Over the years, the NFL has provided a great platform for athletes of all ethnicities to showcase their skills. Being the ultimate destination for professional football, the NFL has given opportunities to thousands of athletes to live a luxurious life. As a majority of these athletes come from lower socio-economic backgrounds, their earnings from the league provide them a chance to make the big bucks.
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As of 2021, the NFL comprised 71%,non-white athletes. Of which 60% identified as African- Americans. While other races dominate the population in the league, there is another number that doesn’t do justice to these numbers. While African-Americans have dominated a decent amount of the league as athletes, only 3 of the 32 head coaches in the league identified as people of color.
Skip Bayless demands better inclusivity
NFL analyst and TV personality, Skip Bayless had an interesting take on this situation. On his show, he didn’t shy away from talking about this and made himself loud and clear about the situation. Identifying it as a front-office problem, Bayless was no filter when he spoke of the situation. As the owners often call the shots regarding team management, Bayless was quick to point fingers at them.
Skip Bayless believes older white NFL owners aren't comfortable with Black head coaches pic.twitter.com/Y93Gv51hUL
— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) February 16, 2023
“I’m going to boil it down to: These older white owners just aren’t that comfortable with a black head coach because they need to interact, they need to go to dinner with the wives or the significants or whatever. And they’re just not that comfortable. When they do have an interview, it’s gonna be a quicker click with a young white hot candidate,” said Bayless in his rant. The comfortability of franchise owners around the wives of probable black head coaches was what Bayless said was the issue.
This rant came soon after, Eric Bieniemy was slept on for a possible head coach job. The Kansas City Chiefs offensive coordinator has enabled the Chiefs and Patrick Mahomes to 2 Super Bowl rings. However, he still can’t fancy himself a head coach role, which has alarmed Bayless and his crew at ‘Undisputed’.
There are currently only 3 black head coaches in the league. As the 2023 season is a few months away, it doesn’t look like there will be any significant changes in the demographics.