistakenly congratulating Flores on being named head coach of the New York Giants. The job apparently was already offered to Brian Daboll even before Flores interviewed.
There has also been a stoking ire against NFL ownership for not giving Kansas City Chief’s offensive coordinator Eric Bieniemy a real opportunity to becoming a head coach despite his team appearing in four straight AFC championship games and winning a Super Bowl. With all of the recent events, it brings to light the NFL’s historically poor record of giving well-qualified African American coaches an opportunity to become a head coach in the National Football League. Pittsburgh Steelers head coach, Mike Tomlin was the only African American head coach in the league until Monday when the Chicago Bears hired Lovie Smith and the Miami Dolphins hired Mike McDaniel, who is biracial.
But in many ways, the NFL is a microcosm of the barriers faced by many of us very capable, experienced and qualified people of color who dare to venture up corporate ladders.
Like Flores, I’ve experienced interviews for directorships and upper management that were, let's say, “less than professional.” There have been instances where the interviewer stood the entire time, told me don’t take the position of it is offered and requested permission to check my credit when it was irrelevant to attaining the position.
But, all of the experiences in this trajectory up the corporate ladder should teach us a few things.
First, when it comes to ownership or leadership, we are not in a position to make those in power hire who they do not wish to hire. Second, these experiences can either motivate us to keep pushing forward or they can deflate us. No matter what the obstacle may be in life, opportunity always finds talent and vice versa.
Finally, be prepared for the opportunity. The NFL did see the need years ago to institute the Rooney Rule where teams are mandated to at least interview minority coaches when opportunities avail themselves. The silver lining in all of this is that the Rooney Rule came from the very organization that has provided Mike Tomlin one of the most secure support systems for a coach in NFL history.
Despite the lack of minority representation at the top tier of the NFL, Tomlin has some of the highest job security in the league. I don’t know what the solution is to have more highly qualified minority head coaches in the NFL, but I sure do know what it looks like when a competent one lands in the right environment.
Patrick Ervin is a freelance writer for the Delta Democrat-Times. He can be reached at ervinconsulting@gmail.com.
