Black NFL coaches were getting blanked again this offseason, going 0-6 with only three vacancies remaining. But on Sunday evening, the Dolphins hired San Francisco 49er offensive coordinator Mike McDaniel.
And that decision reverberated throughout Black Twitter, bringing more questions than celebrations.
You see, many in the media referred to Mike McDaniel as “biracial” and “multiracial”, but never as Black. Yet his father and his father’s family are Black, so how did his identity crisis, or lack of identity crisis, escape notice for so long?
While it wasn’t an issue before, it’s most certainly one now thanks to the systemic racism that’s long plagued the NFL’s head coaching hiring process.
With one Black coach being hired out of 13 in a two-year span, David Culley formerly of the Texans being the lone one, race is at the forefront, and rightfully so. (Note: Lovie Smith has not officially been hired by the Texans as of yet)
What kind of message is being broadcast in a league where over 70% of the league is Black, yet only one man, the Steelers’ Mike Tomlin, is the sole Black coach out of 32 teams?
No longer can owners claim that they’re looking to hire “the most qualified” person for the job.
No longer can they stand behind the statement of a Black coach being “a serious candidate.”
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