Every yr on the Super Bowl, journalists get an opportunity to ask NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell the questions that should be answered on stay tv because the world watches. This yr, the inquiries and topic issues ranged from two Black quarterbacks making historical past, Damar Hamlin, officiating, and the potential ways in which the league will broadcast upcoming video games. But, the Black cloud — no pun meant — that’s been hovering over the NFL for over a yr wasn’t talked about as soon as on Wednesday. And it’s proof that the NFL is loving the truth that folks appear to have forgotten that Brian Flores, Steve Wilks, and Ray Horton have an ongoing class-action lawsuit towards the league for its alleged racist hiring practices.
Distractions are half of the sport
It’s been over a yr because the former Miami Dolphins head coach — and present defensive coordinator for the Minnesota Vikings — dropped a bomb on the sports activities world when he determined that authorized motion was the one technique to make folks totally perceive simply how rigged the sport is for Black coaches in the NFL.
“It’s hard to speak out…but this is bigger than football. This is bigger than coaching,” stated Flores.
Days later, Goodell was on stage answering questions on the Super Bowl about that, and extra.
“I think I’d start with the basis that racism or any form of discrimination is against our values. And really something that we will not tolerate,” he stated eventually yr’s press convention.
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Same because it ever was
On Wednesday, it was extra of the identical. “I do, but I still feel like there’s better work, and more work ahead of us,” Goodell stated concerning the “meaningful progress” that’s taken place with variety amongst head coaches. “I think that there is progress, and we’re pleased to see progress. But it’s never enough.”
Lots has occurred since Goodell took the stage final yr in Los Angeles and when he returned to it in Arizona. For occasion, Steve Wilks and Ray Horton joined Flores’ lawsuit. Flores spent final season as an assistant with the Pittsburgh Steelers, and he’s now with the Vikings — as an assistant, once more. Wilks was the interim head coach of the Carolina Panthers, however as a result of historical past of the lads who carry that title together with his pores and skin shade, he by no means had an opportunity of completely touchdown the job — regardless of if Panthers proprietor David Tepper is claiming to be attempting to eradicate the league’s “old boys network.” Horton is teaching in the USFL. And you may nonetheless depend the quantity of African-American head coaches in the league on one hand and have some fingers left to spare, as Mike Tomlin (Pittsburgh), DeMeco Ryans (Houston), and Todd Bowles (Tampa Bay) are the melanated trinity.
I assumed Goodell stated progress was happening. Does it appear to be it to you? Maybe my eyesight is dangerous.
Last fall, the plaintiffs’ attorneys have been alleging racial bias towards the NFL because the league wished issues to maneuver to arbitration — the place no one can see. In court docket paperwork, the attorneys wrote that “arbitration would enable ‘unconscionably biased one-sided ‘kangaroo courts’ to find out the end result. If arbitration is the place issues land, it implies that Goodell would be the arbitrator — which is in one of the best curiosity of the groups which might be being sued, and the league. The newest improvement occurred final week when it was reported that the decide presiding over the case has requested that extra written briefings about arbitration be submitted later in the month.
What does that imply?
That this factor remains to be in limbo, as we’re ready to see if it will play out in court docket or behind closed doorways.
But, even when this arbitration resolution does go the way in which of Brian Flores, Steve Wilks, and Ray Horton, we do not know when the mud will lastly settle — which is a win for the league. Because whereas the league may wind up shedding this case, they’ve a successful technique. Which is to disregard it, as everybody else did on a Wednesday afternoon in Glendale, Arizona.
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