Stating the Obvious: The NFL Has a Diversity Problem

On January 27, 2007, Michael Pettaway Tomlin became the 16th head coach of the Pittsburgh Steelers, replacing the retiring Bill Cowher, who led the Steelers to victory in Super Bowl XL in the 2005 season. This current season is Tomlin's 15th as coach, and in that time, he led the Steelers to a win in Super Bowl XLIII, and returned to the big game two years later. He also has the impressive distinction of having never had a losing season. Not one. Why am I stating all of this? This past week, among the head coaches who were fired from their teams was Brian Flores (Miami Dolphins) and David Culley (Houston Texans), and as a result of this, Tomlin is the only Black head coach in the National Football League.

Appalling, isn't it? A league that claims over and over that they promote diversity and inclusivity has a grand total of three head coaches of color out of 32 teams, with Ron Rivera (Washington) and Robert Saleh (New York Jets) being on that short list with Tomlin. In 2003, the NFL instilled the Rooney Rule, which states that at least one person of color (POC) has to be interviewed for a coaching position, yet the league now has less Black coaches now than it did when the rule was instilled! And the reason why the recent firings of Flores and Culley happened? The same thing we've seen for years: Black coaches aren't given any proverbial leg room for improvement.

I do not (nor will I ever) understand how Brian Flores could be fired, especially after the turnaround the Dolphins had this season. The Dolphins won their first game of the season, but lost the next seven. They would later win their next seven to move above the playoff line, but their next loss eliminated them from playoff contention. Even so, the Dolphins finished 9-8 this season, and honestly, going from 1-7 to a winning season is an amazing feat--especially for a team with no expectations whatsoever. Flores went 24-25 in three seasons, and almost made the playoffs in the last two. You're telling me he couldn't have done it if he was given another season? One thing I know; when a team knocks on the door enough times, eventually it opens.

At least Flores had multiple seasons. The same cannot be said for David Culley, as this season ended up being his only one as head coach of the Houston Texans. When Adam Schefter tweeted that Tomlin was the NFL's only Black head coach, someone responded that "it was because Tomlin wins; the ones who got fired this year didn't." The tone-deafness in that response makes me ill. You know why Tomlin's still coaching the Steelers? For one, the Steelers don't fire coaches anyway; they've had three head coaches since 1969. Secondly, I stated that Tomlin never had a losing season. Part of it was because he's a good coach, but another part is because he had to be borderline perfect. Black coaches don't get mulligans that White coaches get. One losing season, and it's a pink slip.

I also read another tone-deaf statement that said that Culley "wasn't a good coach." Oh boy. Let's get the facts out there: Culley inherited a catastrophe when he was hired as Texans head coach. Bill O'Brien's wanton incompetency destroyed the team beyond recognition; he traded Jadeveon Clowney and (of all people) DeAndre Hopkins, and even the usually docile JJ Watt lashed out at O'Brien directly. There's also DeShaun Watson; we all know that story. So quite frankly, the fact that Culley had all of that headache to deal with and still managed to avoid last place in the AFC South? That deserves an extension, not a pink slip.

If any White coach had the numbers that Flores had as coach, and under the same situation, they'd get a fourth and fifth year at least. If any White coach had the same trials and tribulations that Culley did in Houston, they'd see 4-13 as a mulligan and give him another shot. The examples are many. Yes, Matt Nagy was fired this year, but many say he should have been fired last year. But all it took was the Chicago Bears slipping their way into a charity playoff spot for the Bears to keep him for this season (look how that worked out). The Giants were actually going to keep Joe Judge for another year, the same Joe Judge who won 10 games in two seasons and said all of the wrong things in the final weeks of the season. Even Judge's decision to run a quarterback sneak on 3rd and 9 deep in their own territory wasn't quite enough--it took Dave Gettleman retiring for the Giants to fire Judge.

The bottom line is this: it's 2022 and there's only one Black head coach in an NFL that is 70% Black, and a grand total of three coaches of color out of 32. Yet the league continues to portray themselves as promoters of diversity and inclusion with the messages on the field. It's the absolute definition of "one step forward, two steps back." It could also describe one of my favorite sayings: "You can put lipstick on a pig, but it's still a pig."