Tag: Fritz Pollard Alliance

Fritz Pollard Alliance head slams Jaguars’ hiring of Chris Doyle

Urban Meyer has been put on blast by the head of the Fritz Pollard Alliance for his hiring or controversial former Iowa strength coach Chris Doyle

Urban Meyer has yet to coach a game for the Jacksonville Jaguars and he already has stirred controversy.

The Jaguars’ head coach announced the hiring of former Iowa strength and conditioning coach Chris Doyle on Thursday. The same Chris Doyle who lost his longstanding job with the Hawkeyes when he and the school reached a separation agreement in the summer after numerous former players spoke out about mistreatment within the Iowa program.

A number of the allegations came from Black players concerned with the way Doyle treated them and his use of racist language. Doyle was the nation’s highest-paid strength coach at $800,000 annually. He received 15 months’ salary (roughly $1.1 million), and he and his family were awarded benefits from Iowa for 15 months,

Rod Graves of the Fritz Pollard Alliance skewered Meyer and the NFL in a statement released Friday. The Fritz Pollard Alliance exists to champion diversity in the NFL through education and providing its members with resources that will help them succeed at every level of the game, per its mission statement

Meyer defending his hiring — of course — saying Thursday, “I vet everyone on our staff and like I said, the relationship goes back close to 20 years and a lot of hard questions asked, a lot of vetting involved with all our staff. We did a very good job vetting that one.

“… I met with our staff and I’m going to be very transparent with all the players like I am with everything. I’ll listen closely and learn, and also there’s going to have to be some trust in their head coach that we’re going to give them the very best of the best, and time will tell. … The allegations that took place, I will say [to the players] I vetted him. I know the person for close to 20 years and I can assure them there will be nothing of any sort in the Jaguar facility.”

 

Fritz Pollard Alliance, champions of NFL diversity, ‘deeply troubled’ by Woody Johnson allegations

Woody Johnson’s alleged comments have caught the eye of the Fritz Pollard Alliance Foundation.

Woody Johnson’s alleged comments have caught the eye of the Fritz Pollard Alliance Foundation, a nonprofit organization that strives to bring diversity to the NFL. The Alliance said that it is “deeply troubled” by the “insensitive remarks” Johnson reportedly made while serving as the U.S. Ambassador to the United Kingdom.

“Allegations of this nature, if true, are damaging to the social fabric of our country and cannot be tolerated,” the foundation said in a statement. “While only allegations at this point, they are serious.”

The foundation is referencing the racial and sexist remarks Johnson allegedly made, as reported by CNN. According to the story, Johnson questioned why African Americans would want a Black History Month, resisted an event in which he asked if the crowd would be comprised of “a whole bunch of Black people,” and referred to Black fathers leaving their families as the “real challenge.” The story also alleges Johnson made sexually suggestive and belittling remarks toward women and asked why he had to do “a feminist event.” 

“We call on the NFL to carefully monitor this situation and, if the allegations have merit, to take appropriate action and work toward rooting out such sentiments from the NFL community,” the Fritz Pollard Alliance statement continued. 

A report from The New York Times also claims Johnson used his position as ambassador to try to convince the UK government to move the British Open golf tournament to President Donald Trump’s resort in Scotland, a move that would have benefited the Trump’s personal finances. Johnson was investigated by State Department watchdogs due to the various allegations. 

Johnson has since denied the allegations against him, which the Jets echoed in a statement of their own. The NFL said it is aware of the report but deferred comment to the State Department. A spokesperson said that the State Department stood behind Johnson, per CNN.

The Fritz Pollard Alliance has played a role in trying to foster diversity in the NFL since it’s formation in 2003. The organization has been outspoken in pushing for more minority hires across all levels of the NFL and has worked with the league to develop better minority hiring practices. This has included a staunch defense and enforcement of the Rooney Rule, which requires all teams to interview at least one minority candidate for head coaching and senior-level executive jobs.

Report: Washington NFL team’s recent executive hires questioned

The Washington NFL team’s recent hires are being questioned with regard to the NFL’s Rooney Rule.

The splashy, recent hires by the Washington NFL football team and its owner Daniel Snyder are being questioned by the Fritz Pollard Alliance, which assists the NFL in enforcing compliance of the Rooney Rule,  ESPN’s The Undefeated reported Wednesday

Terry Batemen was named executive vice president and chief marketing officer Monday. This is the third go-round with the team for Bateman, who was the president of Snyder Communications marketing services from 1994-97.

The franchise followed that Tuesday by hiring Julie Donaldson as senior vice president of media. According to the team’s news release, Donaldson “will be the first female to be a regular on-air member of an NFL radio broadcast booth.”

The question is whether the team followed the procedures outlined in the league’s Rooney Rule …

Per The Undefeated:

… approved by owners May 19, clubs and the league office are required to interview “minorities and/or female applicants” for positions such as team president and “senior executives in communications, finance, human resources, legal, football operations, sales, marketing, sponsorship, information technology and security positions.” Moreover, there must be a credible process in which owners, or those they empower to make hires, interview multiple candidates and deliberate before picking one.

In a text message to The Undefeated,  the Fritz Pollard Alliance’s top decision-maker, Rod Graves,wrote, “The Fritz Pollard Alliance has sent inquiries to the NFL and to the Washington Football Team regarding the hiring process for Terry Bateman and Julie Donaldson.”

The article states there are questions whether Washington conducted thorough hiring processes as required by the Rooney Rule, two NFL club executives told The Undefeated.

The team is in crisis mode as its corporate sponsors are among those that forced it to undergo a “thorough review,” which led to the decision to change its nickname from what is considered a racist slur toward Native Americans.

That was followed by a Washington Post report detailing the awful corporate culture, where 15 women who formerly worked with the organization detailed sexual harassment. within it.

 

Miami Dolphins honored with Paul J. Taliabue Award for diversity

The Miami Dolphins are being recognized for their diversity in football operations by the Fritz Pollard Alliance.

The NFL has been looking for a way to battle their lack of diversity in management and football operations for years. And with each passing year, more and more voices echo the same sentiment — that there is an alarming lack of variety in the hiring of the NFL’s elite jobs. The league boasts just two minority general managers — Miami’s Chris Grier and Cleveland’s Andrew Berry, who was hired this week.

Head coaches? There are only four minority head coaches in the league — Pittsburgh’s Mike Tomlin, Washington’s Ron Rivera, Los Angeles’ Anthony Lynn and Miami’s Brian Flores.

Despite the NFL’s Rooney Rule, the league’s teams have continued to bypass establishing a more diverse talent pool in leadership positions. Which is what makes the Dolphins so unique — given as they are the league’s only team with an African American duo running their football operations. And it is because of this diversity that the Dolphins are being honored by The Fritz Pollard Alliance with the 2020 Paul J. Taliabue Award.

Rod Graves, the executive director of the Fritz Pollard Alliance spoke on why Miami was honored with the award this season.

“First of all, we’re looking for extraordinary leadership and bold steps to advance diversity. The Miami Dolphins have certainly qualified in that area,” said Graves.

“No question they are the model franchise for the National Football League. I think it’s clear that the organization embraces diversity based on what we believe are strong, what I call modern-day principles of success.”

The Dolphins will receive the award on Thursday at the Greater Fort Lauderdale/Broward County Convention Center.