Report cites some improvement in NFL's racial, gender hiring

Editor’s note: Richard Lapchick is a human rights activist, pioneer for racial equality, expert on sports issues, scholar and author.

The NFL has taken a lot of criticism for its diversity and inclusion efforts, especially in the past few years, as the number of African American head coaches has stagnated. The results in that category still leave a lot to be desired, but overall, the 2023 NFL Racial and Gender Report Card released by The Institute for Diversity and Ethics in Sport (TIDES) at the University of Central Florida (UCF) reflects the best grades ever for the league. The NFL received a B+ for racial hiring practices (86.2%, up 1.2 percentage points), a B for gender hiring practices (84.0%, up 2.6 percentage points) and an overall combined grade of B+ (up from 83.2% in 2022 to 85.1%).

Adrien Bouchet, director of TIDES and the primary author of the report, said the report card showed the NFL has continued to make progress with hiring practices within the league office and across their teams. The NFL has improved in all but two categories. The NFL reached multiple all-time highs in the following categories for race: assistant coaches, league office, general managers, team vice presidents, senior administration and professional staff. Additionally, the NFL had all-time highs in the following categories for gender: assistant coaches, league office, team vice presidents and professional staff.

“There is still room for improvement,” Bouchet said, “in the disparities in the racial and gender hiring practices between the NFL league office and the 32 teams.”

For race, the NFL received an A+ for players and assistant coaches, an A- for the league office, a B+ for general managers and professional staff, a C+ for team vice presidents and senior administration, a C for team CEO or president and head coaches, and an F for team owners.

For gender hiring practices, the NFL received an A for the league office, B for professional staff, C for vice presidents and senior administration, D+ for team owners and an F for team CEO or president.

“The NFL league office has shown a growth mindset in focusing on DEI and this is leading to improved showing in this year’s report card assessment,” Jeff O’Brien, CEO of the Institute for Sport and Social Justice, said. “In fact, the NFL reached its highest recorded grades on several benchmarks during this report. “

For the past few years, the biggest focus in the NFL report card has been on the lack of people of color as head coaches, team presidents, general managers and owners. Those continue to be the areas of greatest concern.

The total percentage of NFL head coaches of color remained at 18.8% in 2023. There were six people of color, representing 18.8% of all NFL head coaches at the start of the 2023 NFL season. They were DeMeco Ryans (Houston Texans), Mike McDaniel (Miami Dolphins), Ron Rivera (Washington Commanders), Robert Saleh (New York Jets), Mike Tomlin (Pittsburgh Steelers) and Todd Bowles (Tampa Bay Buccaneers).

In mid-season, the Las Vegas Raiders fired Josh McDaniels, a white head coach. The team named Antonio Pierce, who is Black, as interim head coach. The total of seven head coaches of color in 2023 was close to the highest recorded number of eight in 2011, 2017 and 2018. As of the publication date of the 2023 NFL report card, 21.9% of the NFL head coaches are coaches of color.

This is part of the concern: The percentage of Black head coaches in the NFL was 21.9% during the 2017 and 2018 NFL seasons. That percentage significantly dropped in 2019, with Black head coaches holding only 9.4% of NFL head coaching jobs. The percentage of Black head coaches has remained at 9.4% for the 2021, 2022 and 2023 NFL seasons. This is especially noteworthy when you compare the number of Black head coaches to the number of Black players in the NFL in 2023, which is 53.5%.

While the pipeline is promising with a record for assistant coaches of color, it will not assure more Black head coaches in the years ahead. The overall percentage of people of color in an assistant coaching position was at an all-time high of 43.6% in 2023, an increase of 0.8 percentage points from 42.8% in 2022. This is a significant improvement from a decade ago when only 31.8% of people of color held these positions in 2013.

The NFL has pro sports’ best record for people of color as team presidents. Teams had six people of color who were the president/principal in charge of team business operations at the start of the 2023 NFL season. They were Hymie Elhai (New York Jets), Jason Wright (Washington Commanders), Sashi Brown (Baltimore Ravens), Sandra Douglass Morgan (Las Vegas Raiders), Damani Leech (Denver Broncos) and Kevin Warren (Chicago Bears). Five are Black, and one is Latino.

The two women in a team CEO or president position who were the principal in charge of team business operations were Kristi Coleman (president of the Carolina Panthers), and Sandra Douglass Morgan (president of the Las Vegas Raiders). Morgan is a woman of color.

