The “terrible” number of African-American coaches in the NFL shows a lack of “generic decency” in a league that has not kept its promises, President Joe Biden said in an interview broadcast this Super Sunday. Bowl.
“They have not lived up to what they promised and to be open to hiring more minorities to manage teams,” Biden told Lester Holt of NBC News, referring to the alleged commitments. of the league to diversify leadership.
“The general idea that a league made up of so many athletes of color and so diverse, that there are not enough qualified African-American coaches to manage these NFL teams, It seems to me that it is a standard that they want to live up to,” said the president. “It is not a requirement of the law, but it is a requirement that I think is just generic decency.”
NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell acknowledged Wednesday that the NFL has fallen “short” on its goals to hire more coaches of color and “is not doing a job good enough” in their efforts.
When asked if the NFL should To have a higher standard on diversity issues because of its high cultural impact, Biden said he believed it should have a “reasonable standard.”
The numbers and colors in the NFL
The NFL is no stranger to the controversies surrounding his largely white-led league, where the 71 percent of players are people of color.
The league of teams currently have only one African-American coach, one Latino coach, and one Arab-American coach, while the rest of the coaches are white.
In 2003, the NFL established the beginning of the “Rooney Rule,” which now requires teams to interview minority candidates for top jobs, such as the head coach.
Former Miami Dolphins Head Coach Brian Flores. (Photo: Cliff Hawkins/Getty Images)But the rule came under intense scrutiny recently when former Miami Dolphins head coach Brian Flores filed a class action lawsuit against the NFL on February 1, calling the process a sham.
Flores, who is black, said the New York Giants interviewed him for their head coaching job even though they had already chosen a white coach, Brian Daboll, for the job.
“Flores was forced to sit down to dinner with Joe Schoen, the new General Manager of the Giants, knowing that the Giants had already selected Mr. Daboll,” the suit says.
“Flores had to give an extensive interview for a job that he already knew he would not get, an interview that was carried out for no other reason than that the Giants falsely demonstrated to the League Commissioner , Roger Goodell, and the general public who were in compliance with the Rooney rule,” the lawsuit states.
Flores also claims that the Denver Broncos bosses were “completely disheveled” when he interviewed at 2022, which adds to the idea that it was just another “fake” interview simply meant to satisfy the letter of the Rooney rule.
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NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell: “We will review the Rooney Rule and other policies to increase hiring of minorities”
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