Giving 'Black Monday' a New Meaning In the NFL

Two days ago, I was asked to write an article about the firing of five Black or African American head coaches in the NFL during the 2018 season. To be blunt, the request came with a caveat that I assume that the firings were racially motivated; an ask that I was not willing to entertain. This is not to suggest that I was not interested in truly exploring the rationale behind the firings, it simply means that I refuse to go into any discussion with a preconceived notion. Blame it on my multitude of years as a culture facilitator wherein I've been programmed to listen to understand, this instead of listening to respond.

Today, I am two days removed from this request and the annual day deemed Black Monday. The name is appropriate since it often leads to pink slips for underperforming coaches in the NFL. The day may have taken on a more literally meaning this year. As of the beginning of the 2018 NFL season, there were seven Black or African American head coaches. As of this writing, that number has dwindled down to two. That's right, five Black or African American head coaches were fired at some point during the season, four of whom met their fate on Black Monday. In light of this, you might expect a rash of shade thrown towards the NFL and its owners. If so, your expectations are right on. Twitter users were up in arms with many of them crying racism or commenting on the bad optic this gives the NFL and its owners. Still, some users argued that the firings were warranted based on the records of the coaches respective teams.

The million dollar question is, who's right? We could look at the records of the teams, opine that the firings were just and call it done. After all:

• Steve Wilks was fired after his Arizona Cardinals finished with a 3-13 record.
• Marvin Lewis and the Cincinnati Bengals mutually parted ways after an 0-7 playoff record and a four-year playoff drought.
• Vance Joseph was fired as coach of the Denver Broncos after posting a 6-10 record and handing the franchise their first back-to-back losing seasons in over 45 years.
• Todd Bowles was fired by the New York Jets after the team went 14-34 over the past three seasons, its worst record in a three-year stretch since 1994-96.
• Hue Jackson was fired as coach of the Cleveland Browns after posting a 3-36-1 record after two-and-a-half seasons with the team.

These are pretty poor numbers but do they tell the whole story? How about we answer this question with another question. Besides good coaching, what does it take for a time to win games? It starts with having a roster that can compete with other rosters in the NFL. And, as can be proven by the overwhelming percentage of recent MVP winners, the QB position is considered the most valuable player to secure wins.

Steve Wilks was handed QB Sam Bradford on a fragile, silver platter, only to see him once again underperform. In fact, he was replaced by a rookie QB four games into the season. Keep in mind, Bradford has moved from team to team since his entry into this NFL. In other words, he didn't exactly go into Arizona with a history of consistently high value to any team he has ever been on.

Todd Bowles was handed a rookie QB who showed some potential, this after having the likes of Bryce Petty, Josh McCown, Ryan Fitzpatrick, and Geno Smith over the past few years. None of these QB's are currently starting for an NFL franchise.

Vance Joseph was given a QB coming off of a great 2017 season but whose career history likely pointed to his 2017 performance as nothing more than an anomaly. His 2018 performance validated that belief. What's more, the QB's Joseph had at his disposal in 2017 are either out of the league (Lynch) or serving as a backup on another team (Siemian) today.

Marvin Lewis's Bengals went 1-5 over the last 6 games of the season, a dreadful record that just so happened to coincide with the fact that a back-up QB started each of these games. That's right, he lost his franchise QB and WR early in the season.

Beyond a dissection of the QB situation, one could and should reasonably ask the question about who is more responsible for equipping the team with the best players available? While the coach must prepare the team to excel on the field, it is the GM who is responsible for actually ensuring there is a reasonably competitive roster to put on the field. As of this writing, the GM's for all five teams that fired a Black or African American head coach are still employed. Said more succinctly, the coach was fired, this despite the lack of talent put on the field by the still-employed white GM.

Does any of this mean, unequivocally, that the firings were race motivated? Before answering this question, let's look at a few more bits of data.

Did you know that by 2017, there had only been 17 Black or African American head coaches in NFL history who coached a team for an entire season. Four of them—Art Shell, Tony Dungy, Lovie Smith and Jim Caldwell—were fired despite having a winning season. That’s 23.5 percent. By comparison, team owners fired only 6.9 percent of white head coaches on winning teams. What do we do with this piece of information and how does it apply to the broader question of whether this seasons firing of Black and African American NFL coaches were just? Some will note that 23.5 percent is a high number but from a very small sample size. Others will second that it is a very small sample size and use that reality to further their point that the NFL still has a race problem when it comes to opportunities for Black and African American coaches. Objectively speaking, they may be onto something. After all, there have been 489 head coaches in the history of the NFL, only 17 of whom have been Black or African American. For those mathletes out there, this is an average of 3.4%.

