Bills Defensive Coordinator Leslie Frazier: `Massive Change of Heart' required
The only way for the NFL to straighten out its hiring practices and make for a more inclusive process for head-coaching and executive positions is for the owners to change their thinking, Buffalo Bills defensive coordinator Leslie Frazier told NBC last week.
Speaking out on the league's distinct lack of minorities other than on the playing field, Frazier said on Meet the Press Reports that "there has to be a massive change of heart with ownership in order for this to be rectified, because at the end of the day, it's only the owners that can change this. It’s not the Commissioner, it’s not committees. It’s the decision makers."
Almost all those decision makers are white and none are Black.
Bills co-owner Kim Pegula, who is of Asian descent and was born in South Korea, and Jacksonville Jaguars owner Shahid Khan, a Pakistani-American, represent the only minorities among NFL ownership.
Only three of the league's 32 head coaches — Pittsburgh's Mike Tomlin, Tampa Bay's Todd Bowles and Houston's Lovie Smith — are Black. Just two more, the New York Jets' Robert Saleh (Lebanese-American) and the Miami Dolphins' Mike McDaniel, who identifies as biracial, are classified as minorities.
In the history of the league, only 25 Black men have ever been a head coach.
Two of them, former coaches Tony Dungy and Hue Jackson, also were interviewed for the program.
Dungy suggested the players need to hold the people who sign their checks accountable.
"Those African-American players go in and say, `Hey Mr. Owner, you need to do a thorough search and you need to consider strongly these African-American coaches ... not telling you who to hire, but if you don’t consider them, then I don’t want to play here.' That’s going to get the owners’ attention," Dungy said.
The NFL last month did amend the Rooney Rule, which previously required only that teams interview at least two minority candidates for all head-coaching and senior football operations openings, to also make sure every team employs at least one minority or woman offensive assistant coach.
This was in response to the growing trend of almost all head-coaching jobs going to coaches coming from offense.
"It's a recognition that at the moment, when you look at stepping stones for a head coach, they are the coordinator positions," said Pittsburgh Steelers owner Art Rooney II, chairman of the NFL Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Committee, via ESPN. "We clearly have a trend where coaches are coming from the offensive side of the ball in recent years, and we clearly do not have as many minorities in the offensive coordinator [job]."
But until owners start looking in the mirror and see people of color staring back at them, hiring reform likely will continue at the same glacial pace.
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Nick Fierro is the publisher of Bills Central. Check out the latest Bills news at www.si.com/nfl/bills and follow Fierro on Twitter at @NickFierro. Email to Nicky300@aol.com.
