SI: How One Agent Is Working to Strengthen Diversity in the NFL’s Head Coaching Ranks
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Not So Fastforum_veteranOPLast month, Brian Levy of Goal Line Football invited his roster of NFL and college coaches to the Sea View Hotel in South Beach for a new kind of summit. At the Goal Line Football Coaches Workshop, coaches would gather in a conference room to hear from experts in football analytics, organizational leadership, media and diversity. It was, for the average football coach, the rare opportunity to workshop in their quests for bigger and better jobs, and to speak openly and honestly about personal ambition. For me, sitting in the front row with a notepad, it was refreshing to hear coaches talking in something other than coach-speak.
Rod Graves, the newly appointed director of the Fritz Pollard Alliance, and formerly an NFL VP of Football Administration—and before that, general manager of the Arizona Cardinals—gave an hour-long talk about diversity, and all the qualities that make great coaching candidates. Having had the ear of a number of owners in his career, Graves went into what frightens owners in the hiring process. Assistant coaches from teams with losing records, he said, were a hard sell.
But this NFL head coach-hiring cycle saw Kliff Kingsbury of the 5-7 Texas Tech Raiders get hired in Arizona, and Matt LaFleur of the 9-7 Titans and their 25th-ranked offense get hired in Green Bay. One of Levy's clients, an African American defensive line coach, interjected: "Is it more difficult to sell that when you're a person of color?"
“I don’t think so,” Graves said. “That’s something that can be debated, but most of the owners I’ve been around just want to win. If you can convince them this is the right person, and that person has a plan and speaks to the issues, I don't think color matters.”
“If that was the case,” the coach replied, “we wouldn’t need the Fritz Pollard Alliance.”
“I’m not going to argue it’s not a factor,” Graves said. "It’s my charge to make that different. And that’s what I’m going to do.”
Continued
Galantforum_veteranA quick word of warning. This topic touches on political themes and as such runs the risk of creating a political thread that will quickly spiral down in quality. As such it's on a very, very short leash.
Stay on the football side of this.
Discuss the merits of the article/idea.
Engage the posts not the posters.
Or this one gets locked.
"Although we are capable of great acts of kindness, history teaches us that we sometimes need saving from ourselves – from our recklessness or our greed. God sent into the world a unique person – neither a philosopher nor a general, important though they are, but a Saviour, with the power to forgive... It is my prayer that on this Christmas day we might all find room in our lives for the message of the angels and for the love of God through Christ our Lord." (Christmas message, 2011)
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