LOS ANGELES (KNX) — Coaching rosters in the National Football League are about to be shaken up a bit, as the NFL moved Monday to require all 32 of its teams to hire a female or minority offensive assistant coach for the 2022 season. There are currently only five minority head coaches in the league.
The announcement came as the NFL also announced its new diversity committee, which includes business leaders, academics and others to review league and club policies to ensure diversity in hiring going forward.
Tracy Sandler, founder and CEO of Fan Girl Sports Network (FGSN), joined KNX In Depth to discuss what this means for the future of professional football.
“It was very frustrating this hiring season, there were all these coaching vacancies and with each position being filled it was more and more disappointing that minority coaches weren’t getting these jobs,” the 49ers beat writer for FGSN said.
“So hopefully this is a step in the right direction and the people who are very deserving of these jobs will start to get them — because there’s a tremendous talent pool.”
In recent talks with 49ers CEO Jed York, Sandler said York talked a lot about how when teams are open to hiring the best people for the job, or when they are open to hiring people that are maybe different from the “norm,” it opens up the diversity pool all the way around.
“There’s a tremendous amount of talent in coaches and assistants in the NFL and it's time that everybody got these opportunities,” Sandler said.
The NFL’s diversity, equity, and inclusion committee said the teams must ensure that the new coaching hires — whether female or racial minorities — work closely with their teams' head coaches and offensive staff, as the goal of the mandate is to increase minority participation within coaching staffs and produce future head-coaching candidates.
Acknowledging that this is not the first attempt by the league to increase diversity, NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell said in a statement work has been done for years and progress has been made but “we have more work to do, particularly at the head coach and front-office level.”
"This esteemed [diversity committee’s] work will help us build a more inclusive league,” he said.
“We look forward to their recommendations and to continuing our conversations with other outside experts, community and civil rights leaders — Fritz Pollard Alliance and current and former players and coaches — to make our efforts and those of the clubs more effective so that real and tangible results will be achieved."
Speaking of Katie Sowers, who was the first woman to join the NFL as a full-time offensive assistant for the San Francisco 49ers, Sandler said she has no worry that a female in the coaching office would become a problem.
“Her being a woman was certainly a story in that there are not a lot of female assistants to the NFL at this point, but it was not a story in that anybody had any hesitation or trepidation about her ability,” Sandler said.
“Ultimately fans want to see their football teams win and whoever is going to help that happen is what matters, and I think the female fan has become such a huge part of the game…I don’t think there will be pushback from the fans.”
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