What Is The Percentage Of Black Players In The NFL?
The percentage of black players in the NFL has been on the decline in recent years. In this blog post, we take a look at the numbers to see what is causing this trend.
The NFL’s Diversity Problem
The National Football League has been facing intense scrutiny in recent years for its lack of diversity, particularly when it comes to its players. According to a report from The Institute for Diversity and Ethics in Sport, the NFL is “the least diverse league” when it comes to race. As of 2019, only about 21% of NFL players were black.
The league’s lack of diversity among coaching staff
The National Football League has a diversity problem. The league is majority black, but its coaching staffs are about 75 percent white, according to a recent study. The study, conducted by the Institute for Diversity and Ethics in Sport at the University of Central Florida, found that 21 percent of NFL head coaches were people of color in 2017. That number has remained flat since 2002, when the institute began tracking coach diversity.
Of the 32 NFL teams, six (19 percent) have never hired a black head coach. Those teams are the Cincinnati Bengals, Detroit Lions, Houston Texans, Indianapolis Colts, New York Giants and Tennessee Titans.
The league’s lack of diversity among front office staff
While the NFL has made some strides in recent years to add diversity among its coaching ranks, the league still has a long way to go when it comes to hiring black front office staff members.
As of 2018, only 6 percent of NFL front office staff members are black, according to a report from The Institute for Diversity and Ethics in Sport (TIDES) at the University of Central Florida. That number is up from 2.6 percent in 2011, but it’s still far below the league’s overall percentage of black players, which was 70 percent in 2018.
The lack of diversity among NFL front office staff is even more evident when you look at the top positions within those offices. Of the 32 NFL teams, only six have a black person as their primary decision maker on personnel matters (general manager or equivalent). That means that just 19 percent of all NFL teams have a black person in charge of personnel decisions.
In comparison, NBA teams are much more likely to have a black person in charge of personnel decisions, with 43 percent of teams having a black general manager or equivalent as of 2018. MLB teams are also more diverse than NFL teams when it comes to personnel decisions, with 22 percent of teams having a black general manager or equivalent.
The lack of diversity among NFL front office staff is an issue that the league has been aware of for many years and has taken steps to address. In 2016, the NFL launched its “Rooney Rule” which requires all team owners to interview at least one minority candidate for any open head coaching or senior operations position.
The Rooney Rule has helped increase the number of minority coaches in the NFL, but it hasn’t done much to increase the number of minority front office staff members. In fact, the percentage of black front office staff members actually decreased from 8.3 percent in 2017 to 6 percent in 2018, according to TIDES.
One reason for the lack of progress on this front may be that the Rooney Rule only applies to head coaching and senior operations positions, not other positions within an organization such as scout or assistant coach. Another reason may be that many team owners still prefer to hire people they know and trust rather than take a chance on someone from a different background.
The league’s lack of diversity among broadcasters
In a league where 70% of the players are Black, only 8% of NFL broadcasters are Black, according to a recent report.
This lack of diversity is especially apparent on game days, when the overwhelming majority of on-air broadcasters are white. In fact, during the 2019 season, there were only four Black play-by-play announcers and six Black analysts across all NFL networks, according to the report.
The league’s lack of diversity among its broadcasters is emblematic of a much larger problem. For years, the NFL has been accused of systemic racism, and its treatment of Black players has come under intense scrutiny.
In 2016, then-San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick sparked a national debate when he kneeled during the national anthem to protest police brutality and racial injustice. Kaepernick has not been signed by an NFL team since he became a free agent in 2017, and many have speculated that his political activism is the reason why.
Last year, the league was criticized for its handling of several high-profile domestic violence cases involving Black players. And in January, a group of former cheerleaders filed a lawsuit accusing the NFL of gender discrimination.
The NFL has made some attempts to address its diversity problem in recent years. In 2015, it adopted a “Rooney Rule” requiring teams to interview at least one minority candidate for head coaching and senior operations positions. The rule is named after Pittsburgh Steelers owner Dan Rooney, who was instrumental in its creation.
