NFL’s 2022 Super Bowl week DEI plans starkly contrast with Black coach-hiring situation

NFL commissioner Roger Goodell told reporters in December 2021 after NFL owners met in Irving, Texas, the league’s diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives were among the top objectives of the league.As the NFL head coach hiring season approached, the league’s struggle to fill head-coaching and other senior positions with minorities, but especially Black candidates in a league whose players are majority from that racial group, loomed largely. Goodell’s message was the league is on it.“Diversity for us is 365 days a year,” Goodell said. “That’s something that we focus on, on a regular basis. In fact, I made the point with the membership today: I don’t think there’s an issue we’ve discussed consistently and regularly as that and the importance of that to our organization to get better.”Next week in Los Angeles during the buildup to the Super Bowl, the NFL is hosting at least three events dedicated to DEI. It includes one for RISE, the social justice advocacy group funded by Dolphins owner Stephen Ross. Goodell will speak at another event, and the NFL is launching its inaugural “A Look Into the Future” DEI breakfast, described as “centered around three separate panels designed to open intentional discussions on how the league is driving change, creating impact and ultimately becoming ‘Stronger Together.’”The image of a league dedicated to changing and investing the resources in DEI is a stark contrast to the NFL universe outlined in former Dolphins head coach Brian Flores’ blistering discrimination lawsuit against the NFL, his former team and two clubs that did not hire him, the