Diversity

[darvon]

http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com...-on-diversity/

http://fifthdown.blogs.nytimes.com/2...stops-who-won/

I have heard some discussion today about with the 8 new hires, all of them are white guys. NFL is looking to adjust the Rooney Rule.

http://espn.go.com/nfl/story/_/id/88...sure-diversity


A couple of points.


The first is simple. Should the racial constitution of the NFL Players correlate with the racial composition of the coaches? Do most coaches play in the NFL?

of the 32 head coaches, I think about 25% played in the NFL.

The NFL has about 67% African American players (I am going to use black for African American as it is easier to type), about 31% White. Hispanic 1%, Asian 1%.

So if the population of head coaches is only 25% ex-NFL Player, then what should the head coaching population be? 25% following player profiles and then 75% following national demographics?

What are the national demographics?

Well....that sort of depends how you handle hispanics.

From USGOV:
http://quickfacts.census.gov/qfd/states/00000.html

Black persons, percent definition and source info Black persons, percent, 2011 (a) 13.1%
American Indian and Alaska Native persons, percent definition and source info American Indian and Alaska Native persons, percent, 2011 (a) 1.2%
Asian persons, percent definition and source info Asian persons, percent, 2011 (a) 5.0%
Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander persons, percent definition and source info Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander persons, percent, 2011 (a) 0.2%
Persons reporting two or more races, percent definition and source info Persons reporting two or more races, percent, 2011 2.3%
Persons of Hispanic or Latino Origin, percent definition and source info Persons of Hispanic or Latino Origin, percent, 2011 (b) 16.7%
White persons not Hispanic, percent definition and source info White persons not Hispanic, percent, 2011 63.4%

So when you are talking NFL "diversity" or "minority" a lot of the time what is meant is Black.


So if we did 25% following NFLPA breakdown and 75% following GenPop, we would get:

25%*67% + 75%*13% = about 21% Black
and 12% Hispanic
and 64% White
and 3% Asian

The actuals (2012)

Head Coaches: 16% black/81% white/3% hispanic/0% asian

All Coaches (incl position coaches and coordinators): 32% black/ 67% white/1% hispanic/1% asian.


So the questions are:

What is the reasonable demographic pattern to follow? 25% exNFLPA + 75% GenPop? If so, then hispanics are wildly underepresented in the All Coaches category, and with most of that falling into black representation.

Looking at Head Coaches, in 2012, hispanics were 9 points underrepresented, blacks 5, asians 3.

In 2013 Head Coaches, blacks drop to 9%.


Some people are looking to make the Rooney Rule apply to Coordinator Positions. In 2012, of the 64 Coordinators, 12% were black, 1% was hispanic and 0% was asian.


=======================================

Looking at the numbers, hispanics seem to be a slight majority of the underrepresentation. Although most of the discussion centers around black coaches and coordinators when discussing the Rooney Rule.


Comments?


Source:
http://www.tidesport.org/RGRC/2012/2...NFL%20RGRC.pdf

[mikesteelnation1]

Actually the NFL is quite diverse in upper management from a holistic standpoint. It is in the pond I swim in, all upper level guys are white.

Most other companies are no different. Rvp's, CFO's, and CEO's are vast majority white.

The reporters seem to me to be digging for stories in a down news cycle.

When the actual demo breakdowns of diversity outpace the population, there's no reason to look further into it.

"Those who can't play coach", and seeing as how the NFL is more diverse than than most American companies, it's silly to suggest something shady is going on.

[wxwax]

Very nice post, Darvon. Tricky issue. Without a shadow of a doubt racism deprived black people of NFL coaching jobs in the past. In the present, who knows? That's the thing with discrimination, it can be hard to spot.

When you only have HC 32 jobs, a quota really isn't wise. Like as not you'd end up in a situation where a club fired its HC at the wrong moment and in order to meet the NFL quota, had to hire a guy simply for the color of his skin, which wouldn't be right.

The genius of the Rooney rule was that it forced awareness. It was a spotlight. The fact that clubs easily found ways around wasn't such a big deal.

