The Dallas Cowboys are sending two representatives to the NFL’s league meetings to participate in the Coach Accelerator program next week. The program is an attempt by the NFL to increase the diversity of the head coaching ranks. While the league has made strides over several decades in breaking down the barrier Black quarterbacks have run up against, representation in head coaching and top front office jobs still lag woefully behind.
Starting in 2022, the league began using the Spring league meetings as an opportunity to place promising assistants in front of team owners to increase exposure and familiarity. The attempt is to break the cycle of having the same names continuously passed around among league brass.
The NFL has fallen woefully behind in rewarding capable Black, women and POC candidates over the years. In a league that hires from within their ranks of former players, only three of 32 head coaches identify as Black in Pittsburgh’s Mike Tomlin, Tampa Bay’s Todd Bowles and Houston’s DeMeco Ryans. Miami coach Mike McDaniel has publicly stated he identifies as a human being. New York Jets head coach Robert Saleh is Lebanese, and that is the extent of the NFL’s minority coaches in a league where the majority of the players are just that.
The Dallas Cowboys are one of 13 NFL teams who have never had a Black head coach, 40%. They’ve only had one Black offensive coordinator in Maurice Carthon who coached under Bill Parcells. Brian Stewart is the only Black defensive coordinator in team history. The club has never had a Black general manager either, though that role will seemingly never leave the Jones’ families clutches.
Will McClay is part of the team management picture with a huge role as the director of personnel, but his job does not include the financial component that is under the purview of the general manager.
The Accelerator program also has a front-office component but that list has not been made public as of yet. 40 participants were invited to this year’s coaches program.