Each club in the National Football League has one goal: to be the best.
That’s what it’s all about. Building the most professional organization. Hiring the sharpest support staff. Fielding the most dominant team. Lifting the Lombardi Trophy -- proof that your club stands alone, above the rest.
Getting there takes a relentless commitment to excellence, a constant and ongoing evaluation of how to improve.
This includes taking a hard look at where you’re falling short.
Hiring outcomes for the game’s top jobs -- positions like head coach, general manager, and president of football operations -- aren’t where they need to be. Despite progress and promising trends, people of color and women remain underrepresented.
Entering the 2022 season, six clubs had minority head coaches -- just three of them Black, a specific area of concern. Retention is an issue, too. My record is clear about this double standard: Black head coaches are given less time to succeed. Sometimes they’re fired after winning seasons. This is not supposition, it is fact, supported by irrefutable documentation. I stand by it.
Turning this around will take all 32 clubs and my colleagues at the NFL front office working together. To say we should just tap into our drive to win would be to trivialize the larger issue. But it speaks to intention. It signals understanding that there’s immense value in being better, even being the best, when it comes to all facets of business. That includes implementing policies that promote diversity and inclusion -- fairness.
The NFL has made strides to strengthen and expand the talent pool through initiatives specifically for diverse prospects, such as the Quarterback Coaching Summit and the Ozzie Newsome General Manager Forum. The league maintains a database with accurate, comprehensive information on candidates that we make available to all clubs. With help from our partners, the NFL also objectively identifies prospects who are most ready to become head coaches, knows as our “Ready List.” Of the 34 names on the list this year, 56% are considered diverse candidates.
The pipeline exists. But its impact is limited when equitable hiring practices aren’t up to the modern standard.
Equitable hiring practices are the X’s and O’s of searching for, interviewing and hiring a job candidate in the fairest way possible. That’s an equally critical piece to our efforts, though not as likely to grab a headline.
The good news? It’s an area we can improve on today.
Thanks to the contributions of diversity, equity and inclusion professionals around the world, we already know what works. We also know which antiquated practices are better off in the dustbin.
Some of those DEI experts are the very ones informing the NFL’s Equitable Hiring Club Practices Guidebook, a 33-page document annually updated and distributed to clubs. Its purpose is to level the playing field.
At the end of the day, all candidates, regardless of race or gender, should feel confident they had a true opportunity to be considered for a leadership position within an NFL club. That’s more likely to happen when they read a job description that emphasizes competencies over experiences. When they engage with a diverse hiring team, each questioner playing a consistent role. When they know identifying information has been scrubbed from every single application prior to interviews. When they aren’t probed for cultural fit or shared interests.
Anyone involved in decision making, including club owners, are required to be trained on the guidebook and the many strategies within it. I truly believe that if they trust the process, the results will come: more coaches and executives of color, women in leadership, and organizational stability.
Here’s the other thing. Committing to equitable hiring practices creates only winners.
Clubs stand to gain a lot, from trust to talent. Being best in class comes with a culture that attracts the finest coaches and executives in the game, many of whom have been historically underrepresented. Inclusive onboarding strategies, also covered in the NFL’s guidebook, should lead to longer tenures, less turnover, and sustained success on the field.
If you buy in, you win. It’s that simple.
And, sure, there’s room for competition. Build a DEI-first hiring operation that’s the envy of the league. Why stop there? Make the wider business world take notice. Set the standard.
Aim to be the best. That’s football.
Each of us has a role to play -- everyone in the NFL, from the clubs to the front office. Let’s follow the guidance, broaden our perspectives, and hold each other accountable to create real, lasting change.
Troy Vincent, Sr. is the executive vice president of football operations for the National Football League and a Walter Payton Man of the Year and Jefferson Award recipient.