Two Conundrums Today …

The NFL coaching game of musical chairs has come to an end.  No Black candidates filled any of the ten openings; so, now we will go through a short cycle of racial analysis of the entire NFL’s owners’ thinking.   According to the reports I have read, there are no allegations that any of the ten teams seeking new leadership on the sidelines violated the Rooney Rule meaning that all ten hiring teams interviewed at least two Black head coaching candidates.  So, how can that be?

First, as you read or hear from any of the commentators who will cite this situation as prima facie evidence of systemic racism, please note that one of the coaches hired in this cycle is an Arab-American of the Muslim faith.  Robert Saleh is now the coach of the Tennessee Titans and that biographical data does not fit squarely with the portrait of bigoted white owners assuring the purity of the photo that might be taken of all their head coaches.  I mention it here because it will not be a prominent part of the mind-reading exercise that will be forthcoming.

There is a Black head coaching candidate out there who can easily be held up as a victim in this hiring cycle.  However, the Brian Flores situation has extenuating circumstances.  One can easily make the case that Flores should not have been fired by Miami in 2022; he had been on the job for 3 seasons and had posted a winning record in the two seasons prior to his being fired.  Nonetheless, he was fired and in the hiring cycle of 2022, Flores alleges he was the victim of racial discrimination and has sued the NFL and three specific teams for redress of that grievance.

Two of the teams as defendants in Flores’ lawsuit are the Giants and the Dolphins.  Those two teams – – both seeking new coaches in this cycle – – specifically have more than sufficient reason not to hire Flores as of this date and the other eight teams looking for new sideline leadership might have a basis for seeing him as an antagonist at the moment.  I believe that Brian Flores would be a good head coach for an NFL team, but I understand how he might be starting at a disadvantage in his interview processes based on his legal allegations just as easily as that disadvantage might be due to his skin color.

I think this situation is set up to be an annual occurrence.  There is no reasonable mechanism one could impose on the NFL owners to maintain a specified level of minority coaching representation around the league; hiring and firing decisions are going to reside with each team.  And in that case, analyzing individual hirings requires knowing what is in the minds and hearts of the individual owners.  At this point, what springs to mind is the introduction to a radio program from the 1940s, The Shadow.  Each mystery episode began with:

“Who knows what evil lurks in the hearts of men?  The Shadow knows…”

Unfortunately, “The Shadow” is a fictional character, and we cannot avail ourselves of his fictional insights and abilities.  When you hear or read declarative statements about how this hiring cycle proves that race is the key factor in NFL hiring decisions, please remember that “The Shadow” is a fictional character.

Moving on … The “scoop-du-jour” this morning is that – – like Bill Belichick – – Robert Kraft will also not be revealed tomorrow night as an entrant into the Pro Football Hall of Fame.  As with the coaching debate from above, this report will conjure up some natural discussion points.

• Is this a “league sanction” levied because of Kraft’s alleged dalliance in that “massage parlor” incident?
• If Belichick was being “punished” for the scandals that occurred in his time with the Pats, is Kraft being similarly “punished”?
• Is this all being orchestrated by the NFL to assure that Belichick, Kraft and Tom Brady all go into the Hall of Fame in the same class since they were together atop the NFL for more than a decade?
• You get the point …

Here is another area where too much analysis and assertion depend on abilities reserved for “The Shadow”.  And in my mind, it obscures another topic that might be interesting on its own:

• Other than the owners who founded the NFL and persisted with the league long before it became an economic behemoth, why are modern owners even in the Hall of Fame?
• Other than raise a lot of money to buy a franchise with the intent of making a ton of money once installed as the new owners, what do current owners do that is “Fame-worthy”?

I think the gatekeepers for the Hall of Fame – – in all sports not just in pro football – – have two equally important mandates:

1. Enshrine worthy candidates as soon as possible – – AND – –
2. Keep unworthy/marginally worthy candidates out forever.

Only when those two mandates are enforced together will the Hall of Fame in question be a tribute to “greatness”.  There may be years when no one is considered worthy of induction and there may be years when the floodgates swing open.  That’s OK if it preserves the Hall of Fame as a bastion of “greatness”.  The very fact that there is a predetermined number of potential candidates in any given year means that “greatness” – – at best – – is on an equal footing with other criteria for induction.  Moreover, allowing a decade or so of eligibility for induction also speaks to the downgrading of “greatness”.  Think about it; after a player retires for 5 years and then is on a Hall of Fame ballot for 10 more years, he has done nothing to enhance or detract from his worthiness for enshrinement.  All that has been known for what seems like “forever”.

Finally, a closing thought today comes from author, Nelson Boswell:

“The difference between greatness and mediocrity is often how an individual views a mistake.”

But don’t get me wrong, I love sports………