Front Office Football Central - View Single Post - Q. Do you have to be "Black" to be a minority?

QuikSand · 02-08-2003, 01:07 PM

Since the initial topic was supposedly the NFL, here's a thought that really ought to be part of the discussion (independent of your or my thoughts on the NFL's current hiring protocols).

I think thereason that there has been particular attention to promotion of "minority" hiring in the NFL (and yes, the focus has been particularly on African-Americans or blacks) is because there is a particular link there. A sizable share of coaches in the NFL are drawn from the ranks of former players, even those who played only briefly. Since the pool of former players is a group with a racial profile that skews toward minorities, and in particular blacks (and has been that way for a pretty long time), it superficially stands to reason that the people getting coaching jobs-- largely drawn from the pool of players who were active in the 1960s, 70s, and 80s-- would be pretty "diverse" in general, and pretty well-populated with blacks. The fact that this still isn't so makes this, in some people's minds, a special case.

Again, I don't necessarily agree with the conclusions that many people reach about this topic, nor do I ask you to. However, this is a particular reason why there might be justification for particular (and logically consistent) concern about "black representation" among NFL coaches, rather than that of other minority groups (who are not themselves disproportionately represented in the pool of former players).

02-08-2003, 01:07 PM	#15
QuikSand lolzcat Join Date: Oct 2000 Location: Annapolis, Md	Since the initial topic was supposedly the NFL, here's a thought that really ought to be part of the discussion (independent of your or my thoughts on the NFL's current hiring protocols). I think thereason that there has been particular attention to promotion of "minority" hiring in the NFL (and yes, the focus has been particularly on African-Americans or blacks) is because there is a particular link there. A sizable share of coaches in the NFL are drawn from the ranks of former players, even those who played only briefly. Since the pool of former players is a group with a racial profile that skews toward minorities, and in particular blacks (and has been that way for a pretty long time), it superficially stands to reason that the people getting coaching jobs-- largely drawn from the pool of players who were active in the 1960s, 70s, and 80s-- would be pretty "diverse" in general, and pretty well-populated with blacks. The fact that this still isn't so makes this, in some people's minds, a special case. Again, I don't necessarily agree with the conclusions that many people reach about this topic, nor do I ask you to. However, this is a particular reason why there might be justification for particular (and logically consistent) concern about "black representation" among NFL coaches, rather than that of other minority groups (who are not themselves disproportionately represented in the pool of former players).