Should Race Be a Factor in Hiring Today's NFL Coaches?

Since 1986 when Art Shell was named head coach of the Los Angeles Raiders, black head coaches have popped up in the NFL regularly. However, some may think that there are still not enough, while others argue that there are too many. Me? My opinion resembles that of the former.

Shell opened the door for black head coaches, and in just two weeks, the Super Bowl will not only feature its first black head coach, but also its second as well. Tony Dungy of the Indianapolis Colts and Lovie Smith of the Chicago Bears will be the first black head coaches to make a Super Bowl.

So this makes me wonder. It has been 21 years since Art Modell shocked the pro football world by hiring Shell, but now it seems almost like being black is a qualification desired by NFL owners.

Just a few weeks ago, Colts owner Jim Irsay said that a black head coach was the preference in whom they would hire following Jim Mora. And for good reason.

If you haven't heard of the "Rooney Rule" then let me enlighten you. It basically states that a team must interview one minority coach for the head coaching position or be fined.

If you have heard of it, then do you know why it was instituted? No? I didn't think so.

Johnnie Cochran and Cyrus Mehri, two of the biggest lawyers in the country, developed a study to try and form a lawsuit against the NFL. The study concluded that black head coaches were statistically better than white coaches from 1986 to 2001, when the study was conducted.

In those years, black head coaches won, on average, 1.1 more games a year. That may not sound like much, but we know the difference between winning eight games or nine can affect whether you go to the playoffs or not.

In those years, black coaches made the playoffs 67 percent of the time, whereas only 39 percent of the white coaches did.

Understand that these statistics are not necessarily reflective on how much better black coaches are than white coaches because there were not enough black coaches to make an accurate comparison.

However, the statistics that are available make me wonder: why are black coaches not hired more often? Like in 2000, when nine coaches were hired and none were black. In point of fact, the coaches that were hired had losing records or had little to no experience.

As of today, there are six black head coaches in the NFL, still one fewer than the beginning of the 2006 season. Granted, some teams are still looking for their head coach—but I don't think that this will get any better in the future.

Now that I've said all of that, I needto say this: being black doesn't make you a better head coach…but neither does being white.