Whether or not there's a problem now is hard to say. I admit to cringing when I realized that every single off-season HC hire was a white man. That just plain looks bad. But maybe it's just one of those things. A high percentage of NFL assistant coaching hires are also the same old guys, shuffling from one job to the next. New blood, like Pep Hamilton, is relatively rare. Next season, maybe black guys get jobs again? If Kevin Sumlin keeps it up at Texas A&M, can we assume he'll get the Chip Kelly treatment someday?

[Docta]

Until someone starts teaching black kids how to run an offense, there will be a shortage of black HCs. It used to an equal opportunity position, but the game is evolving. Only one of the HC hires this year was to a defensive-minded coach. It's not a racial issue.

Hue will get another shot, but having to coach the Raiders hurt his reputation. Even if Lovie had gotten a HC job, he'd be in the same predicament he was in with the Bears. The OC market is dry as they are taking all the HC jobs. Even Mike Martz got an OC interview. Ray Horton doesn't have many connections around the league, and probably hurt his chances in the future after getting into a spat with his GM. David Shaw loves it at Stanford (can you blame him?), so he's not going anywhere.

[edave]

Hue will get another shot, but having to coach the Raiders hurt his reputation.

Oh please.

Hue Jackson is not being penalized for having had to bear the cross of coaching the Raiders, he's being shunned for acting like Alexander Haig when Al died and subsequently leaving the Oakland team in a ditch they'll be digging for years.

He seems to be widely respected for his offensive acumen, but wouldn't you be leery of bringing into your organization the guy who tried to murder the Raiders?

[packa7x]

They need to scrap the Rooney Rule. "Minorty" means "black" it still ignores too many groups. Hire the best person regardless of skin color.

[Trumpetbdw]

They need to scrap the Rooney Rule. "Minorty" means "black" it still ignores too many groups. Hire the best person regardless of skin color.

Technicality/question- When teams interviewed Ron Rivera a few years ago, didn't that satisfy the Rooney rule? I thought it did, but if someone knows that I'm wrong, please elaborate.

[Curtis]

Good post Darvon. One thing though, it's illegal for businesses, schools and the like to set quotas specific to race.

They need to scrap the Rooney Rule. "Minorty" means "black" it still ignores too many groups. Hire the best person regardless of skin color.

You hit the nail on the head. The Rooney Rule is useless. There is already something called Affirmative Action. Hire the best person for the job, regardless of race, religion or whatever. I never even batted an eye when all the coaches were hired. Everybody got their guy and are looking to 2013. Then the ESPN's of the world play the race card (Rooney Rule) saying that it is "disturbing" that no minority coaches were hired. They report it like the NFL is the most racist entity on the planet. I find it disturbing that teams have to interview the token black guy so they can hire the guy they wanted in the first place. I also find it disturbing that a linebackers coach on Team A can't interview for the defensive coordinator opening on Team B, regardless of their race, he can only interview for head coach. It's a load of horse manure.

[Curtis]

Technicality/question- When teams interviewed Ron Rivera a few years ago, didn't that satisfy the Rooney rule? I thought it did, but if someone knows that I'm wrong, please elaborate.

Rivera was the token Hispanic Steelers interview before they hired Tomlin. Can't just go from White to Black (Cowher to Tomlin), you need that minority filling between the cookies.

[packa7x]

Technicality/question- When teams interviewed Ron Rivera a few years ago, didn't that satisfy the Rooney rule? I thought it did, but if someone knows that I'm wrong, please elaborate.

It 100% satisfied it, but what I'm saying is that we basically assume "minority" means "black" in this instance. It ignores women, Asians, middle easterners, and Latinos. We have a pretty good representation of all of those groups sans women playing in the NFL. Using the logic of the Rooney Rule, those groups should be represented as well. It's a flawed rule. I think most rules based on the color of skin is in itself racist. We'll never get past racism if we keep dwelling on race. I understand that blacks 100% were disadvantaged in several different ways, but it's time to stop trying to force the issue and let the new more understanding and diverse generations hire based 100% on merit. These are businessmen, not bigots. They certainly have no problem hiring minorities to play football, I don't see why coaching would be different.