ASHBURN, Va. — Washington Commanders wide receiver Terry McLaurin paused for a moment to think while speaking to a reporter after a practice this season.
“Now that you mention it,” McLaurin said, “I’ve never had a Black head coach in high school, college or the NFL. Coordinators and position coaches only.”
McLaurin, like the majority of NFL players, is Black, and, like some of his colleagues, harbors concerns about the lack of Black head coaches. The Associated Press surveyed more than 65 Black players from 25 teams about the topic, and about 36% were discouraged or disappointed by the number of Black coaches.
“Until you see more coaches,” Miami Dolphins linebacker Anthony Walker Jr. said, “we’re all going to look at it the same way: There aren’t enough Black coaches.”
For Sunday’s Super Bowl between the Kansas City Chiefs and Philadelphia Eagles, both starting quarterbacks are Black. Neither coach is.
Carolina Panthers safety Nick Scott sees a parallel with how long it took clubs to discard biases about Black quarterbacks.
“They were labeled as ‘not as cerebral.’ That was the narrative. But I don’t know how you go about changing that [for coaches],” Scott said. “I would hate for it to turn into some affirmative action thing, where people are getting pushed into a job whether they are qualified or not. So it’s a tricky balance, right? … But I think there are plenty of guys who are qualified.”
At a time when President Donald Trump has moved to end federal government diversity, equity and inclusion programs and a number of prominent companies have scaled back DEI initiatives, NFL commissioner Roger Goodell said Monday that the league will continue its diversity efforts.
Several players the AP interviewed noted the gap between the proportion of Black athletes in the NFL — 53.5% in 2023, according to The Institute for Diversity and Ethics in Sport — and that of Black head coaches, 22% to start this season. That might drop to 19% next season (6 of 32), depending on the New Orleans Saints‘ pick for the last opening.
“You can’t just overlook that discrepancy,” McLaurin said. “Obviously, you want the best candidate for the job, whether it’s someone who is Black, white, Asian or whoever. However, when you have a big representation of African American players that are in your league, you would like to see that represented in coaching as well.”
Setting aside interim hires, McLaurin’s Commanders are one of 11 clubs that have never employed a full-time head coach who is Black, joining the Bills, Cowboys, Giants, Jaguars, Panthers, Rams, Ravens, Saints, Seahawks and Titans. That’s about a third of the NFL.
“Are you saying most Southern teams have never? That’s crazy! How many have never drafted a Black quarterback? Have you done that one?” Saints defensive end Cameron Jordan said. “There’s obvious franchises that won’t hire a Black coach.”
Over 25 seasons from 2000 through 2024, an AP count shows, 31 of 173 new NFL coaches (18%) are Black.
“You’d be blind not to be discouraged,” Cowboys special teams player C.J. Goodwin said. “Black coaches can do it, can get the job done. … You don’t want to have the glass ceiling.”
Las Vegas Raiders defensive end Malcolm Koonce spoke for the 58% of surveyed players who answered “No” to that question (6% weren’t sure how they felt) by responding: “It’s, like, eyebrow-raising when you actually hear the number, but it’s not discouraging.”
The 2024 season began with seven Black head coaches: holdovers Mike McDaniel of the Dolphins, Todd Bowles of the Buccaneers, DeMeco Ryans of the Texans and Mike Tomlin of the Steelers and newcomers Antonio Pierce of the Raiders (interim coach in 2023), Jerod Mayo of the Patriots and Raheem Morris of the Falcons.
Pierce and Mayo were fired in January. One of six hires this offseason is Black, Aaron Glenn of the New York Jets.
“It’s still like, ‘Oh, wow, it’s a Black coach!'” Jets defensive lineman Solomon Thomas said. “In a league that’s predominantly Black, I definitely believe there should be more.”
Brandon Brown, the director of TIDES, said it makes sense players would feel that way.
“We always need to continue the upward progress. Anytime you see downward progress, it’s a bit discouraging,” Brown said. “In talking to people at the NFL, there is no lack of trying to be diverse in their hires. What that eventually looks like is one thing.”
In the NBA, where about 70% of players are Black, 11 of 30 teams (37%) have a Black coach. In Major League Baseball, three of 30 teams have a Black manager. In the 30-team NHL, there has been one Black coach, Dirk Graham, who was fired by the Chicago Blackhawks during his only season in 1998-99.
Nearly 40% of the NFL players who participated in the AP survey would like to be a head coach in the league; others are more likely to try to be an assistant or work in college, high school or youth football.
More than 90% were encouraged by the number of Black head coaches getting new full-time positions last offseason. Those three hires tied for the most since 2000.
“Obviously, you want the best candidate for the job, whether it’s someone who is Black, white, Asian or whoever. However, when you have a big representation of African American players that are in your league, you would like to see that represented in coaching as well.”
Commanders wide receiver Terry McLaurin
The NFL’s Rooney Rule was created in 2003, named for Steelers owner Dan Rooney, who died in 2017, to increase diversity among coaches — and, later, front-office executives — by making clubs interview minority candidates.
“The Rooney Rule’s a great rule,” McLaurin said, “but … from what I’ve heard, some teams kind of use that to check a box, which is unfortunate, instead of using the rule the way it was intended.”
That is one of the elements in the 2022 lawsuit filed by former Dolphins head coach and current Vikings defensive coordinator Brian Flores, who accused the NFL and three teams of racist hiring practices.
“I knew what Mr. Rooney was trying to accomplish with that,” Steelers defensive tackle Cam Heyward said. “And so to see people work around it and say, ‘Well, this guy was already getting the job; we’re just [talking to a Black candidate] to appease the many,’ I don’t think that’s right.”
Recent searches by the Patriots and Jaguars, for example, raised eyebrows with interviews perceived by some as merely aimed at satisfying the Rooney requirements.
“We follow up with the candidates,” Goodell said. “We speak about the sincerity and the thoroughness of an interview to make sure that we’re doing that in the proper fashion.”
As for underlying causes, some, like Ravens safety Kyle Hamilton, pointed to networking and nepotism.
“For Black people in this league, it’s an uphill battle. … There’s been a plethora of white head coaches over the course of the history of the NFL. Those coaches have sons who get into coaching,” Hamilton said. “Look at the big ‘Shanahan tree.’ No disrespect to them, but they have a step up in the business.
“It’s not about what you know; it’s about who you know. … Black people have kind of been behind.”
Others found connections to larger issues.
“It’s just American society,” Goodwin said. “That’s more of a societal question than it is a question about the NFL.”
