NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell was disappointed that only two minorities were hired as head coaches.
This comes when Goodell and the league have been focusing on increasing the number of minorities being hired as head coaches. However, in Goodell’s annual state of the league speech, he was extremely disappointed by the progress. “I’m not sure there’s an issue we spent more time with our ownership on,” the commissioner empathized in response to the low number. “But it wasn’t what we expected, and it’s not what we expect going forward,” he added after revealing only two minorities were hired as head coaches this offseason.
Furthermore, Goodell reaffirmed the league’s desire to change that, “Our ownership is committed and focused on this.” The commissioner went on to explain that it’s just not in the head coach field but all across the board. “It’s much broader than just head coaches for us,” Goodell said.
The two minority head coaches that were hired are Robert Saleh (hired by the New York Jets) and David Culley (hired by the Houston Texans). The league now has five minority coaches after the two aforementioned signings. This number is very low compared to the makeup of the league, which is 70% minority.
The lack of minorities as head coaches has been very frustrating for players themselves. During the NFLPA conference, linebacker Wesley Woodyard told reporters, “We see ourselves as potential leaders within the NFL community, we aspire to be head coaches, and we want to be GMs.” Woodyard added, “But if you have guys like Eric Bieniemy, who’s been an NFL legend, who’s done great things within his offense, with the team that he’s on, going to back-to-back Super Bowls — that frustrates us as players.”
Despite these disappointing results, Goodell did highlight that there were more minority general managers and staff. While these results were more positive, the commissioner wants to do more. “But we’re not satisfied, and we feel like we can do better, and we’re going to,” he said.
