9 Black NFL coaches? Oh, hell no!

Last month, the New England Patriots replaced legendary head coach Bill Belichick with his Black assistant, Jerod Mayo. But most football analysts marked the occasion more by speculation about which team would snag Belichick than by hailing the Patriots for hiring their first Black head coach.

That’s why everyone was so shocked when the hiring window closed this week, and Belichick was still unemployed. There were seven coaching jobs up for grabs, after all. Moreover, the Atlanta Falcons interviewed him twice. Compounding the shock, they ended up hiring former Black interim coach Raheem Morris.

The point is that the NFL will have nine Black head coaches on the sidelines in 2024. And that’s “Reconstruction Era”-like progress compared with the three who were there in 2023.

The Backlash

I deliberately refer to the Reconstruction Era. Because the backlash, even over this modest increase in Blacks in the ranks of NFL coaches, harkens back to that which followed electoral gains by Blacks during that seminal period in US history.

On Wednesday, The Hill reported on this backlash under the gaslighting headline:

• “NFL ‘Rooney Rule’ on minority coaching candidates is racist, conservative group alleges”

That report included the following on the KKK-like crusade to put a stop to this progress:

The question now is whether the hiring practice – and its progeny in corporate America – will stay in the game much longer amid a wave of legal challenges to workplace diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) initiatives. On Tuesday, a conservative legal nonprofit filed a federal civil rights complaint against the NFL, alleging that the rule is illegal.

‘If the National Football League truly wants to end discrimination in the employment process, then the NFL should stop discriminating in the employment process, follow the meritocratic system it displays on the field, and eliminate the Rooney Rule,’ said Ian Prior, a senior adviser with America First Legal, the nonprofit founded by former Donald Trump adviser Stephen Miller.

I hasten to point out that this White activist is the same Stephen Miller who served as senior advisor to former President Donald Trump. Because, in that capacity, he drafted the infamous Muslim ban and other racist policies that characterized Trump’s presidency.

The Rooney Rule

The Rooney Rule merely requires all teams to conduct an in-person interview with at least two minorities for every head coaching job. The NFL adopted this rule in 2003 based on its own Diversity Equity and Inclusion (DEI) Committee recommendations.

Yet, all 32 teams could comply, and the NFL could still end up without a single Black coach on the sidelines. That was nearly the case in 2022. The NFL kicked off that season with only one Black head coach, Mike Tomlin of the Pittsburgh Steelers. And the irony was two-fold:

1. Most NFL players are Black, yet the coaching staff could easily be mistaken for a 1950s corporate retreat. And don’t get me started on the owner’s club.
2. The Rooney Rule is named after Dan Rooney, then-owner of Tomlin’s team, the Pittsburgh Steelers, and chairman of the league’s DEI committee.

The point is that this season with 9 Black coaches is the exception, not the rule. So you’d be forgiven suspicions that the NFL intended its DEI policy to be more like a PR move than a genuine attempt at meaningful change.

Racists defending racism with accusations of racism

It took nearly 50 years before the backlash against affirmative action in education and employment kicked in. In contrast, it’s only been 21 years, and the backlash against this rule is already kicking in. 

In fact, this backlash is pursuant to a crusade White supremacists are waging against DEI. But I’ve argued time and again that bashing DEI, like bashing CRT, is just a way for White supremacists to cloak their racism in claims of meritocracy. And powerful White men like Donald Trump, Elon Musk, and Bill Ackman have made it fashionable to champion this racism as an expression of White supremacy and White pride.

Indeed, I’ve already written too much about the backlash against affirmative action and DEI. So, writing much more about this backlash will smack of beating a dead horse.

However, I cannot resist calling out these projecting White gaslighters. After all, they’re protesting like civil rights activists just because Blacks now compose nearly one-third of NFL coaches. 

In reality, they are pleading to protect the racial entitlements White men have enjoyed since time immemorial. Their cry of reverse racism is so cynical, I resent even having to address it.

So, apropos of cynicism, I will end by suggesting it’s no coincidence that White supremacists

• have a Jew (Stephen Miller) fronting efforts to make the NFL coaching fraternity White again;
• had a Jew (Edward Blum) fronting efforts to make colleges predominantly White again; and 
• have a Jew (Bill Ackman) fronting efforts to make ranks of college professors and presidents predominantly White again. 

Alas, White supremacists have shown time and again that the most effective way to undermine DEI policies is to use minorities to champion them. Exhibit A is the way they have used Blacks like Clarence Thomas. Simply put, it’s divide and conquer.

My team is the Philadelphia Eagles. Therefore,  I couldn’t care less who wins Sunday’s Super Bowl.

But I’m no spoilsport; so I feel obliged to root for one of the teams. Go 49ers! Because I hope their victory will be the antidote for the sugar high Taylor Swift has injected into the NFL.