PITTSBURGH (93.7 The Fan) – Outspoken as a Steeler, on his show on 93.7 The Fan and again Tuesday with the PM Team, Ryan Clark laid it right out there in regards to the Brian Flores lawsuit against three teams in the NFL.
"Do I believe that some owners and some people in general that are involved in the league are racist?" Clark said during his weekly interview on 93.7 The Fan. "Hell yeah. 100%, and sometimes they don't hide it well."
Clark added there are other elements to consider such a nepotism, relationships, comfort and familiarity issues of being around people different from you. He said all of those things exist in the NFL and globally.
"Race is involved in this in many ways," Clark told Andrew FIllipponi and Chris Mueller. "I don't think it's just directly discriminatory like the Klu Klux Klan and they don't want to deal with black people at all. I do believe many of these owners want to deal with black people in the way they want to deal with them."
"I believe 20 teams have never had a black GM. The team that is in question right
now, the New York Giants, have never had a black head coach. That is a team that has had 100 years of existence."
Flores' accusations are going to be difficult to prove. Clark noting it was interesting how quickly the NFL denied the merit of the claims on the day they came out before they could even study them. That poses a bigger question of whether the league is even paying attention or listening to the concerns.
That is a point the 13-year NFL vet really wants to make. Society now has a problem listening, holding discussions about issues. People tend to just find others who agree with their point of view while not considering opposing viewpoints.
"You hear 'shut up and dribble' or 'why don't you just play ball' because we don't want politics in our sports," Clark said. "What's happened with historic racism, we don't have the generational wealth that can be built from passing down money from my grandfather to my father to me. Therefore, our millionaires, our people of influence are younger people. That's why they have to speak up."
"Sometimes people who are racist or people who lean more to that side say we want to keep politics out of those things. We have to be the voices because we don't have legislation."
He says most of the people in power are white and can't fully understand. Clark wants his old head coach to be vocal.
"There is a responsibility on Coach Tomlin, especially in this case, to have a voice," Clark said of the only African-American head coach in the NFL. "To show the way he is conducting himself, the way he is running his program says that black men are capable, black women are capable, of being in leadership positions and leading correctly."
"I think Mike Tomlin is a living testament to how the Rooney family actually looked at the rule. That the Rooney family understood what the rule's intent was and went about it with that type of integrity in hiring their coach. Whereas these other organizations do not."
Examples
"I can tell you 100%, on my children's lives, that I know a coach in this league who has had coordinator interviews the last few years," Clark said. "There was a new coach, who he knew, who got a job who called him and said 'look, I want you to come in and I want you to be my Rooney Rule interview'. I'm going to hire this guy, a guy he knew. This way you can get your name out that you've been interviewed for a coordinator job. That way you are in the coordinator conversation and now we can meet the Rooney Rule."
"That's a problem."
"I know of a coach that was going to be on a staff already and that staff was already hiring their coordinator. He was going to be on that coordinator staff (anyway). Just so that team could meet the Rooney Rule requirement, they allowed him to interview for the coordinator job as well because he was going to be on the staff and he knew that. It allowed the team to get through the process faster."
"This is the way the process is being manipulated."
Clark concedes just because a white coach is hired doesn't make the employer racist. He says the issue, again, is African Americans aren't getting a chance or when they do, it's often a token interview to check a box. Not a real opportunity to make a difference.
He, and so many other former players and coaches who have spoken over the last few days, including McDonald native Marvin Lewis, are calling for change. Not even adding a policy, but following the one set forward by Dan Rooney.
As one former player said this week it's sad there has to be a NFL rule just for African-Americans to get an interview.
Clark said all of this talk though is really pointless until a couple dozen while billionaires decide this is important.
"Until the 32 owners say there is an issue in hiring, it will never get fixed," Clark said. "I could speak until I'm blue in the face. Brian Flores can sue all he wants, but until they think a change is needed. A change won't be made."
