The NFL continues to try and promote minority hiring among its 32 member clubs. The latest attempt at expanding upon the “Rooney Rule” is a proposal that will provide draft incentives for teams to hire and retain minorities in coaching and front office positions.
Voting on this proposal will come soon, and it’s a divisive issue that creates many unpleasant conversation tentacles and debates. Hiring people of color in positions of power in a league where people of color make up over two-thirds of the players seems like a natural concept, but it hasn’t worked out that way in most places.
Cleveland has largely been one of the few exceptions. The Browns have been one of the most aggressively progressive organizations in hiring African-American men to prominent decision-making roles.
Take new GM Andrew Berry. He’s the third African-American hired to run the Browns front office (in one title or another) in the last decade, following Sashi Brown and Ray Farmer. Cleveland’s longest-tenured head coach 1999 is Romeo Crennel, hired in 2005 and lasting four full seasons. Hue Jackson — hired by Brown — got 2.5 seasons as the head coach. Terry Robiskie even had a brief run as an interim coach. The Browns are one of the very few NFL organizations that have had multiple people of color as both head coaches and general managers.