“I have no confidence” - Mike Tomlin puts NFL on notice by saying minority coaching hire practices won’t change
Despite former Miami Dolphins head coach Brian Flores filing a lawsuit against the NFL for discrimination, Pittsburgh Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin doesn't believe anything will change in the NFL.
Tomlin doesn't believe the NFL will do much to ensure that more minority coaches get hired in the league.
Mike Tomlin spoke out against the current situation in the NFL.
"Asked if he has any confidence in the NFL changing its hiring practices for minority head coaches, Mike Tomlin said 'I have no confidence,' that will happen."
Asked if he has any confidence in the NFL changing its hiring practices for minority head coaches, Mike Tomlin said “I have no confidence,” that will happen.
Mike Tomlin is right, you haven't seen much effort this offseason to hire hardly any minority coaches. Out of the nine coaching vacancies last season, only two were filled by minority coaches. Lovie Smith was hired by the Houston Texans, and Mike McDaniel, who is biracial, was hired by the Miami Dolphins.
That brings the total number of minority hires to five out of 32 teams. Although NFL commissioner Roger Goodell has tried to make an effort to get more owners to hire minority coaches, his efforts fell flat.
The question is what can the NFL do to improve this type of situation that is taking place in the league?
Mike Tomlin is leading the charge against discrimination
Mike Tomlin is tired of leading the pack of being one of the few minority coaches in the league who has had the longest stay with any team.
Mike Tomlin, in part, on his relationship with Brian Flores:
"I wanted to stay close to Brian when his legal issues started. I just didn’t want him to feel like he was on an island. From a coaching fraternity standpoint, I owed him that. ... I was in position to provide that."
Roger Goodell is going to have to do more than ask owners to do a better job; he is going to have to enforce certain rules.
Maybe start by taking away draft picks. If NFL owners don't make a better effort to interview more minority candidates, you lose draft picks, high draft picks. That would get the attention of several owners.
The NFL could do like college football has done and have a committee that draws up a list of viable minority coaches to be interviewed.
Alabama head coach Nick Saban is one of the few white head coaches on this committee in college football to help get more minority coaches hired, and he has helped several of his former black assistant coaches get head coaching jobs in college football, like Mel Tucker of Michigan State, Mike Locksley of Maryland and Charlie Huff of Marshall.
Bottom line is, something needs to be done. When the majority of the NFL is black but you don't have enough black or other minority coaches to represent them, then this, indeed, falls, not only on the NFL, but its owners, too.