There were nine people of color holding general manager positions, representing 30.0% of all general managers. This was an increase of 5.0 percentage points from 2022. All nine were men, and eight of the men are Black; one is Latino. As recently as 2020, there were only two GMs who were people of color.

Ownership opportunities for people of color and women are few and far between. The NFL has two owners of color. Shad Khan, a Pakistani-American businessman, is the principal owner of the Jacksonville Jaguars. He joined NFL ownership in 2012. Kim Pegula, an Asian American woman, is an owner of a significant interest in the Buffalo Bills. She joined NFL ownership in 2014. At the start of the 2023 season, there were seven women in the NFL as principal owners.

Other notable findings of the report:

• The overall percentage of people of color in the NFL league office was at an all-time high of 34.9% in 2023, an increase of 1.2 percentage points from 33.7% in 2022, the previous all-time high.

• The overall percentage of women in the NFL league office was at an all-time high of 42.5% in 2023, an increase of 1.2 percentage points from 41.3% in 2022. This is a significant improvement from a decade ago when only 29.3% of women held these positions in 2013.

• Teams did much better at the vice president levels. The percentage of people of color who were vice presidents at the team level reached its highest mark ever at 20.1% in 2023, a 2.1 percentage point increase from the previous all-time high of 18.0% in 2022 while the percentage of women who were vice presidents at the team level reached its highest mark ever at 28.3% in 2023, a 4.9 percentage point increase from 23.4% in 2022 and eclipsing the previous all-time high of 25.1 in 2021.

• The same was true for professional positions at the team level. The percentage of people of color in a professional staff position at the team level reached its highest mark ever at 31.2% in 2023, a 2.5 percentage point increase from the previous all-time high of 28.7% in 2022 while the percentage of women in a professional staff position at the team level reached its highest mark ever at 36.3% in 2023, a 4.1 percentage point increase from the previous all-time high of 32.2% in 2022.

• Women filled two major team positions. The Indianapolis Colts hired Isabel Diaz as the first woman coach in club history. Additionally, the Atlanta Falcons hired Nana-Yaw Asamoah as chief commercial officer.

• Currently, the NFL has 10 full-time on-field women coaches, six of whom are women of color.

In 2022, the NFL announced the creation of the NFL diversity advisory committee, following its pledge in February 2022 to retain outside experts to review the league’s diversity policies and practices. This committee joined the Fritz Pollard Alliance and the Social Justice/Racial Equity Advisory Panel, two other important outside NFL advisory committees. All are focused on lending expertise and external perspective on industry best practices and are evaluating league and club diversity, equity, and inclusion strategies and initiatives.

Also in 2022, the NFL created the Coach and Front Office Accelerator Program. This program provides meaningful development and networking opportunities for diverse top talent across the league throughout the year. The program is designed for individuals with the potential to fulfill head coach, general manager or other senior front office executive roles in the next five years. Program participants can engage in football specific development programming, network with peers and have important exposure to club ownership and key decision makers.

My good friends and colleagues, C. Keith Harrison and Scott Bukstein, recently authored the 2023 NFL Diversity and Inclusion Report. It was the 10th in a series. Many of their important conclusions would have a positive impact on the hiring practices in the NFL and I would like to highlight three of them.

• The aspirational goal is for all NFL teams to transition from using incentives and complying with rules to a hiring and talent development mindset that truly values equity, fairness, inclusivity, culture, trust and merit.

• They call for a permanent change in hiring cultures, in addition to the fluctuating, gradual, incremental improvements concerning the percentage of coaches and other team leaders of color hired each season.

• They concluded it is imperative to educate, enlighten, encourage and empower team owners and other key decision-makers to shift personal perspectives, perceptions, preferences and priorities and processes.

So let’s take the sum of the good news in the TIDES 2023 NFL report card, the advice of many supportive organizations and programs, and applaud Dasha Smith and Jonathan Beane who lead the NFL in creating innovative methods in building a more inclusive environment. Their combined focus on improving diversity is reflected in this report card. And congratulations to Adrien Bouchet, his right hand David Zimmerman and the new TIDES team for their great work in completing their first report at TIDES.

Richard E. Lapchick recently retired as director of The Institute for Diversity and Ethics in Sport (TIDES) at the University of Central Florida. He is the author of 17 books and the annual Racial and Gender Report Card and is the president of the Institute for Sport and Social Justice. He has been a regular commentator for ESPN.com on issues of diversity in sport. Follow him on Twitter @richardlapchick and on Facebook.