USA TODAY International Edition
An Oprah needed to fix ills in NFL hires
During Black History Month, with the series 28 Black Stories in 28 days, USA TODAY Sports examines the issues, challenges and opportunities Black athletes and sports officials face after the nation’s reckoning on race in 2020.
It’s September of 2023 and Oprah Winfrey takes her seat in the stadium box for her inaugural season as copartner of the Washington Red Tails.
The game is about to begin and Winfrey reflects on the moment and the past few months. There was the purchase of the team from Dan Snyder with co- partners Barack Obama, billionaire Robert F. Smith and former presidential candidate Hillary Clinton. There was the first news conference where she promised “a new day of inclusion for the NFL.” There was also the congratulatory phone call from President Joe Biden.
She looks down on the field to watch Eric Bieniemy, her first head coaching hire, fresh off his third straight Super Bowl win as offensive coordinator, patrolling the sideline.
She clinks champagne glasses with her fellow co- partners and her general manager, the first Black woman to ever hold the position. Then comes the game and the Red Tails beat the Cowboys 28- 10. The Red Tails would finish the season 13- 3 and win the Super Bowl.
At that point, other owners, who stubbornly refused to hire Blacks as head coaches, see the success of Oprah’s team, and decide to follow Oprah’s lead. In two years, a dozen Black head coaches are hired, starting a coaching renaissance, changing the sport in the same way the stubborn racism against Black quarterbacks ended, leading to Doug Williams, Russell Wilson and Patrick Mahomes winning Super Bowls.
It all happened thanks to Oprah. Is this science fiction? Yes.
Is it, or some variation of it, needed? Absolutely, yes.
Someone like Oprah purchasing a franchise may be the only way the NFL fixes its hiring problem when it comes to Black head coaches.
There’s no guarantee that a Black billionaire like Oprah, or another wealthy Black investor, would automatically hire a Black head coach. Also, there have been a handful of white owners who have hired coaches of color. Raiders owner Al Davis hired Art Shell, the first Black head coach in modern NFL history, and Tom Flores, the first minority head coach to win a Super Bowl.
“Oprah would be a tremendous addition to the league for many reasons,” Amy Trask, the first woman NFL team executive, who was also hired by Davis, told USA TODAY Sports, “and while one would hope that her leadership and influence would be such that others would follow her lead and do the right thing ( e. g. hire without regard to race, gender and other individualities which have no bearing on whether one can do a job), I don’t know if, or to what extent, that might happen.
“So do I think Oprah would be a phenomenal addition? Absolutely. Do I know what impact that would have on other team owners? No I do not.”
It’s not a lock Oprah would change things, because NFL ownership is one of the most racially conservative and blockheaded entities in professional sports. This isn’t an opinion. This is a fact based on their hiring practices.
A progressive Black owner running a team, however, would increase the chances, and imagine the pressure Oprah, or a Black progressive owner, would put on other owners.
Imagine how much the smarts and
creative energy of a Sheila Johnson, the first Black woman billionaire, would transform the league.
Also, such an owner could hardly be worse than what we’ve seen.
“The disparity in opportunities is mind boggling,” Fritz Pollard Alliance executive director Rod Graves said in a statement last month. “It is unfortunate that the performances of coordinators like Eric Bieniemy, Todd Bowles, Byron Leftwich, Leslie Frazier, and Joe Woods, may not meet what appears as ‘ ever- evolving standards’ for becoming a Black Head Coach in the NFL.”
This past hiring cycle just one Black head coach was hired in Houston’s David Culley.
The problem isn’t just that owners aren’t hiring Black coaches. It’s also that supposedly progressive white owners aren’t.
Again, the proof is in the hiring.
If an alleged progressive white owner’s record on this is so bad, it’s impossible to see this issue getting any better.
Unless an Oprah steps in. Or, even better, the Oprah.