NFL Continues To Make Widespread Progress In Diversity Hiring

The National Football League, a professional American football league, is providing increment to players and has started the diversity in hiring practices, according to an annual report.

According to a report from The Institute for Diversity and Ethics in Sport at Central Florida, the NFL received a B-plus mark for racial hiring and a B for gender hiring. 

TIDES director Adrien Bouchet said, “It’s the most positive NFL report since we started doing them. The league has made major strides over the past decade, and particularly the past few years.”

TIDES Report

The 2023 NFL Racial and Gender Report Card released by The Institute for Diversity and Ethics in Sport (TIDES) highlighted that there were few areas of concern — particularly in the ownership ranks.

The NFL had six minority head coaches at the beginning of the season. It did not have diversity. Houston’s DeMeco Ryans, Miami’s Mike McDaniel, Washington’s Ron Rivera, Pittsburgh’s Mike Tomlin, Tampa Bay’s Todd Bowles and the New York Jets’ Robert Saleh were the head coaches.

Las Vegas Raiders named Antonio Pierce as interim coach. It meant the Raiders had a Black coach, general manager and team president at the same time.

The NFL pledges to make progress in diversity hiring. 

Hiring trends

According to the report, there are also positive hiring trends at the NFL’s league office. They continued to hire more people. However, it received an F for the racial diversity of its team owners and a D-plus for gender diversity.

It made progress with hiring practices within the league office and across their teams. For gender hiring practices, the NFL received an A grade.

Last year, it also announced the creation of the NFL diversity advisory committee. In October, the NFL also implemented a new rule regarding the hiring of coaches. 

It is important to note that there was racial bias in lower-level NFL coach hiring and promoting. Around 79% of the promotions to head coach were from the coordinator position.