Flores' Complaint

Former Miami Dolphins coach Brian Flores is suing the NFL, claiming it's racist because the percentage of black head coaches and front office personnel does not approximate the percentage of players in the league.

Since 70 percent of NFL players are black, and anywhere between 3 percent and 34 percent of coaches and executive personnel are black, Flores believes that constitutes prima facie evidence that the league is “racially segregated.”

But if an underrepresentation by blacks in the head coaching ranks and management is evidence of racism, doesn't it follow that an underrepresentation of whites on the playing field is also evidence of racism? Shouldn't the numbers of white and Hispanic players be proportional to their numbers in the general population?

If the answer is that sports are a meritocracy and blacks are over-represented on the playing field because they've demonstrated superior ability in the skills required to play the game, why can't the same argument be made for the higher percentage of whites in coaching and management?

Why should performance on the field be a meritocracy but the grueling, pressure-packed work of being a head coach be subject to racial quotas?

Moreover, since head coaches are usually hired out of the assistant coaching ranks, Flores himself has contributed to the problem he deplores since 75% of the assistant coaches he hired while coaching the Dolphins were white.

Perhaps the NFL needs to be more punctilious in striving for racial equity, but why stop at racial equity? Why not consider gender equity as well? Is it not overwhelming evidence of sexism that NFL coaches and players are 100% male? Why should that be tolerated?

All of these questions and others have been raised by numerous observers, including Jake Bequette at The Federalist.

Flores seems miffed that he was fired by the Dolphins who made him a millionaire for his services. It might be worth mentioning, by the way, that the man who fired him, general manager Chris Grier, is himself black. In fact, as The Wall Street Journal's Jason Riley, who I suppose I should note, though I shouldn't have to, is also black, notes (paywall) that:

It’s certainly possible that the Dolphins organization is guilty of discriminatory hiring practices. But is it plausible? “Dolphins owner Stephen Ross ran the ‘blackest’ organization in the NFL,” sportswriter Jason Whitlock observed in a recent column. “At one time, his head coach, general manager, assistant general manager, defensive coordinator, and several members of his ownership group were all black.”

At what point did Mr. Ross become a bigot? When he decided to fire Brian Flores?

Bequette asserts that the racial disparity that Flores' is upset about results, at least in part, from the league's imposition of the "Rooney Rule," which requires teams to interview at least one black candidate for any major coaching or executive vacancy:

The absurdity of this practice can be illustrated by simply applying it to NFL roster vacancies. Imagine if every NFL team were forced to invite a white cornerback into training camp every season. No NFL team has started a white cornerback since Jason Sehorn in 2002.

A white cornerback who fulfilled a team’s obligation under a “Sehorn Rule” would feel insecure and teammates would feel resentful, even if the player was qualified for the position and seriously considered for the job.

Riley also makes the point that, if Flores' goal is to get more blacks hired as head coaches then his lawsuit is surely counterproductive:

In a statement released by his lawyers, Mr. Flores said the lawsuit is not about “my personal goals.” Rather, “my sincere hope is that by standing up against systemic racism in the NFL, others will join me to ensure that positive change is made for generations to come.”

Maybe, but the reality is that lawsuits such as this one could hamper efforts to increase the number of black coaches in the NFL. Teams might be less likely to hire someone they can’t fire without being labeled racist.

A similar phenomenon played out in faculty hiring at colleges and universities after affirmative action was implemented in the 1970s. Schools were reluctant to hire a professor who might not make tenure, lest they be accused of discrimination and face expensive lawsuits and unfavorable press.

Unlike among white academics, only the sure things got job offers, which reduced the overall number of minority faculty hires.

Like others who invoke “systemic racism,” Mr. Flores and his supporters point to statistical disparities as proof of discrimination, and progressives, both black and white nod in agreement, but why assume that disparity is prima facie proof of racism? Why not assume that there are other factors involved, like interpersonal skills, education, etc.

Riley adds that,

Progressive icon Ruth Bader Ginsburg spent 27 years on the Supreme Court while hiring only one black law clerk. Was she guilty of discrimination, or was she simply choosing from a pool of candidates that, for whatever reason, included relatively few blacks?

Head coaches in the NFL more recently have tended to follow a certain career path. An insightful article last month by the sportswriter Shalise Manza Young noted that, since 2016, three-quarters of the 40 head coaches hired had worked as offensive coordinators. In 2021 only seven of the league’s 33 offensive coordinators were black.

Ms. Young then pointed to another potential factor in the racial makeup of pro football coaches: old-fashioned nepotism. “By the NFL’s own data for its 2020 diversity and inclusion report, nine of that year’s 32 head coaches were related to a current or former coach in the league, whether by blood or marriage,” she wrote.

The same applied to the league’s 63 coordinators and position coaches, 53 of whom were white.

Bequette concludes his piece with this:

The league brought this upon themselves when they jumped in bed with the social justice radicals after the Kaepernick saga and doubled down after the George Floyd/BLM riots. They deserve this lawsuit and everything that’s coming to them.

The rest of America would do well to abandon the obsession with racial optics and skin-deep assessments of our fellow countrymen, or we’re heading toward the all-out racial conflict that the radical left seems obsessed with fomenting.

Racial bean-counting and pandering in the NFL, like Mr. Biden's declaration that he will appoint only a black woman to the Supreme Court rather than the best qualified candidate that he can find, whether male or female, black or white, guarantees that whoever is selected will be suspected of having been selected not because the selectee was the most brilliant and best qualified individual for the job but because the individual had the requisite skin color and anatomy.

We'd doubtless be upset to learn that our local hospital hired its surgeons this way, why should we think that Supreme Court justices or NFL coaches should be?