Jon Embree Said Black Football Coaches Don’t Get Second Chances. Do They?

All, NFL, Race Ronny Carlton February 2nd. 2013, 2:15pm

“We don’t get second chances.”
–Jon Embree, November 2012

Eight head coaching vacancies opened up in the NFL this offseason, and zero African Americans were hired. The “Rooney Rule” was instituted in 2003 to increase minority hires, but it has become such a farce that it’s likely going to be re-worked this year.

With issues of race it’s easy to jump to conclusions. After Embree’s press conference in November, his words stuck in my head. Do black coaches get a second chance? Here’s a breakdown of the last few decades worth of black head coaches in the NFL.

Art Shell, Oakland Raiders (1989-1994, 2006)

Regular Season: 56-52

Postseason: 3-2

Next Job: Shell was hired as assistant to the head coach by the Kansas City Chiefs; he later left the Chiefs to become an assistant in Atlanta. The demand for Shell was very low despite 58% winning percentage as coach of the Raiders. Ultimately Oakland gave Shell his second head coaching opportunity. Shell failed miserably leading the Raiders to a 2-14 record during one of their most dysfunctional periods.

Dennis Green, Minnesota Vikings (1992-2001), Arizona Cardinals (2004-2006)

Regular Season: 113-94

Postseason: 4-8

Next job: Green was hired by the Cardinals after a two year stint on ESPN. Green never enjoyed the kind of success in Arizona that he had in Minnesota. The Cards went 16-32 under Green, never making the playoffs. The highlight of Green’s tenure was his infamous “the Bears are who were thought they were“rant.

Current Status: Unable to get another shot in the NFL, Green took a coaching job in the UFL. Green is currently unemployed.

Tony Dungy Tampa Bay Buccaneers (1996-2001), Indianapolis Colts (2002-2008)

Regular Season: 139-69

Post Season: 9-10

Next job: Dungy enjoyed even more success in Indianapolis, leading the Colts to seven straight winning seasons and a championship. In Indy, Dungy won an incredible 75 percent of his games and took the Colts to three AFC championship games. Dungy retired after the 2008 season.

Current Status: Retired, Analyst NBC Sunday Night Football in America.

Herm Edwards, New York Jets (2001-2005), Kansas City Chiefs (2006-2008)

Regular season: 54-74

Postseason: 2-4

Next Job: Edwards’ tenure in Kansas City followed the same template as the one in New York, early success, followed by futility. The Chiefs made the playoffs in Edwards’ first year and spiraled downward the next two, finishing 2-14 in his final year in Kansas City.

Current Status: Vocal ESPN analyst who spoke candidly with our editor-in-chief last month.

Marvin Lewis, Cincinnati Bengals (2003-Current)

Regular Season: 79-80-1

Post Season: 0-4

Next job: Lewis departure from the Bengals will be an experiment for African American coaches in the NFL. Despite a modicum of success Lewis is often portrayed as a bumbling incompetent. In reality he’s led the Bengals to the playoffs two years.

Lovie Smith, Chicago Bears (2004-2012)

Regular Season: 81-63

Post Season: 3-3

Next job: Despite being interviewed by several teams last month, Smith was not hired by anyone.

Current status: Unemployed.

Romeo Crennel, Cleveland Browns (2005-2008), Kansas City Chiefs (2011-2012)

Regular Season: 28-55

Postseason: 0-0

Next job: After the Chiefs fired Todd Haley, Crennel was promoted from defensive coordinator to head coach. This offseason, he was fired and replaced by Andy Reid.

Current status: Unemployed.

Mike Tomlin, Pittsburgh Steelers (2007-Current)

Regular season: 63-33

Post Season: 5-3

Next job: The Steelers history with coaches indicates that Tomlin would be the party to dissolve the relationship. If he did he’d be one of the hottest coaches on the market.

Mike Singletary, San Francisco 49ers (2008-2010)

Regular Season: 18-22

Post Season: 0-0

Next job: Singletary’s disaster in San Francisco caused many to question whether he has the temperament to be a head coach. In 2011 the Vikings hired Singletary as Linebackers coach.

