NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell Says League Plans To Address Lack of Minority Hires: We Are Not Where We Want To Be

NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell Says League Plans To Address Lack of Minority Hires: We Are Not Where We Want To Be

“Clearly, we are not where we want to be on this issue. We have a lot of work that’s gone into not only the Rooney Rule, but our policies overall. It’s clear we need to change and do something different. There’s no reason to expect that we’re going to have a different outcome next year without those kinds of changes, and we’ve already begun engaging in those changes.”

Goodell adds how the league has already set up multiple meetings throughout the month of February to address the lack of representation in the front offices.

“Not just with our diversity committee, not just with the Fritz Pollard alliance, but others, and trying to figure out what steps we can take next that would lead to better outcomes. So we will have a series of meetings, which we’ve already scheduled, over the next month to get that kind of dialogue going, to continue the dialogue and to try to determine what are the solutions, so we can have those better outcomes.”

Shockingly, more than 50% of NFL players are African American. There’s an argument that the same should be represented throughout the front offices of the league. At the moment, Pittsburgh Steelers’  Mike Tomlin and Los Angeles Chargers’ Anthony Lynn are the league’s only African-American head coaches.

In addition, Carolina Panthers are led by Hispanic coach Ron Rivera. Outside of the handful number of coaches, Miami Dolphins’ Chris Grier and Andrew Berry of the Cleveland Browns make up only two African-American general managers.

As reported, back in August Goodell and the NFL entered into a multi-year partnership with Roc Nation and rap mogul Jay Z to enhance the NFL’s live game experiences and to amplify the league’s social justice efforts. After their controversial partnership, Goodell told The New York Times the NFL is looking to put itself in the best position moving forward.

“We don’t want people to come in and necessarily agree with us; we want people to come in and tell us what we can do better. I think that’s a core element of our relationship between the two organizations, and with Jay and I personally.”

Shortly after the announcement, former NFL quarterback and activist Colin Kaepernick took to social media and seemingly addressed their partnership. In Kaepernick’s message, the former NFL’er shared a poem by Robert L. Allen, quoting from “Black Awakening.”