Amid the devastating COVID-19 pandemic, Super Bowl LV looked different from previous years. The safety of having a football season, let alone a Super Bowl, was a point of contention for both the public and the players. Nevertheless, the NFL went ahead with the 2020 season, and Super Bowl LV was hosted in Tampa, Florida on Feb. 7 with the hometown Buccaneers beating the Kansas City Chiefs 31–9. 22,000 masked fans watched the game from Raymond James Stadium, which in a normal year would have held nearly 66,000, as cardboard cutouts of supporters attempted to fill the empty seats. At home, football fans were told to forgo Super Bowl festivities because of the public health threat. On the field, however, there were some positive representational differences from previous years. Sarah Thomas became the first woman to referee a Super Bowl, and the Buccaneers’ coaching staff made history as the most diverse in NFL history.

All three of the Buccaneers’ coordinators are Black, which is unprecedented in the NFL. They are Defensive Coordinator Todd Bowles, Offensive Coordinator Byron Leftwich, and Special Teams Coordinator Keith Armstrong. All of these men played and worked for Head Coach Bruce Arians before joining him in Tampa Bay. Additionally, Buccaneers’ Assistant Head Coach and Run Game Coordinator Harold Goodwin is Black. The Buccaneers are also the only team that has two full-time female assistant coaches, Assistant Defensive Line Coach Lori Locust and Assistant Strength and Conditioning Coach Maral Javadifar. Tampa Bay’s front office also employs two women: Jacqueline Davidson, the team’s director of football research, and Carly Hefland, a scouting assistant.

When Bruce Arians became the Buccaneers’ head coach in 2019, he worked to recruit staff in his image, but not necessarily in his physical appearance. He hired people who would be good teachers, a skill that Arians says has no gender or race, as well as people he had a history with. Arians is not just a coach of his players, but of his coaches, too. His goal is to train his staff to ultimately lead their own teams one day. The effect of Arians’ goal is encouraging: a Super Bowl-winning team that also prioritizes diversity in hiring.

Wesleyan alumna Kimberley A. Martin ‘03 has been reporting on the NFL for over a decade. Covering all elements of the game, Martin has spoken extensively on challenges the NFL faces with equity and inclusion.

“[The Buccaneers are] the poster child for what the NFL can be—or I should say they’re the poster child for what the NFL thinks it is—this place where meritocracy prevails at all times,” Martin said in an interview with The Argus.

When Arians came to Tampa Bay in 2019, he began by assembling a staff of coaches he trusted, just as any good head coach would do. However, Arians broke tradition with the “good ole boys club” practice of hiring under-qualified but well-connected men that look just like him.

“I think what I love about Bruce Arians is that he is authentic. The guys on his staff and the two female coaches he hired aren’t there to fill quotas,” Martin elaborated. “They’re all [people] that he’s known for decades and previously coached with, and I think that his overarching message is that you can find quality candidates of color. It’s not that hard.”

Despite NFL initiatives to increase diversity, including the 2003 Rooney Rule that requires teams to interview at least one candidate of color when hiring for certain positions, the Buccaneers are one of the few teams out of thirty-two NFL teams being praised for actually making a difference. Martin says the key to their success is their intentionality.

“When I tweet about the Bucs, I sometimes use #BeIntentional, because if you’re going to be real about the disparities when it comes to the number of Black head coaches or Black GMs, you have to be honest about the landscape,” Martin explained.“It’s going to take…the white guys who are in a position of power to make hiring decisions…to be intentional and look around the room and say, ‘you know what, everybody in this room looks like me. There’s gotta be other women, other people of color–there’s gotta be other people who are just as qualified out there.’”

In a league that has 70% of its players identifying as Black, the disparities in leadership are striking. Since 2018, only 11% of coaching openings have been filled by Black candidates. Currently, there are three Black head coaches in the NFL: Mike Tomlin of the Pittsburgh Steelers, Brain Flores of the Miami Dolphins, and newly-hired David Culley of the Houston Texans. Two more men of color lead NFL teams, with Ron Rivera coaching the Washington Football Team and Robert Saleh coaching the Jets. At its most, the NFL had eight Black head coaches in 2011. In a country where BIPOC are systemically oppressed, this phenomenon in NFL coaching is a symptom of a larger issue.

“The NFL is no different from society,” Martin said. “I think when people of color, particularly Black people, talk about Black Lives Matter, talk about police brutality, talk about the inequities in everyday life when you talk about the educational system, about governmental structures, just things that affect you on a day to day basis…there are systematic things in place that disproportionately affect people of color and Black people.”

The NFL hiring process is one of those systemic barriers that marginalize BIPOC candidates.

“Oftentimes when I talk to Black coaches, they feel like they’re not afforded the same opportunities of owners and GMs looking at them and seeing potential,” Martin explained.

The standards for Black men looking for leadership positions in the NFL are much higher than their white counterparts. Journalist Jemele Hill wrote about this issue, reporting that before David Culley was hired by the Texans, the team interviewed Josh McCown, a quarterback who had never even held a coaching position. Arians’ all-star coaching staff has not received interview opportunities for head coaching positions, a problem that made Arians “very, very pissed.” He added that the accomplishments of Byron Leftwich, who wasn’t even asked to interview for open positions, are too often credited to quarterback Tom Brady.

Martin elaborated on the moving set of standards the NFL has for its Black coaches.

“With Black coaches, it’ll be ‘oh well he’s never been a head coach’ or ‘he’s never been a coordinator’ or ‘he’s been a coordinator, but is he really the guy calling plays?’” Martin said. “The goalposts are moving way too often when it comes to Black candidates, and therein lies the problem.”

Martin also explained there is also little room for mistakes and no second chances for Black coaches.

“If you’re not perfect or you don’t succeed in your first job, then it’s even tougher for you to get a second chance and as a Black person in society, I do understand where that’s coming from, because whether it’s said to you directly, you grow up understanding that you have to be twice as good to get the same opportunities,” Martin said.

The NFL has a lot of work to do to correct its inequities. However, the Buccaneers are not the only team making progress, and Arians does not deserve all the credit on this front. During this offseason, the Detroit Lions hired a more diverse coaching staff, with the team now employing Black offensive and defensive coordinators in Anthony Lynn and Aaron Glenn respectively, a Black defensive backs coach/passing game coordinator in Aubrey Pleasant, and a Black assistant head coach/running backs coach in Duce Staley. Washington Football Team Head Coach Ron Rivera has also been an advocate for diversity throughout his career. Furthermore, we should not neglect to mention the countless individual players in the NFL who speak out for justice every day, particularly the players of color.

The Buccaneers’ success this season helped amplify discussions about problems in NFL hiring, but it did not solve these problems. Unfortunately, progress in the NFL is at the discretion of individual actors—it’s mostly white owners, GMs, and head coaches—and so far, just a small number of these individual actors have taken the intentional steps toward dismantling the broken hiring system that undervalues Black coaches.

 

Olivia Luppino can be reached at oluppino@wesleyan.edu.