NFL’s Grade for Racial, Gender Hiring Drops to Lowest Point in 15 Years

This season, there are only six people of color in head coaching and GM positions

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View of the goal post with the NFL logo. (Stephen Lew/Icon Sportswire via Getty)
Icon Sportswire via Getty Images

A new report from The Institute for Diversity and Ethics in Sport found the NFL’s hiring practices have taken a step back over the last year.

This year, the NFL earned a score of 82.3 percent for its racial hiring practices, 6.7 percentage points lower than last year’s score of 89. The score for gender was 76 percent, a two-percentage-point increase from 2018.

Combined, those scores give the NFL an overall mark of 79.3 percent, a decrease from its score of 81.6 last year. Graded out as a B-, the grade is the lowest the league has recorded in the last 15 years.

The drop is mostly due to the decrease in the number of both head coaches and general managers of color within the league, according to study author Richard Lapchick.

“There should be serious concern in the consistent decrease in representation of people of color within general manager roles on NFL teams,” he wrote in the report. “Although there was improvement in 2019 in senior administrators for both women and people of color, having representation at positions of influence is vital for improving racial and gender hiring practices within the League.”

This season, there are only four people of color in head coaching positions and two occupying general manager roles. That’s a sharp contrast to players in the league,  70 percent of whom are people of color.

“I think the players will have to turn their attention to this if these numbers continue to carry on,” Lapchick said. “If you’re a team that hires a white coach, you won’t think about it. But put it in context of 32 teams, it is notable.”

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