SAN JOSE, Calif. (AP) — NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell said the league needs to re-evaluate its approach to minority hiring after an offseason coaching cycle that saw only one of 10 head coaching jobs go to a minority and none to Black candidates.
“We need to continue to make progress,” Goodell said Monday. “I believe that and I believe diversity is good for us. … I think we have become a more diverse league across every platform, including coaching. But we still have more work to do.”
The NFL will have only three Black head coaches next season. There were 10 head coach openings this season and none of them were filled by a Black coach. Robert Saleh, who is of Lebanese descent, was the only minority to get a job when he was hired by Tennessee.
This was just the fifth time since the start of the Rooney Rule in 2003 that no Black head coaches were hired during an offseason coaching cycle. The only other time it happened in a year with more than five changes came in 2013 when there were eight openings.
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