While about 70 percent of NFL players are Black, the overwhelming majority of head coaches are White.
鈥淸W]e find evidence of profound pro-White bias in even the league鈥檚 most recent hiring,鈥� writes , an associate professor of听听at the听, in an analysis for the听 site.
In a data-driven analysis, Lacina examines the racial makeup of college football players, because most NFL head coaches have a background playing NCAA college football.
鈥淐ollege football players are an apt benchmark for the pool of plausible NFL coaches, because college is the last shared step on the path to NFL head coach that is not under the NFL鈥檚 control,鈥� she says.
Lacina鈥檚 findings show the stark degree to which Black coaches are underrepresented:
- Among NFL head coaches in 2021颅鈥�22, 14 are young enough to have played in the NCAA since 1999 (when the NCAA 听听student-athlete demographics).
- 13 out of these 14 coaches are White. , former Miami Dolphins head coach, is the only non-White person in the group.
- These 14 coaches come from the cohort of NCAA football players who played between 1999 and 2007 when the group was 60 percent White and 30 percent Black.
- Division I players in the same years were 49 percent White and 44 percent Black.
Twenty years ago, in response to , the NFL established the 鈥�,鈥� which requires teams to interview at least one minority candidate for top positions, such as head coach, or general manager.
Yet, using hiring data from the Rooney Rule era suggests that 鈥渢hese may not have been good-faith efforts,鈥� Lacina concludes. 鈥淚f NFL hiring had no pro-White bias, the chances that it would have so many new, White NFL head coaches would be slim to none.鈥�
Lacina鈥檚 research examines cultural and political controversies concerning migration and diversity across a variety of contexts. She’s the author of听Rival Claims: Ethnic Violence and Territorial Autonomy under Indian Federalism听(University of Michigan Press, 2017) and听Nativism and Economic Integration Across the Developing World: Collision and Accommodation听(Cambridge University Press, 2018), coauthored with Rikhil Bhavnani.
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