Posted on 08/17/2006 12:43:41 PM PDT by slowhand520
Report card gives NFL B+ for racial diversityAssociated Press
ORLANDO, Fla. -- The NFL's rule that at least one minority candidate be interviewed for each head coaching vacancy is the reason there are now a record seven black head coaches, six more than 16 years ago, the author of several sports diversity studies said Thursday.
The University of Central Florida's Institute for Diversity and Ethics in Sport credited the league's "Rooney Rule," adopted in late 2002, for the improvement.
"It's been really fast-tracked in a big-time way," study author Richard Lapchick said. "I've always felt the commissioner [Paul Tagliabue] had high on his priority list to improve the record for diversity, but until then he just didn't have the leverage."
The number of black general managers also increased from two in 2003 to a record five at the beginning of this season after the Houston Texans hired Rick Smith. Others at the position, not always called general manager but with equivalent duties, are the Baltimore Ravens' Ozzie Newsome, Arizona Cardinals vice president Rod Graves, Martin Mayhew with the Detroit Lions and James Harris, vice president of player personnel with the Jacksonville Jaguars.
There were never more than four minority head coaches throughout the 1990s.
Current black head coaches are: Romeo Crennel at Cleveland, Lovie Smith at Chicago, Marvin Lewis at Cincinnati, Herman Edwards at Kansas City, Tony Dungy at Indianapolis, Dennis Green at Arizona and Art Shell, recently rehired by Oakland.
Those changes helped the NFL earn an overall B+ from a B last year in Lapchick's report card on race.
"Having talented people from diverse backgrounds has been and will continue to be a priority for our league," NFL spokesman Greg Aiello said.
However, the report noted that the NFL -- and other pro men's sports, with the exception of basketball -- continued to lag in hiring women. The report card did not specifically issue a grade for gender because researchers were missing information from the NFL head office, Lapchick said, but it likely wouldn't have improved much over last year's D+.
The NFL did have a female president/CEO -- Amy Trask of the Raiders -- which is a rarity across pro sports, Lapchick said.
The NFL did not immediately comment on the report.
Lapchick reports on diversity in all the major professional sports and the NCAA.
Copyright 2006 by The Associated Press
or asians? or native americans?
Well, after all these years of women sportscasters on the sidelines, my conclusion is that the experiment was a failure.
Guys talk to guys differently than they do to women. Visser and the rest just get standard sports platitudes. You could just hand them a list of sports cliches and just tell the athletes and coaches "pick 2 at random."
Doesn't the NFL get points off for having a 99% obesity rate?
An utter failure; but an ongoing/expanding failure, not one the NFL has learned from.
What the NFL needs is a African-American Lesbian linebacker.
In all that time, the only good moment we got was Broadway Joe sloshing all over the camera ;)
Or...it could be that it's 16 years later, and we have more blacks who have developed their careers so that they might be suitable head coaches. I suspect that one or two along the way might be because of the NFL policy, and the rest and current from my suggested alternative.
Plenty to be found at any Code Pinko rally.
there are now a record seven black head coaches
Blacks make up approximately 12% of the population. Seven black head coaches would be 12% of 58 teams. I must of missed the NFL expansion, I didnt know there were that many NFL teams.
/S
More seriously, there are 32 NFL teams, so 7 black head coaches would be 21.875% for a group that is 12% of the population, and that only rates a B+?
Do you suppose that 100% black head coaches would rate a plain A grade?
Epic.
The US populace is about 10% black. Are there 70 football teams?
I think there's a scandle here...
I realize that your post was meant as sarcasm... but you have a very valid point. At what point do these liberal idiots consider the NFL (or any other organization) to be "diverse"? When it is 100% black? Or maybe they think it needs more Hispanics.
When looking at the racial "diversity", wouldn't it make sense to compare the make-up of an organization to society as a whole? If so, then the NFL (and NBA) are HEAVILY biased AGAINST certain races who make up a larger portion of society than the organizations. Back when the numbers were more reflective of the real-world, the minority-promoting groups cried that it just wasn't fair... more minorities should be allowed in.
I just don't get it.
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