Beyond these abysmal numbers, it may be worth exploring parity and whether or not Black and African American coaches and white coaches face the same expectations. While Steve Wilks was axed after one year in Arizona, John Gruden walked into the 2019 sunset with but one more win than Wilks and zero insecurity around his job. As well, the talent level in Oakland was a lot higher than Arizona's, particularly on the offensive side of the ball. As well, Matt Patricia survived in Detroit after posting a 6-10 record, this despite having an exceedingly better QB situation than Bowles, Wilks, Lewis, and Joseph. How is one to explain Kyle Shanahan remaining in San Francisco after posting a 4-12 record? I've heard the excuse that he lost his QB to a season ending injury but so did Lewis and Wilks.

It is at this point in the discussion that I acclimate everyone reading this article to the fact that I am a Certified Diversity Executive and culture facilitator. The former garners me a lot of speaking engagements and requests for quotes and articles around diversity. The latter requires me to go into any situation objectively. As such, it is my expert view that calling the firing's race motivated without looking objectively at the information would be as wrong as presuming that their race is coincidental and the firings were strictly about wins and losses.

Looking at the broader annual coaching carousel, few NFL pundits would argue that NFL owners and fans are wildly impatient when it comes to giving coaches of any color a reasonable timeline to succeed. For instance:

• Determining the likely productivity of players from year-to-year can be a crapshoot at best
• Injuries are almost impossible to avoid
• There are no more than 10 franchise QB's around the league at any given time
• As one team wins, another will lose
• The fluidity of players, coaches, coordinators, and GM's makes for a very delicate balance year-in and year-out in the NFL
• 6-8 NFL coaches are fired every year

This is the reality that all coaches must manage. Jay Gruden going through four starting QB's in 2018 while often playing 3rd and 4th string receivers is a coaches nightmare that few would wish on anyone. His job is likely secure for 2019 if only because of these unfortunate events and yet Vance Joseph, who lost Pro-Bowl caliber players such as Aquib Talib, Chris Harris, Emanual Sanders and Demaryius Thomas, was fired. This is a fact. The Buffalo Bills have not had a franchise QB or WR in over a decade while the Jacksonville Jaguars and Miami Dolphins continuously struggle to maintain any level of competitive consistency. Not surprisingly, these teams also have high coaching turnover. Adam Gase was just fired as coach of the Dolphins, as was Dick Koetter of the Buccaneers. And yet, another fact is that Gase is drawing interest from multiple teams, this despite his lack of success in Miami. Guess who else is getting noticeable interest? Mike McCarthy, who was fired with four games remaining in Green Bay, and Josh McDaniels who had a miserable coaching performance in Denver and committed the cardinal sin of accepting and rescinding a coaching offer with the Colts last year. This is not to suggest that they may not be viable coaches but it becomes difficult to warrant interviewing and (potentially) hiring them while simultaneously overlooking Black and African American candidates. Which brings me to my last point.

The Rooney Rule has been in effect since 2003 and only 11 Black coaches have been hired in the 16 years since. Of the 11, four of them were named interim head coaches and were not retained as permanent coaches. Putting this into pure numbers, there have been an average of 5 head coaching vacancies in the 16 years since the Rooney Rule into effect. This means that 80 (give or take) coaching vacancies have existed and only 7 have been filled by Black or African American coaches. What is the reason for this low number? Owners and GM's go to the common refrain that they are supposed to hire the best qualified candidate but how is it that the best qualified candidate is overwhelmingly non-Black or African-American?

NFL pundits and NFL fans can argue particular coaching changes until the cows come home. They will talk about things like 'best fit', 'owners prerogative', and 'system knowledge' as reasons to explain or justify a hiring or non-hiring but at the end of the day, individual rationales and excuses cannot hold a candle to the pure and simple facts, providing someone is willing to look at them objectively. Allow me to reacquaint you with them:

• Only 3.4% of all NFL coaches have been Black or African American
• 23.5 percent of Black or African American NFL coaches have been fired after a winning season, this compared to 6.9% for white coaches
• None of the GM's were fired from the team that fired one of the 5 Black or African American coaches who were fired during the 2018 season; this despite the fact that it is the GM's job to put a competitive roster on the field and 4 of the 5 fired coaches had serious talent deficits
• Several white coaches kept their jobs, this despite having similarly dismal records and, in most cases, better personnel situations by which to work with
• Every year, several coaching vacancies exist and the Rooney Rule requires that minority coaches are interviewed. In the 16 years since the inception, only 11 Black or African American coaches have served in an interim or full-time capacity

Again, I was asked to write an article wherein I would emphatically outline the racist tendencies of NFL owners who refuse to hire or retain Black or African American coaches. I declined to do that. Instead, I wanted to take an objective look at the situation and offer some insights accordingly. Here it is: If I were hired by the NFL to look at their hiring and retention of Black or African American coaches, I would objectively state that they have a problem. For no matter what reasons owners and GM's provide for picking this person over that person, the fact is, this person has been overwhelmingly white. Putting on my Certified Diversity Executive hat, I cannot think (nor have heard) of a justifiable reason for this fact that does not include deep rooted bias or racism.

Perhaps there will be more Black or African American coaches hired and in position for the 2019 season. Still, the real test is not about the hiring but instead, about the retention. Stay tuned.