Why the NFL (Still) Has a Diversity Problem
Consider This from NPR
NPR
4.2 • 6.2K Ratings
🗓️ 4 February 2023
⏱️ 14 minutes
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Summary
But for some, the popularity and success of the sport are overshadowed by its continuing problems around race - from its handling of players kneeling in protest against the killing of unarmed Black people, to lawsuits over racially biased compensation for concussed Black players, to the NFL's inability –or is it unwillingness?--to hire and retain Black coaches in a league where a majority of the players are black.
On Tuesday, the Houston Texans announced that they have hired a new head coach - DeMeco Ryans. He becomes one of three Black coaches among the 32 teams in the NFL.
The league is also touting a historic first in the upcoming Super Bowl – two Black starting quarterbacks. Are these hopeful signs or progress, or, as some critics contend, too little, too late?
Host Michel Martin talks to Justin Tinsley, who writes about sports and culture and appears on ESPN.
And Carron Phillips, of Deadspin, explains why 20 years of the NFL's Rooney Rule failed to diversity football's leadership roles.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | if you follow football and you know what even if you don't then you've |
| 0:03.4 | surely heard about the NFL's race problem. |
| 0:06.1 | NFL players protesting during the national anthem becoming a divisive topic |
| 0:11.0 | nationwide. Why is a league with 70% of its players African-American |
| 0:15.7 | led by head coaches who've been predominantly white? |
| 0:18.7 | Investigation into a lawsuit claiming the NFL uses race as a factor in determining |
| 0:23.5 | which former players are compensated for head injuries. |
| 0:26.6 | We move in a reverse direction. Black men are not being treated fairly |
| 0:31.6 | in a national football league. Somebody got to say it. |
| 0:34.5 | The clumsy reaction to players trying to take a stand on social issues by taking a |
| 0:38.8 | need during the national anthem. A lawsuit later settled over accusations that the NFL |
| 0:43.6 | used race to determine compensation for retired players for brain injury. |
| 0:47.6 | So black players requests for compensation were denied more frequently than those |
| 0:51.5 | my white players and year after year the league's seeming inability or is it |
| 0:56.5 | unwillingness to hire and retain black coaches in a league where a majority of |
| 1:01.2 | the players are black. I don't think as a society we really think about |
| 1:06.8 | the limits we're putting on young black brown minority |
| 1:14.0 | children and girls when they don't see leadership in the head coach Jim |
| 1:22.2 | they don't see people that look like them in those positions. |
| 1:24.9 | That's Brian Flores. Last year he was fired from his position as head coach of the Miami |
| 1:29.6 | Dolphins. His dismissal abruptly ended a contract that was supposed to last for two more years. |
| 1:34.8 | Flores filed a class action suit against the NFL for racial discrimination. |
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