The NFL has announced that all 32 leagues in the team will be officially required to hire a minority offensive assistant coach for the upcoming 2022 season. The latest policy is the league’s effort to improve its diversity.
ESPN reports that the policy requires the coach to be “a female or a member of an ethnic or racial minority.” All NFL owners have agreed that the hires will be paid from a league-wide fund and it is up to the coach, head coach and the rest of the offensive staff to work towards the NFL’s goal to increase participation from minority groups.
Chairman of the NFL’s Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Committee and Pittsburgh Steelers owner AR Rooney II said, “It’s a recognition that at the moment, when you look at stepping stones for a head coach, they are the coordinator positions. We clearly have a trend where coaches are coming from the offensive side of the ball in recent years, and we clearly do not have as many minorities in the offensive coordinator [job].” Teams who already have coaches in similar assistant roles will be counted towards the program.
The league has also included additional mandates to the offensive assistant coach policy. Women were added at all levels of the Rooney Rule and it will now read “women and/or people of color can satisfy the requirement to interview two external minorities for top positions, including head coach.” Rooney comments on this stating, “The truth of the matter is that as of today, at least, there aren’t many women in the pool in terms of head coach.” The NFL is also looking to diversify its membership within its equity stake groups.
As of now, minority coaches only make up 39% of the league total, which is up from the 35% data in 2021. There is also a league record of 12 women on the coaching staff in the NFL. While the numbers are growing, there is still work to be done.
In other sports news, LeBron James recently became the second player in NBA history to score 37,000 points.
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