Sports
No More Excuses: If Minority Coaches Aren’t Hired Now, NFL Teams Have Failed
Arizona defensive coordinator Todd Bowles is set to interview with several NFL teams later this week. (AP Photo)
(Sporting News) – The next evolution of the NFL’s quest for the most inclusive hiring process possible is an advisory committee of longtime coaches and executives, appointed by Roger Goodell and conferring with the Fritz Pollard Alliance. Their task is to supply teams with the best candidates, regardless of color.
“If we don’t do that, we’re idiots,” Ron Wolf, the former Raiders and Packers GM and now Jets consultant, told Sporting News.
Wolf is part of the eight-member committee, which is headed by a pair of NFL executive vice presidents, Troy Vincent and Robert Gulliver. The other members are former head coaches Tony Dungy, John Madden and Dennis Green, and executives Wolf, Ernie Accorsi, Charley Casserly, Carl Peterson and Bill Polian.
It has been in place for the past two offseasons and meets in December, late in the regular season, with hiring season just weeks away for several teams. If it works as intended (and those involved in it like the results so far), the chances are better that candidates like defensive coordinators Todd Bowles and Teryl Austin and offensive coordinators Hue Jackson and Pep Hamilton will be head coaches in 2015, or soon after.
