How Much Do Coach Agents Influence An NFL Team’s Leadership?

ESPN Daily

ESPN

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4.6 • 3.9K Ratings

🗓️ 28 January 2025

⏱️ 33 minutes

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Summary

For years, the NFL has been trying to make the hiring of people of color in leadership positions a more fair and more equitable process. Through initiatives like accelerator programs meant to introduce prospects to owners and other people with hiring ability, alongside the widely controversial Rooney Rule which literally mandates that people of all backgrounds get interviews, the league has been marginally successful at changing who is in the room when it comes to coordinators, head coaches, and general managers. Today ESPN senior NFL writer Kalyn Kahler reports on a new speed bump in the road: the trend of "package deals," whereby an agent places multiple clients in coaching or front office roles with the same team. She details her reporting on where this practice comes from, why it’s hurting the prospects of minorities to get these jobs and what, if anything, the NFL can do to fight against it. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Kailen Kaler, how are you? I have to say off top, there are few things I enjoy in reporting more than people who can break down where everything is happening in a specific space down to what floor of the building a meeting is happening on alongside of the seating and table arrangements in a room.
0:18.3	I know they sound like random details, but I for one, am the kind of person that can remember who I sat next to in homeroom in fifth grade.
0:24.9	So I really very much appreciate that level of detail.
0:28.2	Thank you. I'm also, I think, that kind of person. But, I mean, I feel like as journalists,
0:32.2	we just have memories like that where we're like taking mental notes and observations about
0:37.0	everything.
0:38.1	Absolutely.
0:43.9	You recently posted a story that folks can check out on ESPN.com about how agents have been influencing the hiring of coaches and general managers in the NFL.
0:48.0	And in the piece, you describe a meeting ahead of the 2023 scouting combine.
0:52.6	Who was there?
0:53.5	What was it about?
0:54.6	And why was this particular encounter so important?
0:58.8	Yep.
0:59.1	So at the 2020 combine in Indianapolis, at the bottom floor of the J.W. Marriott, the NFL commissioner
1:06.2	Roger Goodell and the league's diversity, equity, and inclusion staff asked a group of coaching agents to join
1:12.9	them in a closed-door session, which was very unique because the league had never done this
1:24.7	before where they brought in multiple coaching agents.
1:27.0	They would have individual
1:27.8	conversations with coaching agents about the hiring process and about different initiatives
1:32.2	they had going on, but they would not have a group and want everyone together at the same time.
1:37.8	That was unique. That was new. And the reason they did this is because the league for several
1:42.2	years has been trying to make the hiring of head coaches
	...

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