Antonio Pierce, gone.
Brian Callahan, staying.
Jerod Mayo, gone.
Brian Daboll, staying.
Ran Carthon, gone.
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Trent Baalke, staying.
Now take an NFL version of the Rorschach test. See the pattern?
Pierce, Mayo and Carthon are Black. And they were given the NFL equivalent of a New York minute to prove themselves on their high-powered jobs before they were fired this week with horrific win-loss records.
Callahan, Daboll and Baalke are white. Their win-loss records stink, too. Yet they will be back in their high-powered jobs, afforded more time to prove themselves. Or not.
Sure, every case includes unique details, and the Black men weren’t the only coaches and front office executives forced to walk the plank as NFL teams ignited another hiring and firing cycle.
Yet in a league that for generations has had such a sorry track record when it comes to providing opportunities to minorities, while trumpeting a creed of equality, some of the biggest moves (and non-moves) this week underscore another disturbing pattern that the NFL needs to be called on the carpet for.
You’ve heard of “sham” interviews. That suspicion prompted Minnesota Vikings defensive coordinator Brian Flores, following his stint as Miami Dolphins coach, to file a still unresolved class-action lawsuit against the NFL and several teams, alleging racial discrimination and phony interviews to comply with the Rooney Rule.
Well, the evil twin is “sham” opportunities.
According to data collected as part of USA TODAY Sports’ NFL Coaches Project, since the Rooney Rule was instituted in 2003, non-white coaches have been more than three times as likely to be fired after one season (as was the case with Pierce and Mayo) than white coaches. The Rooney Rule, named after former Pittsburgh Steelers owner Dan Rooney, requires teams to interview minority candidates for head coaching jobs and other key positions.
Consider some raw numbers:
Of the 139 head coaches in the NFL since 2003, 19 (13.7%) were fired after one season in at least one of their stints.
Of the 111 white coaches during this span, 11 (9.7%) were one-and-done.
Of the 26 non-white coaches, eight (30.8%) lasted just one season.
No, don’t call it a ‘double’ standard. It’s more like minority coaches in the NFL have to endure a “triple’ standard.
And this doesn’t even account for cases where Black coaches were fired after several seasons, such as Lovie Smith and Jim Caldwell, despite posting winning records.
While there are certainly examples of teams who have embodied the spirit of the Rooney Rule, the collective rate of quickly rescinding opportunities for minority coaches is another illustration of how the league is failing on the equality front. Still.
Pierce, promoted nearly a year ago to become the Las Vegas Raiders coach after impressive impact in 2023 as interim coach (5-4), was dumped after a 4-13 finish. First-year GM Tom Telesco, by the way, has been retained.
Mayo, promoted nearly a year ago from his post as linebackers coach to succeed Bill Belichick as New England Patriots coach, was fired after a 4-13 season. It didn’t matter that Patriots owner Robert Kraft, who admitted he placed the rookie coach in an “untenable position” – inheriting a team decidedly thin on talent – created a succession plan in 2023 that contractually designated Mayo as his future coach.
Compare the Pierce and Mayo cases with that of Callahan, who just finished 3-14 in his first year as Tennessee Titans coach. Callahan, too, was a head coach for the first time. Yet the team apparently hasn’t blinked in bringing him back.
“He was a first-time head coach, and a first-time play-caller,” Chad Brinker, the Titans’ president of football operations, said Tuesday, his comments published on the team’s website. ‘There are some challenges as a first-time head coach, like building a culture, assessing current and future talent, establishing trust and communication, creating an alignment from the coaching to the front office to ownership.”
Hmmm. No knock on Callahan. Good for him. He’ll get support and more time. If only Pierce and Mayo were afforded such a luxury.
Brinker added: ‘We believe in Brian, and we want to give him the opportunity to grow into the head coach that we think he can be…It just takes time to build a program.”
Time. Ask the Detroit Lions. Dan Campbell was 3-13-1 in his first season in 2021. By sticking with Campbell and GM Brad Holmes, the Lions have reversed their pattern of futility. The past two seasons, the Lions are 29-8, including postseason, and they just clinched the No. 1 seed for the upcoming season NFC playoffs.
Look at the San Francisco 49ers. They didn’t qualify for the playoffs this season, but advanced to two Super Bowls in the previous five seasons under Kyle Shanahan. His first two seasons? They were 6-10 and 4-12. He was given time.
Pierce and Mayo, though, weren’t given much of a window, benefit of the doubt and obviously the support, to, well, grow into the job as Brinker envisions for Callahan.
Were they set up to fail? It sure looks like it. It’s fair to question whether they should have been hired in the first place if they weren’t going to get a solid commitment from Kraft and Raiders owner Mark Davis. Neither Pierce nor Mayo had worked before as coordinators. Then again, Callahan, previously the Cincinnati Bengals offensive coordinator, had never called plays before becoming a head coach. So, there’s always a certain risk in hiring unproven, first-time coaches. Regardless, time matters.
Meanwhile, the New York Giants have stuck with their first-time coach. Daboll, flanked by GM Joe Schoen, stays after a 3-14 finish in his third season. Giants co-owner John Mara talked this week about his patience wearing thin. But it’s not as thin as the patience Pierce and Mayo were not afforded.
Then there’s Carthon, fired after compiling a 9-25 record in two seasons as Titans GM. With more time, perhaps he could have matched – or exceeded – the 26-44 mark that Baalke has had in four seasons as Jacksonville Jaguars GM.
Yet he, too, is gone. Baalke survived while the Jaguars fired coach Doug Pederson, who in producing a 4-13 record in 2024 didn’t do enough with the roster Jaguars owner Shad Khan hailed as the most talented one he’s had during his ownership reign.
Until this week, speculation persisted that both Pederson and Baalke wouldn’t be back.
Had Carthon returned, he would have had the No. 1 pick overall in the upcoming NFL draft his war chest. Now that’s an asset for Brinker, who Carthon hired last year as his assistant GM.
It’s reminiscent of the fate Steve Wilks encountered during brief stint with the Arizona Cardinals in 2018. Wilks was gone before the Cardinals could use the No. 1 pick overall in 2019 on Kyler Murray.
The next Patriots coach will inherit a windfall, too, as in $95 million-plus in salary cap space in 2025 — largest in the NFL. Tough timing, I guess, that Mayo didn’t get that perk when he followed in Belichick’s footsteps.
Carthon, on the other hand, might wonder how he wound up as the odd man out after hiring Brinker and leading the search to hire Callahan just last year. Talk about weird optics. Brinker, who spent 13 years in personnel with the Green Bay Packers, came in under Carthon. Then he was fast-tracked for a promotion. Now Brinker suddenly wields the power to make the final decisions on personnel — and the authority to hire the next GM.
Given NFL trends, it’s probably a good bet that he’ll get more time to pass or fail than Carthon ever had.