The NFL can put on a season during a pandemic – yet hiring black coaches seems too difficult?

You may say the two things are completely different, I would argue that the logistics of dealing with coronavirus are far more complicated than ensuring talented coaches get the chance they deserve

The Kansas City Chiefs are set to play in the Super Bowl on Sunday (Getty)

The NFL’s achievement in getting the Super Bowl played on Sunday, after delivering its entire inventory of games in the middle of a deadly pandemic, shouldn’t be underestimated.

Sure there were bumps along the road. Games were played on unfamiliar nights. Teams took the field without their head coaches and, in one instance, a recognised quarterback, the most important position.

But despite some close calls, all 256 games were ultimately played in a sport that doesn’t lend itself to postponement and rescheduling in the way most sports (think association football, basketball, baseball) do.

This only makes the league’s abject failure when it comes to hiring black and minority coaches all the more jarring in a league where 70 per cent of the players who put their bodies on the line for fans’ entertainment are African American.

Wait just one damn minute, a lot of people will probably be saying at this point, you can’t conflate the two. They’re completely different. You’ve clearly lost it.

On the face of it, they are. The one was an enormous logistical, medical, labour relations and business challenge. It was only achieved by the league with the cooperation of the NFL Players Association, the management of a comprehensive testing programme, the players (mostly) complying with protocols designed to keep a frighteningly infections virus at bay. Corporate behemoths aren’t well suited to adapting on the fly. The NFL did that.

Set against that, the other issue I raise ought to be easy. You look at the pool of candidates, call the likely ones in for an interview and hire. If you put the right structure in place around them – vital for the success of any coaching appointment – you then sit back and watch as the wins roll in.

That’s what happened in Miami when coach Brian Flores was taken on. He took command with the Dolphins’ brain trust having torn the team down. The team was expected to notch a win or two at most in his first year, with the first pick in the NFL draft as compensation. With the worst roster in the league on paper, Flores went on a mini-run at the end of 2019 and the Dolphins ultimately won five games (good for the fourth draft pick). This past season, the team came within a whisker of the playoffs, winning 10, which is often enough to join the party. That’s some rebuild.

The only other African American head coach is Mike Tomlin. He’s served up two Super Bowls for the Pittsburgh Steelers.

You’d think some of their rivals would have taken note of the obvious market imbalance. But no. Of the seven head coaching vacancies in the current cycle, just two went to minority candidates, only one of whom was African American. That was David Culley, hired by the Houston Texans, where the team’s management is in disarray and superstar quarterback DeSean Watson wants out of town.

It was generally agreed to be the least desirable opening and given the state of things there Culley will do well to keep the job for a couple of years because if a team doesn’t win the coach takes the hit even when it’s not his fault. His problem was that there are only 32 head coaching jobs and if you’re African American and you get offered one you can’t afford to be picky, even if it’s sad sack Texans who come calling.

Just look at the treatment of Eric Bieniemy. Three of the offensive and defensive coordinators in the Super Bowl are African American. Bieniemy runs the Kansas City Chiefs’ high-octane offence, having helped to develop gifted quarterback Patrick Mahomes to take over from Tom Brady, the age-defying 43-year-old who pilots the opposing Tampa Bay Buccaneers, as the face of the league.

Bieniemy’s boss Andy Reid has expressed disappointment at Bieniemy being snubbed for the second year in a row, even though it will clearly hurt his team to lose him. So has Mahomes. So has the Chiefs previous starting QB Alex Smith, now plying his trade in Washington.

Sure, he’s coaching in the Super Bowl, which makes life a little more complicated for potential hirers. But if he’s the right man for the job (and his record demonstrates that he should be for someone) then it shouldn’t matter.

This isn’t new. Over the last four cycles, there were 27 vacancies. Just four were filled by black coaches. The league had as many as seven black head coaches in 2011. Culley’s hiring brings the number to three.

The league office has made efforts to address this dismal situation. It has extended the Rooney rule – originally introduced in 2003 – which mandates that at least one minority candidate should receive an interview for open vacancies. A new initiative rewards teams that develop and then lose minority staff to better jobs with extra draft picks, valuable currency given they provide access to cost-controlled young talent from the college game.

NFL chief Roger Goodell has said in recent days that more needs to be done to promote minority coaches. “We had two minority coaches hired this year but it wasn’t what we expected, and it’s not what we expect going forward,” Goodell said. With three black head coaches in the league as it stands, the number is the same as it was when the Rooney rule was introduced 18 years ago.

But the numbers are the numbers. They are jarring to me as a white fan who has followed the sport for more than thirty years. The obvious, glaring injustice leaves a nasty taste in the mouth. I can’t even begin to imagine how it must feel for black fans, players and coaches.

The league will on Sunday put on a global sporting spectacular in the midst of a global crisis. Yet its 32 teams seem incapable of hiring a decent number of non-white coaches. Why?

Do you want to say the word? Or should I?