According to the Canadian Press on Wednesday, the National Football League plans to donate $250 million to social justice initiatives. These initiatives include programs related to stopping systemic racism, and enforcing criminal justice reform, police reform, and economic and educational advancement.
It should be noted that 70% of National Football League players are African-American. However, there are only three African-American head coaches in the NFL and one Hispanic NFL head coach. The African-American head coaches are Mike Tomlin of the Pittsburgh Steelers, Brian Flores of the Miami Dolphins, and Anthony Lynn of the Los Angeles Chargers. The NFL’s Hispanic head coach is Ron Rivera of the Washington Redskins.
Among the NFL’s general managers, only two are African-American. They are Chris Grier of the Miami Dolphins and Andrew Berry of the Cleveland Browns. Grier is the son of Bobby Grier, who spent many years in the New England Patriots and Houston Texans executive office, and the brother of former National Hockey League right winger Mike Grier (played 1060 games with the Edmonton Oilers, Washington Capitals, Buffalo Sabres, and San Jose Sharks from 1996 to 2011). Berry became the general manager of the Browns on January 27, and as a result, became the youngest general manager in NFL history at age 32.
Of the NFL owners, none are African-American. Kim Pegula, who co-owns the Buffalo Bills with her husband Terry Pegula, is Asian-American. Meanwhile, Shahid Khan, who is the owner of the Jacksonville Jaguars is of Pakistani-descent.
In January of 2019, NBA star LeBron James addressed the lack of African-American owners in the NFL. On HBO, according to Bleacher Report, James said “in the NFL, they got a bunch of white men owning teams, and they got that slave mentality.” It will now be interesting to see if more African-Americans will have prominent positions in the NFL as a result of the NFL’s initiative.
