Pride or prejudice?

Minority hiring in the NFL isn't a clear-cut topic

PHOENIX -- The NFL's workplace diversity committee and the issue of minority hiring was a matter that simply wouldn't go away as the League Meetings ground to a conclusion this week.

I wish I could give you definitive, you should pardon the expression, black-and-white answer on how I feel about this whole phenomenon, but it's a complicated sociological matter, and I'm always suspicious of people who are all too ready to rush to judgment.

Looking at it as an outsider I feel that yes, something has to be done to try to bring the African-American membership in the league into balance. Sixty-seven to a projected 70 percent of the work force, the players who bring in the revenue, are black, but only three out of 32 head coaches. Not right. Something must be done. The diversity committee, which says that at least one African-American candidate must be interviewed for a head coach opening, is a start. If I were black, I'd probably be even more passionate about this.

But if I were an owner or general manager I'd say nobody's going to tell me who to hire. Sure, I'll play the game and give 'em their interview, but the man for the job is the business of me and my club.

Complicating the issue is the fact that civil rights activists Jesse Jackson and Cyrus Mehri, plus Johnnie Cochran, the lawyer, are applying the pressure, threatening legal action, etc. The name of Cochran, who sprung O.J. Simpson, muddies things. I think of Cochran, and what picture comes to mind? Self-promotion, for one thing. Legal slickery. But if he were defending me in court, it might be another matter.

I remember a long sociological discussion I once had with Lawrence Taylor, actually the only sociological conversation. We were talking about black leaders when Al Sharpton's name came up, and I said I thought he was basically an opportunist and self-promoter.

"Maybe so," Taylor said. "But he's all we have. Think of it. That's who we've got."

So now we have the NFL, with its rather feeble attempt to answer the challenge by setting up a form chart. Grant your interview, then hire who you want. Lions GM Matt Millen got in trouble with the diversity committee because he was too eager to grab Steve Mariucci as his head coach, and when five black candidates disdained the token interview and turned him down, the Lions were ruled to be in violation of the committee's guidelines.

The league addressed the form but not the substance. It set up a guideline that could be easily circumvented by a little deceit, and that's what I find wrong with it.

Millen drew criticism for being honest, for not playing the game. Candidates such as Steelers defensive coordinator Tim Lewis, whom he'd known for years, asked him, according to sources close to Lewis, "Look, Matt ... be straight with me. Is this a real interview or are you just touching base?" He was all set to come in. Millen told him that Mariucci was the heavy front-runner, and Lewis stayed home.

"It's a bad position to be put in," Millen said. "If you respect a person, you're not going to lie to him. But his question's always going to be, 'Why are you interviewing me?'

"Why doesn't the league just create a pool of candidates? We go to the league and say, 'I want to talk to so-and-so and so-and-so,' out of the pool. Then if a guy wants to decline an interview, let him do it to the league."

Raiders boss Al Davis is one of the few NFL executives who has been critical of the league's diversity committee. On Tuesday he made some of his ideas known, and like almost every white executive who has addressed this issue, he first had to present pedigree papers dealing with his record in civil rights.

"The Raiders hired the first African-American coach, Art Shell," he said. "Throw in that I'm also proud of the fact that we hired the first, and to my knowledge, still the only Hispanic-American, Tom Flores. In the early '60s we had an exhibition game with the Jets in Mobile, [Ala.], and when we found out that the African-American players on both the Jets and Raiders wouldn't be allowed to stay in the same hotel as their teammates, we canceled the game. There were other instances of that happening.

"I'd say that the Raiders have done more against class consciousness and more for diversity than any person or group in sports, other than Jackie Robinson. That said, I find fault with the NFL program because it only addresses the process, not the reality. What good is putting a process in place if the results are still going to be unsatisfactory?

"The league means well. They want to do something. But it's easier to talk about this than to solve it."

So how do you solve it?

"The first step is to get the idea into everybody's head," says Steelers owner Dan Rooney, who heads the diversity program. "Then you have to get it into their conscience, which is tougher."

At times we hear the same arguments we used to hear in the old days, when the matter of integrating the colleges, or the country clubs, came up. Columnist Rickey Hampton, writing in the Flint (Mich.) Journal on Feb. 1, when the Lions issue was hot, said, "While history tells us that NFL owners prefer hiring white coaches, the fact is that it is their right to prefer white coaches. The owners paid millions for the franchise, so they have earned the right to put the people they want in charge. Fans can only trust the owners to make the best possible decision, based on the candidates' abilities, and nothing else ... the NFL rule that forces candidates on the Lions is as wrong as trying to force Augusta National golf club to add women members. ..."

These are strange times. The Lions, in answering the accusations that they had violated the league's diversity guidelines, felt compelled to publish a chart showing how they compared with the 31 other NFL teams in terms of African-Americans employed in five categories -- executive, coaching staff, coordinators, player personnel and training staff. Their number was 12, tied with Atlanta, Denver and Green Bay for most in the league. It's almost as if teams must publish charts to prove their lack of prejudice.

The diversity program has other, lesser-known aspects, such as expanding training, development and internships, particularly in the World League, for minority coaching candidates -- actually for all young candidates. It's a far cry from getting them hired at the top level, but at least it's a start.

"We don't have the answers yet," Rooney says, "but we have done some research, and what we've found is that in the NFL, as well as in business in general, the interview process itself can be very helpful. Interviewing minority candidates can help the whole situation. It can be an eye-opener in some cases. It can bring someone to your attention who you'd never have thought of."

Tony Dungy was one of the NFL's most respected defensive coaches during the mid-1980s and early '90s, and was deemed the black coach most likely to step into a top position. But for years it didn't work out that way.

"In a 15-year period, I was interviewed three times before I got the Tampa job, twice in Philly and once in Jacksonville," says Dungy, now one of the NFL's three black head coaches. "I thought two of those interviews were serious, Jacksonville and the second one in Philly, and both times I thought I was gonna get the job. When Tampa Bay called me, some people told me not to bother to interview there because Steve Spurrier was a cinch to get hired.

"The only time I was really discouraged was in '93. There were something like six or seven openings in the offseason. I'd been the defensive coordinator in Minnesota and we were coming off a playoff season with the No. 1 defense in the league. And I never even got a phone call. At that point I thought it might be over for me."

Dungy endorses the diversity committee's directive.

"To me, the Jack Del Rio situation in Jacksonville was very meaningful," he says. "They sat down with him, not knowing him all that well, but Jack wowed them. Lovie Smith should have a chance to wow 'em, too. There is something to going through the interview process. It makes you better prepared the next time. But when I was working for the Steelers, Mr. Rooney -- Art Rooney, the Chief -- told me, 'You don't want to get interviewed too much. It makes you suspect.'

"So now the league is addressing it, and the biggest plus for having a Johnnie Cochran around is that maybe the fear of litigation is causing the league to at least do something. But as you said, the big question is: How do you address the substance of this? Short of that, you create a form, which is more than you've had."

Millen is not bitter about facing a possible penalty for being honest but he, along with others, would like to see the rules more clearly defined.

"I really think they want to get it right," Millen says. "But I don't think they know how."

Sports Illustrated senior writer Paul Zimmerman covers the NFL for the magazine and SI.com. His "Inside Football" column and Mailbag appear weekly on SI.com. To send a question to Dr. Z, click here.

 

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