Just how much must a minority assistant coach do to become a head coach in the NFL?
Give Kansas City Chiefs offensive coordinator Eric Bieniemy and San Francisco 49ers defensive coordinator Robert Saleh credit.
They are saying and doing all the right things leading up to Super Bowl LIV Sunday, but both are likely burning up inside.
The smiles and laughs are genuine, though purposeful, politically-correct and really the only way to cope with a patently unfair and inherently racist system that is beyond one’s control.
To slightly alter and update a quote from the late novelist/activist James Baldwin of the civil rights era, “To be a [minority] in this country and to be relatively conscious is to be in a rage almost all the time.”
That goes double for men of color aspiring to be head coaches in the NFL.
Only four of the 32 NFL teams have minority head coaches — down from a record of eight in 2018 — with just two of 13 openings filled by such candidates over the past two years.
The Chiefs and 49ers are the Super Bowl largely because Bieniemy and Saleh’s units have performed better than any other in the league.
Yet, Bieniemy and Saleh were passed over for coaching jobs since the end of the season by the New York Giants, Cleveland Browns and Carolina Panthers for white candidates who either have less NFL experience, less NFL production or both.
Bieniemy was hoping to become the fourth black coach in a league in which approximately 70 percent of the players are African American. And Saleh, whose parents are from Lebanon, is anticipating becoming the league’s first Arab American head coach.
That they were left wanting is not only outrageous, but it would make the conscious man be in a rage.
But that’s not the necessary and prudent way to be when you are still hoping to get a job in the near future, and certainly not during Super Bowl week when the success of your unit will likely determine if your squad goes home a champion.
“I don’t want everybody to feel that they have to feel sorry for me,” said Bieniemy, 50, who has 19 years of coaching experience including the last two directing quarterback Patrick Mahomes, the league’s 2018 MVP, and the Chiefs’ high-powered offense. “This is not what this is about. I’m in a great place. I coach for the Kansas City Chiefs, and we are playing in the Super Bowl.
“It would’ve been nice to get a head coaching job. The rest of the stuff I can’t control. The only thing I can control is the here and the now. That’s all that matters. What has happened has happened. I’ve been blessed and fortunate to go through the process. The process has been outstanding. I’m gonna keep preparing, I’m gonna keep working my tail off to make sure I can do all the things necessary to help us win.”
Said Saleh: “You still have to go work and do your job and do the best that you can. If you’re given an opportunity, you do the best you can in that opportunity. If another opportunity arises, great. You continue to grind and continue to do the job that you’re being asked to do.”
They are doing what they are supposed to do in the best interest of themselves and their teams.
And the league claims they are going to address the issue.
NFL commissioner Roger Goodell said the Rooney Rule, which was established in 2003 and requires teams to interview minority candidates for head coach and other senior positions, must be altered as they try to figure out “what steps we can take next that would lead to better outcomes.”
“Clearly, we are not where we want to be on this level,” Goodell said at his annual pre-Super Bowl address. “We have a lot of work that’s gone into not only the Rooney Rule but our policies overall. It’s clear we need to change and do something different. There’s no reason to expect that we’re going to have a different outcome next year without those kinds of changes, and we’ve already begun engaging in those changes. It’s clear we are all committed to doing that and we have to make those changes.”
While Goodell is talking meetings and policy changes, what is it going to take to change hearts and minds of NFL owners who continue to predominantly hire coaches who only look like them?
Bieniemy is the perfect test case of a broken system.
Chiefs head coach Andy Reid has a long long history of turning assistants into head coaches — namely Doug Pederson of the Philadelphia Eagles and Matt Nagy of the Chicago Bears who were offensive coordinators in Kansas City before Bieniemy and quickly became head coaches despite running offenses with less success.
Reid said Bieniemy does the same thing for him Pederson and Nagy did, yet he has been passed over for seven jobs the past two seasons.
“I get it. But, I don’t get it,” Reid said. “I don’t know the answer. Every owner has the option who they want to hire and who will be the best fit for their organization. I am very partial to Eric. I know how good he is.”
Bienemy being shut out has caused a groundswell of frustration from players and coaches alike, including one of his Super Bowl LIV adversaries.
49ers cornerback Richard Sherman is a huge supporter of his Saleh being worthy of a head job but Bienemy’s plight struck a nerve.
“This is a 70% African-American league and I think for coaches it’s something like 10%,” Sherman said. “I think it should be at least 50-50. But I don’t think the owners want it that way.
“Our ownership looks a certain way and I think they appreciate our coaches looking a certain way,” Sherman added, citing Bieniemy.
But Sherman also pointed the finger at the media and blamed them for not asking the hard questions to the people who make the decisions.
“You are asking people who have no say,” Sherman said. “You are asking players. We have no say in who gets hired or fired. But the people who have the say, we don’t pressure. The owners, we don’t call and push them. Ask the dudes who have the power to hire and fire then you will get the answers. Maybe we are not looking for the answers from those dudes because we kind of know what they are.”
Conscious rage.
