#NFLDraftSoWhite: What This Year’s Draft Taught Us About Diversity In The NFL
The lack of non-white coaches, owners, and team executives in the NFL is certainly not new, but this year’s draft and “war room talks,” broadcast from decisionmakers’ homes did reveal something to ESPN’s Senior NFL Writer, Jason Reid. Because of the coronavirus circumstances, “the changes to the draft highlight that people of color are virtually nonexistent in the highest decision-making role,” and such a high percentage of the individuals featured in the hours and hours of draft footage are white, Reid explains.
The worst part lies in the disparity between the percentage of Black players and other players of color (those doing the physical work on the field and bringing in the revenue for team owners) and the percentage of people of color in leadership roles beyond the field. This Quartz chart from the NFL’s 2017 diversity report card clearly shows those racial divides, and the most recent report card shows that racial diversity in leadership positions has decreased even more since then.
The historic and current practice of placing Black men into physically demanding roles while mostly white managers and owners oversee them harkens back to the power dynamics of slavery and even relates to the dangerous and racist White myth of the monstrosity of the Black male. Scarlett Hester illustrates how this myth has played out in the dialogue surrounding Colin Kaepernick’s nonviolent kneeling protests on the field. And this excellent article in The Cauldron draws comparisons between our Black athletic heroes and the tragically lost Black victims of police brutality.
These connections may be brushed aside by mainstream culture, but they are intimately woven into the fabric of the NFL and other major sports leagues in the US, and they are perpetuated by the racial power differentials between athletes and their higher-ups. As long as people of color are absent from decision-making positions in the NFL, the league will struggle to see, accept, and reverse its racist and violent history.
