“Henceforth, every franchise must make sure to at least give the appearance of serious consideration to one or more colored candidates.” Certainly, don’t consider this a direct quote from last month’s NFL head honcho meeting, but more so the overall gist of a recent ruling in light of the recent debacle involving the Oakland Raiders and their hiring of Jon Gruden. Apparently, the last two interviews the Raiders conducted of two minority candidates weren’t exactly legit, and merely a dog and pony show in order to satisfy the “Rooney Rule.”
Whether it was or not, the Raiders still proceeded with the hiring of Gruden who unsurprisingly did quite poorly in his return to Oakland after a 17 year absence, but I digress. I guess the fundamental question here is was it a bigger deal for the Raiders to hire Gruden or the fact that they allegedly gave fake interviews to minority candidates? Before answering, let’s review a few facts and numbers.
As of “Black Monday” 2019, there are now three minority head coaches in the NFL. They are Anthony Lynn (San Diego Chargers), Mike Tomlin (Pittsburgh Steelers), and Ron Rivera (Carolina Panthers). Of all the coaches relieved of duty, five were black-Steve Wilks, Marvin Lewis, Vance Joseph, Hue Jackson and Todd Bowles. There is only one minority general manager in the NFL, Chris Grier, and he was recently promoted within the Miami Dolphins organization. Reggie McKenzie was shown the door by the Raiders last month. There are only two minority owners (Kim Pegula co-owner of Buffalo Bills with her husband and Shahid Khan of the Jacksonville Jaguars.) Roughly 70% of NFL players are black. That means 7 out of every 10. Given 22 players on a field at a time, that would equal about 16 players likely to be black.
As evidenced by these facts and so much more, it wouldn’t be remotely unfair to say the NFL is representative of a good ole boy network at the very least. And how much of a surprise should that be? Majority of these teams have been owned by the same person for twenty or more years. Majority of these owners are rich white men benefitting from oil money, generational wealth, or some other means of large fortune. With that much money on the table, privilege and familiarity naturally play huge roles. Owners and presidents are likely to hire people who look like them, talk like them, vote like them, act and think like them, and represent their image in ways someone who looks like a field worker (player) just couldn’t.
So to answer my question from paragraph two, neither one is actually the bigger deal. The bigger deal is why are we (minorities) still begging for a seat at a table we were never invited to in the first place? Why are we demanding to be treated as equals in a world where the powers that be never wanted us in the first place? Most importantly, why have we not realized our bargaining power and said to hell with a heavily perceptually racist organization such as the NFL? What is stopping us from doing that? As stated earlier, the league is 70% black. A good portion of skill players are black. Let’s paint this picture for a minute.
Every black NFL player, skill player or not, leaves the NFL, joins together and starts their own league. And yes, for those reading, I am indeed seriously suggesting segregation. Why not? At some point, a demand for equality in a world you were never meant to be part of in the first place becomes fruitless. What need is there to continue looking for acceptance from those who have historically held deep-seated hatred? I can’t find any. So, now imagine an all black NFL, to include coaches, owners, GM’s, and presidents. Seeing as how that would take away 70% of the original NFL’s talent pool, I would love to see the reaction.
Let’s not stop there. Let’s include the college athletes in this as well. If instead of going to Carolina, Kentucky, Kansas, Duke, Michigan St., and other college basketball powerhouses, the top notch hoopers went either to HBCU’s, or other black owned and established institutions. Same for college football. Can you imagine the dramatic revenue and economic shift that would take place? I can see the national titles of traditional public and private PWI’s fading into oblivion. Their fans, old and young shedding tears of the glory days when they could smile about national championships, conference titles, and endless dollars built on the backs of the “Big Black Bucks” who would never be welcome to dinner in their homes. It’s a beautiful sight.
I leave you with this. We don’t need the NFL and several other professional sports leagues for that matter. It’s the other way around. It’s on us as a people to realize this, come together, and put our power on full display. The first step to doing that is no more begging for a seat at the white man’s table for which we were never meant to sit at anyway.
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