After years of lagging, Belichick hires minorities
FOXBOROUGH, Mass. — The Patriots are one of the NFL’S most successful franchises, winning six Super Bowls under the disciplined operation coach Bill Belichick has cultivated over the past two decades.
They aren’t exempt from having room to improve when hiring minority assistant coaches.
Eighteen of the 56 assistants (32%) Belichick has employed in full-time roles during his 22 years in New England have been minorities.
Excluding strength and conditioning coaches, the number drops to 13, or just 25%. Both numbers fall below the 36% of minority assistants on coaching staffs across the NFL in 2020, according to The Institute for Diversity and Ethics in Sports’ most recent Race and Gender Report Card.
Of Belichick’s hires during his tenure in New England, former Browns and Texans coach Romeo Crennel, Dolphins coach Brian Flores and Giants defensive coordinator Patrick Graham are the only ones to have risen to the coordinator or head coaching ranks.
Belichick is trying to change that.
The Patriots began this season with eight minority assistants: longtime running backs coach Ivan Fears, receivers coach Troy Brown, defensive line coach Demarcus Covington, inside linebackers coach Jerod Mayo, assistant offensive line coach Billy Yates, strength coaches Moses Cabrera and Deron Mayo, and defensive coach Ross Douglas, a Bill Walsh Minority Coaching Fellow.
Covington, Brown and Yates are also alums of NFL fellowship programs.
It is the most minority assistants Belichick has ever had on his staff in a single season.
“I think it’s a great program,” Belichick said of the NFL’S initiatives aimed at introducing more coaches of color to jobs in the league. “It’s a great opportunity for both the teams and the participants in it to make a connection more than casually, but actually in the workplace and on the job. I think it’s been great.”
This past summer he also represented the Patriots and led a session at the NFL’S fourth NFL Quarterback Coaching Summit, conducted in partnership with the Black College Football Hall of Fame.