INDIANAPOLIS — Art Shell’s hair is now like the team he played for — silver and black. Those were the only colors that late Raiders owner Al Davis cared about 24 years ago when he made the Raiders Hall of Fame left tackle the first African-American coach in the modern-era NFL.
The color that minority coaches, scouts, and front office personnel are seeing these days is red after an offseason in which eight head coaching vacancies and seven general manager jobs were filled without a single minority hire.
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Chris is right. The league's hiring of Asian-Americans and Hispanics as head coaches has been dreadful. And don't get me going on the lack of Native Americans in the coaching ranks.
Please add italian americans to that list- a travesty
Just wondering...what is the breakdown of minority/non-minority players...both for NFL and NBA....
Couldn't disagree more. The NFL is about winning and money. If owners think a candidate can bring them both they will crawl over each other to hire that candidate. Why is Pepper Johnson "owed" a Coordinator position? That is union bs. If Belichick thought he was qualified he would have the job. And if you think the Pats are prejudiced why haven't the Giants or anyone else made a run at him?
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Never mind coaches. I'm white, 5'10'' and weigh 185. I want to play in the NFL. Is there a lawyer out there that can take my case?
Not much has changed over the years. Consider the comments as proof. The fact that the overwhelming majority of the players in the NFL are minority and the vast majority of coaches and administrators are white speaks for itself! If you want to get a glimpse of the coach's attitude on race, examine the racial makeup of the offensive line. It was/is believed by some coaches that black players couldn't handle the complexity of the offensive playbook but that white players could! Have you checked out the racial makeup of the Patriots offensive line? Traditonally, the owners of the the NFL teams have been rightwing republicans with, accordingly, rightwing racial attitudes (they wouldn't even cancel the NFL games when JFK (a democrat) was assassinated!).
Doesn't Art Shell's comment at the outset of this story explain things in some fashion? The league is all about "results," and no, I don't think that means that minority candidates should not be or are not being considered. It's really past time to keep making everything race-based. I get that is more of a stir-the-pot sort of story and indeed, should white college players feel discrimated against when teams in this this year's NFL player draft will likely select about 80% minority (mainly African-American, let's be honest here) players to join or try out for their teams. I'm guseeing those GMs are looking for talent, not racial balance.
Enough of the PC police in America, this is not the govenment folks, this is the REAL WORLD and production and bottom line MATTERS!. If the govenment hired people based on their skills and commitment to said task/job then we wouldn't need around a million PC hires and we would be debt free right now. But I'm afraid to say that we are not, and socialism is the order of the day. To this I say, have a good day comrads.
Once again we play the race card. NFL owners hire coaches that are best for their team. End of story.