News Article
Super Bowl’s Black Coaches Indicative of ‘Great Strides’ Mark Maske Published: January 29, 2007 January 29, 2007 The first Super Bowl matchup of teams led by black coaches [Indianapolis Colts Coach Tony Dungy and Chicago Bears Coach Lovie Smith] is the culmination of a four-year push … to open doors to minority coaches that had been closed for most of the NFL’s history. … Washington lawyer Cyrus Mehri said he is pleased with the changes the league has made to improve diversity in its head coaching ranks. “I think you have to look at it as a great success,” said Mehri, general counsel of the Fritz Pollard Alliance, the group formed to promote minority hiring [in] the NFL. “You know it’s a great success when it matters to the owners. From a process point of view, they’re doing everything we’ve asked them to do. Now, does that mean that we’ve eradicated bias in the NFL? No. It’s part of America. But we’ve made great strides.”… The NFL had only two black head coaches … and a dismal history on the issue when Mehri and Cochran issued a scathing report in 2002 about the league’s hiring practices. That led team owners […] to enact a rule […] requiring each club with a head coaching vacancy to interview at least one minority candidate. The leaders of the Fritz Pollard Alliance […] have always said they didn’t want to tell the owners which coaches to hire. They simply wanted to create interviewing opportunities, they said. But those opportunities led to jobs. The league had seven black coaches this season, an all-time high. … |
