When you look around the NFL, you will see more Black players than any other race on every single team in the league. When you look at the men that are leading them in the head coaching position, you will only see Mike Tomlin because he is currently the only one left in the entire league.
On Thursday, the Houston Texans made it that way after they fired David Culley after one season.
ESPN’s Adam Schefter brought up that fact:
Here’s how social media responded:
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A top NFL official said earlier this week “there is a double standard” in the league when it comes to retaining and hiring Black coaches. Troy Vincent, the NFL’s executive vice president of football operations, said the league should not “shy away from” its record of teams firing Black coaches after winning seasons or short tenures.
Vincent cited past cases with prominent Black coaches being let go, including Tony Dungy with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Jim Caldwell with the Detroit Lions and Steve Wilks with the Arizona Cardinals.
“There is a double standard, and we’ve seen that,” Vincent said in a phone interview. “And you talk about the appetite for what’s acceptable. Let’s just go back to Tyrone Willingham at Notre Dame, [who] was fired after a winning season. Coach Dungy was let go in Tampa Bay after a winning season. So we have seen this. … Coach Wilks, just a few years prior, was let go after one year. And then the things that happened [Monday].
“There is a double standard. I don’t think that that is something that we should shy away from. But that is all part of some of the things that we need to fix in the system. We want to hold everyone to why does one, let’s say, get the benefit of the doubt to be able to build or take bumps and bruises in this process of getting a franchise turned around when others are not afforded that latitude? … We see it at the collegiate level. And we’ve seen that in history at the [professional] level.”
The Dolphins fired Flores after they finished 9-8 season and the Texans dropped David Culley after just one season.
