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NFL must address minority hiring from bottom to top, says Jeff Reinebold

"Obviously, it's something I think the NFL knows is not right and they know it's broken. But in my opinion, they're trying to fix the top layer when they've got to go down and help these young guys get started, fast track them along, help them in their growth"

The Chargers' Anthony Lynn is one of just four minority head coaches in the NFL
Image: The Chargers' Anthony Lynn is one of just four minority head coaches in the NFL

Jeff Reinebold believes the NFL must work from the bottom up as it continues its effort to improve minority hiring of coaches and front office personnel across the league. 

Team owners recently voted in favour of expanding the Rooney Rule, meaning clubs are now required to interview at least two external minority candidates for head coach vacancies and at least one minority candidate for any of the three coordinator positions.

The adjustment also means teams must interview at least one minority candidate from outside of the organisation for senior football operations or general manager vacancies. In addition, minorities and/or female applicants should now be included in the interview process for senior front-office roles, including club president and several senior executive jobs.

"Frankly, I think the NFL looks at it from the wrong vantage point," Reinebold said on Inside the Huddle.

"If there is a lack of a minority pool for them and they want minority hires then instead of looking at the top layer, I'm talking about interviewing for head coach and coordinator positions, they have to go down further and further.

"This has to start with education and preparing these guys for opportunities to be head coaches. Typically, it's a long process, you slog through your graduate assistant, then your position coach, then your coordinator, then your head coach.

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"When you look at it from the top down, you're trying to address a situation right now that you should have addressed 30 years ago, or 20 years ago and we would have a different situation. The owners own the teams and it's their right to hire whoever they want to hire, you hope it's the most qualified person.

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"Obviously, it's something I think the NFL knows is not right and they know it's broken. But in my opinion, they're trying to fix the top layer when they've got to go down and help these young guys get started, fast track them along, help them in their growth."

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The owners meanwhile tabled a proposal to incentivise minority hires which states that a team would move up six spots from its third-round pick in the following year's draft were it to appoint a minority head coach.

It had also detailed that a team would move up by 10 picks by hiring a general manager, while those entering a third season under a minority head coach or general manager would see its fourth-round selection rise by five picks.

"It was interesting to me that both Anthony Lynn and Tony Dungy, two African American head coaches, and Brandon London, who played for me and the Giants, they all came out and said 'we have to bribe the teams to hire minority coaches?'

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"That devalues the minority coach when you do that. I think they're trying to get the thing fixed but they've got to be careful about how they fix it."

Of the eight head coaching vacancies that became open after the 2018 season, only one was filled by a minority candidate as the Miami Dolphins hired Brian Flores.

Five jobs became open after the 2019 season, only one of which was filled by a minority candidate, with Ron Rivera taking over at the Washington Redskins. This was despite Kansas City Chiefs offensive coordinator Eric Bieniemy being interviewed for a number of jobs.

Kansas City Chiefs offensive coordinator Eric Bieniemy
Image: The Chiefs' Eric Bieniemy is one of just two minority offensive coordinators in the NFL along with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers' Byron Leftwich

Flores and Rivera mark two of just four minority head coaches in the NFL alongside the Los Angeles Chargers' Anthony Lynn and the Pittsburgh Steelers' Mike Tomlin. The Dolphins' Chris Grier and the Cleveland Browns Andrew Berry are the only two minority general managers.

"I really believe that if they want to change it and want to make it better, then you have to increase the pool," added Reinebold. "I know they've tried.

"There's the Bill Walsh Diversity Coaching Fellowship in the summer where young minority coaches can go to training camp, those things have helped. Thomas McGaughey, the special teams coach with the Giants, got into the NFL that way.

"NFL Europe when we had that was another avenue where they could develop young African American coaches, but we don't have that anymore so they've got to come up with another way.

"I think they maybe need to go down further and incentivise the colleges to not only fast-track African American coaches but improve the level of education that they get. It's coming with women too. They are talking about front office jobs, but they're starting to have women in coaching jobs now and I think that's good. There should be diversity."

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