The NFL made some significant coaching hires recently that might indicate that the league is headed in a more promising direction when it comes to employing Black head coaches.
Thursday, ESPN reported that the Atlanta Falcons will be hiring Raheem Morris to be their next head coach, making him the third Black coach to be elevated during this season. Previous hiring cycles haven’t been kind to Black coaches. In the five cycles before this season, 33 non-interim head-coaching jobs were available across the NFL. Just five of those positions went to Black coaches. In fact, upward mobility for Black coaches had been so abysmal that the former Miami Dolphins head coach Brian Flores filed a discrimination lawsuit against the NFL in 2022, and two other Black coaches joined.
But these three recent hires are noteworthy because they show that NFL owners are finally extending a level of trust that seems to have been reserved mostly for white coaches. Morris was the head coach of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers from 2009 to 2011, and rarely are Black coaches given a second opportunity to be a head coach. A day after the New England Patriots and legendary coach Bill Belichick parted ways, the team announced that it had hired Jerod Mayo, who at 37 is now the NFL’s youngest head coach and the first Black head coach in New England’s history. And then this week, the Las Vegas Raiders promoted Antonio Pierce from interim to head coach.
Now more than three Black head coaches will be on the sidelines come next NFL season, unlike the past five years. But beyond a slight increase in the number of Black head coaches, the bigger statement made with Mayo and Pierce is that they were both outside-the-box hires who received head-coaching opportunities despite lacking significant NFL coaching experience.
Historically, this has not been unusual—for white coaches. During the 2022 season, the Indianapolis Colts’ owner, Jim Irsay, hired Jeff Saturday, a former player, as an interim head coach. Saturday coached eight games for the Colts and won just once. Irsay considered making Saturday’s role permanent, but he changed directions. Even now, Saturday is believed to be the only head coach in the league’s history who was hired without college or NFL coaching experience.
In 2021, the Texans interviewed Josh McCown, the team’s former quarterback, for their head-coaching position. McCown also had never coached at any level. The Texans were rightfully criticized for considering McCown, the consideration was an insult, regardless of ethnicity. And although they instead hired David Culley, a Black coach they fired after one season, the Texans were so enamored of McCown that they reportedly urged other NFL teams to interview him so that their interest in him would have some validity.
Although there isn’t a narrow path to becoming an NFL head coach, there are some common steps. Most usually rise through the coaching ranks as former players, or coached athletes in college. Many current NFL head coaches were offensive or defensive coordinators, which is considered the last step before becoming a head coach. Over the past decade, teams have seemed to favor hiring coaches whose expertise is offense, which has created a ceiling for Black coaches, many of whom come from a defensive background. In 2022, 19 of the league’s 32 head coaches had an offensive background. Only one of those coaches was Black. Quarterback coach is another position that leads coaches to head-coaching jobs. Most of the quarterback coaches in the league are also white.
This is among the reasons Mayo and Pierce stand out. Both are Super Bowl champions and had excellent careers as linebackers. Mayo is a former first-round draft pick whom the Patriots selected tenth overall in 2008. He was a beloved Patriot who spent seven seasons with the team. Mayo was a business executive upon retirement but became a coach for the Patriots in 2019. Four years later, he’s a head coach. Pierce was in his first season as an NFL coach, although he also coached at Arizona State and Long Beach Polytechnic High School, which is considered one of the best high-school football programs in California for prospective NFL players.
“During his playing days, he was a student of the game who loved to watch film and was often described by his coaches and teammates as another coach on the field,” the New England Patriots’ owner, Robert Kraft, told reporters at Mayo’s introductory press conference. “Football is Jerod’s true passion. I believe coaching was always his destiny.”
Many Black NFL coaches have been bypassed, despite having credentials that should put them at the top of the list for any NFL coaching job. Sherman Lewis is probably one of the greatest examples in NFL history. He coached for 34 years, including 13 seasons as an NFL offensive coordinator. He was never hired as a head coach. Currently, the biggest head-scratcher in the NFL is: Why doesn’t the Washington Commanders offensive coordinator Eric Bieniemy have a head-coaching job yet? Bieniemy reportedly has interviewed for 17 different head-coaching positions since 2019, including an interview last week with the Commanders. Bieniemy left his position as the Kansas City Chiefs’ offensive coordinator to take on the same role with the Commanders this season. Most analysts thought Bieniemy would be a head coach by now because in Kansas City, he coached the three-time league MVP Patrick Mahomes for five seasons.
But Bieniemy’s success in Kansas City seemed to work against him. Andy Reid, the Chiefs’ head coach, was often given the credit for the team’s explosive offense. But the connection to Reid didn’t seem to hurt Doug Pederson, who was Reid’s offensive coordinator when Reid was the head coach of the Philadelphia Eagles. Pederson is now on his second NFL head-coaching job, with the Jacksonville Jaguars.
Maybe the hiring of Morris, Mayo and Pierce shows that NFL owners are finally ready to stop judging Black coaches so narrowly. Real progress is made when Black coaches don’t need to have perfect résumés to be hired. They just have to be the best men for the job.