rogers park bryan wrote:
Jaw Breaker wrote:
Parkins was upset that there are currently only two black head coaches in the NFL. He made a couple of good points regarding the Rooney Rule's intent of expanding the interview process to those who aren't family and friends, as bias is often unintentional. But then he shot himself in the foot by stating that the lack of black head coaches was bad since the NFL is 70% black. What does one have to do with the other?
If I was Parkins lawyer and had to defend that, Id say a high percentage of coaches are ex-players so it's a bit weird there aren't more black ones.
I think there are a combination of factors that presently result in the demographics we see in NFL head coaches, and might continue seeing for some time. In no particular order they are:
1. How teams obtain and retain coaching talent
2. How teams believe they can win in the NFL
3. How one becomes a head coach
4. Who becomes particular kinds of coaches
Specifically:
1. As an NFL GM/owner, if you have the next hot-shot NFL Big Brain on your coaching staff, you risk losing him to another team with an opening at a more prestigious title. So you either make your QB coach an OC, or your OC your HC, or lose them to another team. And if you are looking for the next hot-shot NFL Big Brain to add to your coaching staff, odds are you are looking at the coordinator ranks to fill your HC vacancy, or a QB coach to make OC. This structure virtually ensures that new hires are coming from a position one order lower in the hierarchy. This severely limits the prospects for any given opening.
2. It's no secret that teams believe innovative offenses are the key to immediate—and maybe sustained—success in the league. This being the case, offensive-minded coaches/coordinators are in a prime position to be kicked up the ladder. Coupled with #1 above, this further limits the prospects for any given opening, as teams want to protect/steal top offensive talent.
3. Given #'s 1 and 2, the best path to becoming a coach in the NFL is laid out: Be good at offense and get promoted up the ladder. If you're a decent sub-group coach, you'll get a look as a QC coach, then as an OC, and then HC.
4. But what kinds of offensive coaches get promoted from sub-group on up? With Quarterback still being the most important single position on the field, it seems more likely than not that a QB coach is more likely to be retained/hired away than a backs or receivers or line coach. They're helping players with the mechanics of being a QB, and they're learning every level of the offense while offering up gameplan ideas and such. And who is likely to become a QB coach? Well former quarterbacks, of course, and for whatever reason, QB's are still white players, by and large. More white QB's necessitates more white "former" QB's.
Putting it all together: If more former QB's are white, there are likely to be more white candidates seeking QB coaching jobs. And with QB coaches being more likely to be promoted up the chain due to how NFL coaching talent progresses through the league, as well as how the league as a whole has placed a premium on offense, it becomes more likely that any offensive coach promoted up the chain will be white.