And in 2018, the league hired its first full-time female coach, Katie Sowers of the 49ers. Sowers made history again this year when she became the first openly gay coach to win a Super Bowl ring after her team’s victory over the Kansas City Chiefs in February.
The NFL’s Black Player Problem
Though the NFL is made up of 70% black players, only 6% of NFL head coaches are black. Some say the low number of black NFL head coaches is due to the “rookie tax” – first time NFL head coaches are often low-paid compared to their veteran counterparts. NFL owners may also be more likely to hire a white coach that has less experience than a black coach with the same amount of experience.
The league’s low percentage of black players
The National Football League has a problem with race. The league is 70% black, yet only 6% of NFL head coaches are black. And, of the NFL’s 32 teams, only two have black head coaches. The league’s low percentage of black players has been an issue for years, and it came to a head in 2016 when then-San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick began kneeling during the national anthem to protest police brutality against black people.
Kaepernick’s protest sparked a wave of protests by other NFL players, and the issue became a major talking point during the 2016 presidential election. In response to the protests, NFL commissioner Roger Goodell said the league needed to do more to support its black players. “We’re going to continue to work to try to make our game more attractive and respectful for everybody,” Goodell said.
Goodell’s comments came after a season in which several high-profile incidents involving black players and the police made headlines. In September, then-Los Angeles Rams defensive end William Hayes was arrested for allegedly assaulting a police officer during a traffic stop. And in December, Baltimore Ravens running back Ray Rice was arrested for allegedly assaulting his wife in an elevator.
The NFL has taken steps to address its black player problem in recent years, including hiring more black coaches and creating a mentorship program for young black players. But critics say the league needs to do more, including increasing the number of black quarterbacks and opening up opportunities for black assistant coaches.
The league’s lack of black quarterbacks
The National Football League has a Black player problem. In 2020, 70% of the league’s players were Black. But, of the 32 starting quarterbacks in the NFL, only two are Black.
This discrepancy is especially glaring given that some of the league’s most successful quarterbacks are Black. Russell Wilson of the Seattle Seahawks, for example, is a five-time Pro Bowler who has led his team to the playoffs eight times in his nine seasons. Lamar Jackson of the Baltimore Ravens was named NFL MVP in 2019 after leading his team to a 14-2 record.
But despite their success on the field, Black quarterbacks continue to be largely overlooked by NFL teams. In 2020, only four of 32 NFL teams had Black quarterbacks as their primary starter. And, according to a recent study, when NFL teams do draft a Black quarterback, they are more likely to pull him from the game sooner than their white counterparts.
The reasons for this discrepancy are complex and multi-layered. Butthey include everything from systemic racism to unconscious bias to good old-fashioned racism. As former NFL player Donte Stallworth recently told NPR, “We have seen time and time again that when it comes to black quarterbacks there is this preconceived notion that they’re not intelligent enough or they’re not leadership material.”
It’s an issue that has been plaguing the NFL for years and shows no sign of abating anytime soon.
The league’s lack of black head coaches
In 2002, the NFL instituted the “Rooney Rule,” which requires teams to interview at least one person of color for every head coaching or general manager vacancy. The league made the change in response to years of criticism that it had failed to properly diversify its upper ranks.
But more than a decade later, the league still has a serious problem with the lack of black head coaches. Of the 32 teams in the NFL, only six have a black head coach. That’s just 18.8 percent, which is actually down from last year’s high of 22 percent.
And while black head coaches have been slowly getting hired over the last few years, they are still vastly outnumbered by their white counterparts. In fact, 64 percent of NFL head coaches are white, while only 36 percent are people of color.
The lack of diversity among NFL head coaches is even more glaring when you compare it to the league’s players. According to data from The Institute for Diversity and Ethics in Sport, nearly 70 percent of NFL players are people of color, while only 30 percent are white.