Current status: Vikings special assistant to the head coach/linebackers coach.

Jim Caldwell, Indianapolis Colts (2009-2011)

Regular Season: 26-22

Postseason: 2-2

Next job: Despite having a Super bowl trip on his resume Caldwell wasn’t viewed as a viable head coaching candidate. In 2012 Caldwell was hired by the Ravens as a quarterbacks coach.Earlier this year he was promoted to offensive coordinator after the firing of Cam Cameron.

Current status: Offensive coordinator, Baltimore Ravens.

Raheem Morris, Tampa Bay Buccaneers (2009-2011)

Regular Season: 17-31

Postseason: 0-0

Next job: Morris’ precipitous drop is curious, the argument could be made that he deserved one more year in Tampa. Morris wasn’t offered a head coaching job, nor was he offered any coordinator positions, despite previously excelling in the role. Morris is currently the defensive backs coach for the Washington Redskins.

Current Status: Defensive backs coach, Washington Redskins.

Hue Jackson, Oakland Raiders (2010)

Regular Season: 8-8

Postseason: 0-0

Next job: Assistant to special teams and defensive backs,Cincinnati Bengals. Why couldn’t Jackson get a job on the offensive side of the ball? Jackson’s resume includes 24 years of experience, 12 as an offensive coordinator.

Current Status: Running backs coach, Cincinnati Bengals.

Leslie Frazier, Minnesota Vikings (2010-Current)

Regular Season: 16-22

Postseason: 0-1

Next job: It’s hard to tell what kind of footing Frazier is on in Minnesota but would anyone be surprised if he is fired by the Vikings if he has a sub par year next year?

Current status: Head coach, Minnesota Vikings.

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16 Responses to “Jon Embree Said Black Football Coaches Don’t Get Second Chances. Do They?”

