Go, Johnnie, go

Cochran's plan to aid minority hiring in the NFL is overdue

Well, now the NFL has gone and done it. With its horrible record of minority hiring, the league has ticked off Johnnie Cochran. It's not just that Cochran is threatening to sue the NFL, which has only two African-American men among its 32 head coaches, it's that he is threatening to embarrass the league -- and to that we say, Go, Johnnie, go. It isn't easy to shame the NFL into significant action -- the countless columns and editorials written over the years that have taken the league to task for keeping the head coaching ranks almost lily white certainly haven't done it -- but Cochran, you may recall, managed to get a certain well-known running back acquitted of a serious crime a few years back. The man knows how to pull off an upset.

Last week Cochran and some of his high-powered colleagues released a report that further documented what anyone who can count already knew -- that NFL team owners run a close second to the ol' boys at Augusta National when it comes to discrimination. There were two black head coaches in the league 10 years ago, when there were 28 teams. Now there are 32 teams, and there are still just two black head coaches, Tony Dungy of the Indianapolis Colts and Herman Edwards of the New York Jets. The most black head coaches the NFL has ever had in one season? A whopping total of three.

But those aren't even the most damning numbers. According to the report, over the last 15 years black coaches have taken their teams to the playoffs 67 percent of the time versus 39 percent for white coaches, and they've averaged 1.1 more victories per year than their Caucasian counterparts. Granted, there are any number of factors that go into those statistics, but the bottom line is this: On the all too rare occasions that NFL owners have been able to bring themselves to hire a black coach, they have nearly always been rewarded with at least a decent measure of success. Think of the names: Dungy, Edwards, Dennis Green, Ray Rhodes, Art Shell. There hasn't been a total bust in the bunch. Since that's the case, and since everyone in the NFL imitates success, why wouldn't more teams hire black head coaches? You can come up with the answer for that one without our help.

Cochran is threatening litigation unless the NFL adopts his proposal for awarding or revoking draft picks depending on whether a team interviews minority candidates for head coaching jobs and other openings. It's a rather silly, non-football-guy idea that the league would never seriously consider. Cochran might as well have asked for Al Sharpton to be named the next commissioner. But that's fine, because it would be much more satisfying to see the league get dragged into court to defend its shameful record. I'm guessing that Cincinnati Bengals fans would love to see Cochran make executives from their team explain how there were no black coaches more qualified when the team hired David Shula in 1992. It would be entertaining to hear Cochran get the New York Jets on the stand to answer a two-word question: Rich Kotite?

The NFL's courtroom defense would no doubt be that the league has made sincere efforts in recent years to rectify the glaring injustice that has been done to black coaches. The league now has an internship program aimed at producing minority coaching candidates, which is one of the reasons that the number of black assistant coaches has risen from 14 in 1980 to 154 this season, which is 28 percent of the total number of assistants. These efforts are commendable, but they are also insufficient, not when successful black coaches like Marvin Lewis, Johnnie Lynn, Ted Cottrell and others wait for their first opportunity to be a head coach despite having paid all the dues any team could ask for.

NFL people roll their eyes at the mention of Cochran's involvement, believing that he's as interested in raising his own profile as he is in changing the league's hiring practices. That may be true, but his motives aren't important as long as he turns up the heat on the league's owners. May the flame finally grow hot enough to burn their backsides.

Sports Illustrated senior writer Phil Taylor writes about a Hot Button issue every Monday on CNNSI.com.

 

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