NFL teams will be required to employ a "female or a member of an ethnic or racial minority" as an offensive assistant coach for the upcoming season, according to diversity efforts announced Monday during annual owners meetings in Palm Beach, Fla. The league will reimburse teams up to $200,000 in 2022 and $205,000 in 2023 for a one-year contract, which will go to a person with at least three years' of collegiate or professional coaching experience, NPR reports. The initiative is meant to lead to more minority head coaches down the road. "In recent years, head coaches have predominantly had offensive backgrounds," the NFL said.
The league also announced the creation of a diversity advisory committee to review hiring practices "in light of ongoing concerns over a lack of diversity in hiring," per CNN. This follows a racial discrimination lawsuit from former Miami Dolphins coach Brian Flores, now an assistant with the Pittsburgh Steelers. NFL commissioner Roger Goodell acknowledged the league has "more work to do, particularly at the head coach and front-office level." The NFL said "our diversity numbers are stagnant in the head coach and special teams coordinator roles and have slightly declined in the offensive coordinator role," despite a slight increase in the percentage of people of color in coaching positions overall in 2021.
About 39% of coaching positions were filled by people of color in 2021, up from 35% in 2020, per NPR. There were seven Black general managers, up from five the previous year, and six minority assistant general managers, up from three. There are now five minority head coaches in the league. "While we have made important progress, we have more work ahead of us" on the road to "better outcomes for women and people of color," the league said. Per the Athletic, the Rooney Rule—requiring teams to interview at least two minority candidates for coaching and front office jobs—has been updated to include women, who filled 12 coaching positions across the league in 2021. (More NFL stories.)
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