1
sctrojans Says:
February 2nd, 2013 at 2:33 PM
If Billick and Fassel were black, Embree would have a stroke. Unfortunately, his point is idiotic
2
A.P. Says:
February 2nd, 2013 at 2:36 PM
also, a hearty FU to 5 of 7 syracuse guys not giving any effort on offense today. Assholes
3
Cowboy Mike's Old Original Red Hot Ricochet Barbeque Sauce Says:
February 2nd, 2013 at 2:38 PM
Hue Jackson, Oakland Raiders (2010)
Regular Season: 8-8
Postseason: N/A
Next job: Assistant to special teams and defensive backs,Cincinnati Bengals. Why couldn’t Jackson get a job on the offensive side of the ball? Jackson’s resume includes 24 years of experience, 12 as an offensive coordinator.
Current Status: Barry Bonds impersonator at baseball card shows.
4
Uncle Remus Says:
February 2nd, 2013 at 3:11 PM
Ty Willie did.
5
somewhereoverthedwaynebowe Says:
February 2nd, 2013 at 3:19 PM
Dave Wandstedt just got another job and Lovie Smith remains unemployed. The man may have a point.
6
Faulkner Says:
February 2nd, 2013 at 3:34 PM
Dave Wandstedt just got another job and Lovie Smith remains unemployed.
Dave Wannstedt just got a job as a special teams coach, and Lovie Smith has a year of buyout checks to cash.
7
A.P. Says:
February 2nd, 2013 at 3:35 PM
the mustache just wants to coach. he doesn’t care if it’s an assistant position. Lovie only wants to be a head coach
8
somewhereoverthedwaynebowe Says:
February 2nd, 2013 at 4:11 PM
Dave Wannstedt just got a job as a special teams coach, and Lovie Smith has a year of buyout checks to cash.
ha. way to miss the point entirely.
Lovie only wants to be a head coach
and you know this because? Also – Andy Reid.
9
Jim Harbaugh Scramble Says:
February 2nd, 2013 at 4:23 PM
the argument could be made that he deserved one more year in Tampa.
who the fuck is going to make that fucking argument. The guy crashed and burned. he was totally clueless and lost the players. will never be a head coach again.
The real shame is dumbass Raiders firing Hue after going 8-8 with a lousy team.
10
sctrojans Says:
February 2nd, 2013 at 4:35 PM
and you know this because?
Reports
Also – Andy Reid.
His relation to this post is unclear
11
Niger, Please. Says:
February 2nd, 2013 at 4:41 PM
the argument could be made that he deserved one more year in Tampa.
No, not at all. Lost 10 straight and none of them were close. Team quit on him. He was just a cheap placeholder until Gruden came off the books.
12
starkweather Says:
February 2nd, 2013 at 5:18 PM
His relation to this post is unclear
He’s white and got a second shot in spite of a lot of signs of burnout over the past couple of seasons.
13
sctrojans Says:
February 2nd, 2013 at 5:26 PM
He’s white and got a second shot in spite of a lot of signs of burnout over the past couple of seasons.
Counterpoint: he’s 130-93-1 in the regular season, 10-9 in the postseason
14
got_em_looking Says:
February 2nd, 2013 at 6:40 PM
Presumed Problem Statement
NFL owners aren’t hiring enough black coaches wholly or partly due to candidates’ race and/or tangential consequences attributable to their race but having nothing to do with ability to coach however the NFL measures such ability.
Root Cause Analysis
Many problems are due to combination of causes working in concert however most can be distilled into a single root cause if each cause is subjected to enough “why?” queries. Lets assume this is a singular root cause problem.
Possible Root Causes:
A) There aren’t enough black coaching candidates in the first place.
B) The NFL owners are racist.
C) The NFL owners aren’t exposed to qualified black coaching candidates.
Root Cause A: Few candidates
At worst the NFL has no power to fix this at best it can effect slow and indirect change. This root cause unfortunately either has no solution or the solution is so deeply rooted in the same societal issues sometimes attributed to similar problems such as the dearth of black medical doctors. If so the NFL on its own will be hard pressed to make a dent here or evaluate its corrective measures for a generation or more.
Root Cause B: Damn Racists!
Here we address the possibility that a majority of NFL owners are for one reason or another biased against blacks holding head coaching positions. Our mitigation options:
1) Replace the current racist owners with non-prejudiced men and women.
2) Reform the racist owners.
3) Mandate a quota for a minimum number of black coaches.
For (2) there are no reliable tools available to measure the effectiveness of mitigation strategies short of a mind reading device. Therefore, the current Rooney Rule in this respect cannot be called to account for progress on (2) since a truly reformed racist may still hire a white coach even after interviewing a black coach. (1) and (3) are impractical or create less satisfactory outcomes than the status quo.
Root Cause C: Exposure
In this scenario the owners just aren’t aware of the qualified black candidates. Solution? Lets make them aware or in essence address an equality of opportunity problem. Rooney Rule generally tries to do this however untastefully (my opinion). Now since equality of opportunity and equality of outcomes aren’t the same we have no reason to believe the Rooney Rule is not working especially based on the outcomes of one offseason.
Lets take a second look at our presumed problem statement. What are the chances the reason why the proportion of black NFL coaches isn’t to our liking is primarily due to the blackness of the coaches and the establishment’s reaction to said blackness of their skin and/or its emergent properties having nothing to do with coaching ability? 0%? 5%? 50%?
Is even posing this question publicly a symptom of prejudice? Not necessarily.
Yes there is no law of nature holding the root cause of our unsatisfactory reality in conformity with our current tastes in political correctness however it is still possible our problem isn’t one that requires prejudiced white owners or the idea of intellectually inferior blacks to exist. Just as a proof of concept and not a claim of identity consider how the dearth of Latino NFL coaches requires neither racist owners nor inferior Latinos to exist.
By the way so you don’t dismiss this offhand as a biased view of a prejudiced mind, I’m just a Sub-Saharan African observing and applying the problem solving techniques that proves so effective in many works of life to this situation.
15
Benjamin Franklin Rodriguez has the highest WAR evah! Says:
February 2nd, 2013 at 9:34 PM
Embree is a college coach talking about opportunities in college. Why are we talking about the NFL in relation to what Embree was talking about?
16
sctrojans Says:
February 2nd, 2013 at 9:50 PM
College ball seems to afford less second chances in general. Not too many coaches in BCS conferences who have failed at another school