The Super Bowl finally has 2 Black QBs. Now the NFL needs to hire more Black coaches | Opinion

On Sunday, for the first time, the Super Bowl will feature two Black starting quarterbacks. We expect Kansas City’s Patrick Mahomes, the NFL’s recently-announced MVP, and Philadelphia’s Jalen Hurts to show off their considerable talent and leadership skills during the big game.

Yes, the day is one to celebrate. If the Chiefs defeat the Eagles in Super Bowl LVII in Glendale, Arizona, members of this board will be among the first lining up for Wednesday’s parade in Kansas City.

But one more first-ever story of individuals making history doesn’t solve the broader and deeper problem of systemic racism, both in society generally and in sports — and the NFL in particular. Put in its proper perspective, the historic feat is just a small step that doesn’t move the needle when it comes to another issue plaguing one of the world’s most popular sports: making sure the head coach hiring system in the NFL is open and unbiased.

How many times have we witnessed Chiefs offensive coordinator Eric Bieniemy being passed over for a head coaching job? Chiefs head coach Andy Reid, one of the most respected figures in the game, has endorsed his top offensive assistant’s ability to lead a team. Owners and general managers have yet to make the move, though.

Over the last four years, Bieniemy has interviewed for 15 head coaching opportunities. Each time, he was denied. In recent weeks, he has been linked to other open offensive coordinator positions around the league. A lateral move wouldn’t be a bad decision. But Bieniemy believes he is ready to be a head coach. And so do we. Will he get an opportunity in Indianapolis, where he has interviewed for the top spot?

Anywhere he is hired, Bieniemy “would do a fantastic job,” Chiefs chairman and CEO Clark Hunt said.

Rooney Rule didn’t increase league diversity

The Chiefs’ assistant isn’t the only minority coach left out of the head coaching chair. Coaches of color are not being hired at a rate in proportion with the number of nonwhite players around the league. It’s not a new phenomenon. Owners in Pittsburgh and Chicago have been intentional about hiring Black head coaches or general managers. Others have turned a blind eye to their unfavorable hiring practices.

The NFL’s Rooney Rule, implemented in 2003, requires teams to interview at least one or more minority candidates for open head coaching positions. Over a 19-year span, interview opportunities for minority coaches were concentrated among a small group of candidates, a USA Today Sports study found.

From 2003 to 2022, the Chiefs’ Bieniemy was among four Black coaches — Todd Bowles, Jim Caldwell and Leslie Frazier were the others — who accounted for nearly 25% of league interview opportunities given to nonwhite coaches, according to USA Today Sports. All are capable individuals, according to NFL insiders. Today, Tampa Bay’s Bowles joins Mike Tomlin of the Pittsburgh Steelers and the Houston Texans’ just-hired DeMeco Ryans as the league’s only three Black head coaches. The Miami Dolphins’ Mike McDaniel identifies as biracial.

“Obviously, the Rooney Rule isn’t working,” Michael Locksley, the president and founder of the National Coalition of Minority Football Coaches and head coach at the University of Maryland, told the publication. “It came from a good place, but obviously because of the numbers, it hasn’t created the opportunities that we all thought it would create.

“You see the same guys being recycled, the same guys interviewing. It’s not that they’re not qualified. Some of them are just being interviewed to basically fulfill a requirement. And we’re not for that.”

Last year in the NFL, there were 47 open head coach, general manager and coordinator positions between the previous two Super Bowls, according to the league’s most recent diversity report from 2022. Only 15 available jobs, 32%, went to people of color — a 5% decrease from the league’s 2021 report. In 2020, NFL data showed only 19% of open positions were filled by minority candidates.

Black players account for nearly 70% of the league. The number of minority members in high ranking positions in NFL teams’ coaching rosters and staffs doesn’t reflect that.

Roger Goodell: ‘better work and more work ahead’

On Wednesday, during his annual address, NFL commissioner Roger Goodell acknowledged the dearth of coaches and team executives of color in the league. More work must be done to diversify the league’s coaching and executive pool, he admitted.

The league’s coach and front office accelerator program is promising. Will other meaningful action follow?

Goodell works at the behest of 32 club owners, not the other way around. There’s only so much the commissioner can do to make teams hire minority candidates.

“I still feel like there’s better work and more work ahead of us,” Goodell said.

Getting hired as a minority head coach is difficult, data shows. Being retained is equally hard. The average tenure of nonwhite head coaches is much shorter than those of their white counterparts, studies have shown. Head coaches of color are less likely to land a second head coaching position after being fired, too.

In 2003, there were three Black head coaches — the same as the start of the 2022 season, according to the NFL’s own data.

Led by a generational talent like Mahomes, our hometown team is playing in its third Super Bowl since 2019. With three title game appearances over a four-year span, it could be easy to forget we in Kansas City have some work to do in our own backyard. Ending the racially-insensitive Arrowhead chop is a place to start — and something that should have happened years ago.

A light is being shone on Kansas City, one brighter than some of us could have imagined just a short time ago. Hello, NFL Draft in April. Did someone say FIFA World Cup coming in 2026? Or downtown baseball (likely) and a new Chiefs stadium (not improbable)?

Yes, Kansas City sports fans badly need their individual success stories. And we’re proud to call Mahomes one of our own heroes. But we’ll only know we’re making real progress when more Black coaches and executives are being hired — and a big game with two Black starting quarterbacks is so common that it isn’t news anymore.

This story was originally published February 11, 2023 at 5:00 AM.