“There was backlash for sure, but why are they running Gruden out of a job when they allowed McNair to operate just fine and he passed the team down?” Weems said. When he died in 2018, ownership of the team passed to his wife. McNair apologized and said he hadn't been speaking about the players. Also not shocking, but far less spotlighted, was the scenario that played out in 2017 when Texans owner Bob McNair said "We can't have the inmates running the prison.” The professors agree that it was no surprise earlier this year to see the racist emails that surfaced between Jon Gruden and former Washington executive Bruce Allen. So it's almost like, 'Why would things have changed if the actual players in those positions haven't changed?'” Weems said. “Over time, a lot of these owners are the same people, or the teams got passed down in the family. “There's also a matter of who they think is most marketable, who resonates with their fan base,” said Anthony Weems, an assistant professor at Florida International University who wrote a dissertation on NFL owners and the social structure they created over a century. It's more complex than simply saying owners have long been more comfortable hiring people who looked and talked like them, though that certainly could be one element in play in a league that didn't hire a single Black head coach between Fritz Pollard in the 1920s and Art Shell in 1989. In many ways, the academics say, the arc of diversity and inclusion in the NFL mirrors that in America itself. It's an informal system in which wealthy men, particularly wealthy white men with social and economic backgrounds, help each other out.” “To understand this problem, you have to look at it from a broader macro-historical lens,” said John Singer, who teaches courses on diversity and social justice in sports at Texas A&M. In 2021, the process produced these statistics: Black players make up about 70% of team rosters but the league has only three Black head coaches, while it had eight in 2011 Black coaches who fail in their first try in the jobs get inordinately fewer second and third chances than their white counterparts the NFL this year recalibrated its much-celebrated Rooney Rule, which ensures minority candidates for front-office positions are identified and interviewed, to make sure teams talk to at least two such candidates for front-office positions and coordinator roles.Īcademics who study the subject say the latest set of underwhelming numbers, along with the latest set of changes implemented in an attempt to improve them, are in line with the century-long history of a league that has been controlled by rich white men.
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