I struggle with the fact that team owners are perceived as hiring along racial lines rather than the candidate most likely bring success.
Personally I’m hiring the best candidate irrespective of race, creed, gender or colour (or any combination thereof). A candidates previous history will get them an interview,then it’s down to them to sell themselves to the owner and GM with their knowledge of the team. Strengths, weaknesses and plans for the future. Any candidate who keeps getting interviews and failing or keeps failing to get considered need to look at their resume, interview technique or skill set.
I know I harp on about it (sorry) but why is racial imbalance at playing level not only not addressed but never even discussed?
How long will it be before a white, male candidate complains that a minority candidate only got the job because they were green/black/blue/female/ transgender while he was overlooked?
How long before the same candidate sues the league because the league is effectively bribing teams to overlook him for OC Assistant roles?
Super naive and really shows a lack of understanding. I'll excuse it because you are in the Uk.
Do you attend the youth football games here in South Florida . . .you know, some of the most competitive football matchups you can see anywhere for ages 14 and under?
How about high school games?
Take the recruiting hotbeds in the United States and do a player/coach analysis across color lines. What you'll notice is the racial diversity is relatively close to what you see in the NFL from a player standpoint . . . . so the amount of black players to white players is not surprising.
However the coaching racial diversity is vastly different, with there being so many more black head coaches percentage wise on the youth/high school scene.
So black head coaches are ok to be responsible for the development of a group of kids, turning into men, and the development of their football acumen, but when it gets to a level that involves donors, boosters, visible presidents and owners, something goes off script and these men can't get jobs at the college and NFL levels at percentages that are in the ball park area of the youth/high school levels.
Something is off there.
Its very "Deshaun like" . . . like ok 3 or 4 girls say something and you could believe Deshaun did nothing wrong and the girls are trying to set him up . . . but when you get to 22 girls, its like, nah man something ain't right here. Its one thing if there were like 10 black head coaches, you know 30% of the coaches in the league . . . far from the percentages at other levels, but you know a more realistic number, but there was literally 1 head coach for a minute there . . . and luckily we hired Mcdaniel and the Texans seemed to cave to Lovie with mounting pressure, giving us 3 black head coaches out of 32. Less than 10%.
Its not good enough . . . and people saying "i don't care if they are green or purple or Kenyan" are so off based and lack understanding of the situation so consider it a treat that I took the time out to respond and attempt to educate you on why its a problem. Just saying "I want the best candidate" is a cop out IMO.
And I'm not saying I have the solution either . . . its not something you can flip a switch on. These owners spent billions for their teams and we live in a country in which money gives them the right to hire who in the hell they please. But this country also gives people the right to make light of situations that don't look right and maybe make things that much more uncomfortable in hope that we can see better diversity where it makes sense.
Black coaches are capable of being excellent head coaches at all levels. More opportunity is needed for that to be shown.