This year, eight NFL head coaches were fired. All eight jobs went to white men.
Last year, there were seven. Six were filled by white coaches. The only minority, Romeo Crennel, was fired after one season.
“While there has been full compliance with the interview requirements of the Rooney Rule and we wish the new head coaches and general managers much success, the hiring results this year have been unexpected and reflect a disappointing lack of diversity,” said NFL executive V.P. of human resources Robert Gulliver in a statement released to PFT. “The Rooney Rule has been a valuable tool in expanding diversity and inclusion in hiring practices, but there is more work to do, especially around increasing and strengthening the pipeline of diverse candidates for head coach and senior football executive positions. We have already started the process of developing a plan for additional steps that will better ensure more diversity and inclusion on a regular basis in our hiring results. We look forward to discussing these steps with our advisers to ensure that our employment, development and equal opportunity programs are both robust and successful.”
The statement does not specify the steps that are being considered. But, clearly, something needs to be done.
To the its credit, the NFL has acknowledged that.