CARDINAL NUMBERS
A formula to add more minority coaches in the NFL
BYRON LEFTWICH WAS done with football after retiring in 2013. He still had the itch, but maybe it was an itch no longer worth scratching. Putting in a coach's hours seemed a ludicrous proposition after taking up golf and finally enjoying time with his family in Florida. Then the former first-round pick and veteran of four NFL teams started receiving texts from Cardinals coach Bruce Arians: When are you gonna come out here? ... Is this the year? ... Get your ass out here!
Arians has this theory about the lack of African-American coaches in professional football: Almost 70% of the players in the league are black; if recently retired players could be recruited to coach (in a league in which more than 70% of the head coaches are white), they might fall in love with it. Arians's view is molded by his one-year experience as a quarterback on a majority-black high school football team in York, Pa., in the late 1960s, and as the first white football player at Virginia Tech to room with a black student. (That student was teammate James Barber, father of NFL alums Tiki and Ronde.) Inclusiveness became a part of Arians's coaching philosophy. "I just feel like it's our duty," Arians says. "For the future of the game."
As ESPN's Mike Sando pointed out in July, 21 of the past 22 head coaching hires have been white. Eighty of the 85 offensive coordinators, quarterback coaches or offensive quality-control coaches are white. The Rooney Rule might be getting minority coaches interviewed, but the feeder system remains mired in homogeneity.
Thus, Arians's texts to Leftwich (above), who played under Arians for two seasons when Arians was offensive coordinator with the Steelers, kept coming. Arians had watched Leftwich mentor young offensive players in the quarterback room as a backup to Ben Roethlisberger. Finally, in April, Leftwich agreed to give it a try. He was one of seven minority coaches interning with the Cardinals during training camp. When Arizona opened the season on Sunday night with a 23--21 loss to the Patriots, Leftwich was on the sideline. "Once I understood how you could really help players and help the game, I was sold," he says.
Arians's offensive coordinator is Harold Goodwin, who is also black. He coached offensive linemen for the Steelers and the Colts before being hired by the Cardinals in 2013. "Going through this last hiring process, everybody wants to know who's going to coach the quarterback?" Goodwin says. "Not everybody coaches quarterbacks, and plenty have been successful with other backgrounds."
Despite the intentions of the Rooney Rule and the Bill Walsh Minority Coaching Fellowship (which provides for minority applicants—mostly college and high school coaches—to work with NFL staffs during the off-season), Arians and Arizona owner Bill Bidwill felt more had to be done. So they established for former players the Bill Bidwill Coaching Fellowship in 2015. Steelers linebacker Levon Kirkland is the first fellow, now in his second season interning under Cardinals inside linebackers coach Bob Sanders. Arians says he will have additional minority interns on offense, defense and special teams this season.
Extrapolate the Cardinals' plan here. Thirty-two teams, seven minority former players interning per team, working at least six weeks of the preseason and some for the entire season. That's 224 former players exposed to the coaching side of the business. Surely the black men who lead in the locker room have something to offer besides their bodies.
Fit for a King
The MMQB has teamed up with Homage, a vintage apparel company, to celebrate the 20th year of Peter King's Monday Morning Quarterback column with this T-shirt. The design pays, well, homage to a younger, more fully coiffed King as well as to some of the MMQB staples (the coffee cup, 10 THINGS on the typewritten page). Proceeds will help replace band equipment that was damaged by recent floods at St. Amant High in Ascencion Parish, La. To purchase, and for other MMQB-related shirts, go to Homage.com