On the day the country celebrated Martin Luther King Jr. Day, we watch the civil rights progress that Dr. King fought so hard for being ripped apart by the inhumane, corrupt and fascist Tr**p administration.
In these times of social crisis, sports usually unites us. Yet, as watch a thrilling NFL Playoffs, questions about progress linger there as well as the NFL head coaching hiring process unfolds.
This season, after Mike Tomlin stepped down after 19 seasons, there were nine head coaching vacancies- the Titans, Giants, Cardinals, Browns, Falcons, Dolphins, Raiders, Ravens and Steelers.
Two of those jobs, the Falcons (Raheem Morris) and Steelers (Tomlin) once belonged to Black coaches.
So far, two have been filled as the Giants signed former Ravens coach John Harbaugh and the Falcons signed former Browns coach Kevin Stefanski.
On Monday morning, another coveted spot opened up in Buffalo after the Bills fired Sean McDermott.
While multiple interviews have happened or are scheduled, and rumors continue to swirl, a few Black coaches appear to be in the mix- Vikings defensive coordinator Brian Flores, Carolina DC Ejiro Evero, Broncos DC Vance Joseph (he’s preparing to play the Patriots in the AFC Championship game), Dolphins DC Anthony Weaver, Rams pass game coordinator Nate Scheelhaase and Patriots passing game coordinator Thomas Brown.
And before you ask, Mike McDaniel has made it clear that he doesn’t identify as Black so he is excluded from this list.
Flores is about to have his second interview with the Steelers; Joseph, who interviewed with the Cardinals, Ravens, Raiders, Giants and Titans, has paused future interviews; Evero is scheduled to have a second interview with the Raiders and is also on the Steelers radar; Weaver interviewed with the Cardinals and Falcons and Brown has gotten interest from the Cardinals and from the Chargers for their offensive coordinator job.
While some have had multiple interviews, none have been hired as of yet.
That could change this week, but until it does, this is reminiscent of 2021.
That year, nine vacancies opened up after the Dolphins replaced Flores with McDaniel and the Texans fired David Culley. At that moment, Mike Tomlin stood as the only Black head coach in the league until the Texans suddenly hired Lovie Smith and Todd Bowles replaced Bruce Arians as part Tampa’s succession plan.
Later that season, Steve Wilks replaced Matt Rhule in Carolina and turned the season around for the 1-4 Panthers and almost made the playoffs.
Since then, Tomlin, Bowles and DeMeco Ryans had been the only Black head coaches to remain with their teams, while we watched Smith, Wilks, Jarod Mayo and Antonio Pierce all have one and done seasons.
Heading into the offseason, after Tomlin, the winningest Black head coach in NFL history, stepped down, the NFL once again has three Black head coaches- Bowles, Ryans and the Jets Aaron Glenn.
In addition, the number of Black GMs have decreased from eight in 2021 to six after Atlanta fired Terry Fontenot and Tennessee fired Rann Carthon.
