Best-selling author Bryant McGill once wrote, “There is really only one true way to progress: fix yourself.” The NFL needs to listen to Mr. McGill because the league’s system for promoting diversity within the workforce has been completely broken.
There are always two issues when it comes to dealing with a significant problem: Awareness and solutions. The NFL, along with the Fritz Pollard Alliance, has done a great job of making everyone aware that we lack diversity within the coaching or front office ranks. It’s clear and obvious. That part, the NFL does well, and they’ve again acknowledged it with the expansions to the Rooney Rule that were approved last week. But the actual solutions part … not so well.
The NFL needs to fix their understanding of how coaches get hired and then fix the system of hiring. No incentive program will work, because we know incentivizing something lessens the hire. And besides, NFL teams should not need…
