Recently NFL commissioner Roger Goodell made a statement condemning racism and the systemic oppression of Black people, which many thought was too little, too late. While the commissioner wants people to believe the NFL is quite diverse, studies show otherwise. Below is a comparison of the diversity that exists in the Seattle Seahawks and Arizona Cardinals organizations, which we decided to run in honor of Juneteenth.
Juneteenth is a holiday celebrated on June 19 throughout the United States as the day the last remaining slaves, located in Texas, were actually emancipated. Many companies are now allowing employees the day off to honor the holiday. Cardinals owner Michael Bidwill recently announced that Juneteenth would be a permanent paid team holiday for Arizona, in order for the franchise to “reflect on the history of civil rights in the United States and how we can all work together for a much better future.” The Seahawks will be observing the day off as well.
Second of all, I will analyze the diversity of the Cardinals and Seahawks starting from 2013 when the NFL first started publishing the NFL Diversity and Inclusion Report. The three categories we will look at will be: Players, General Managers, and Head Coaches.
Players: Seahawks Win
According to The Institute for Diversity and Ethics in Sports the percentage of people of color on NFL player rosters was 70.1% in 2019. In 2013, the percentage was 69.9%. As we know, the percentage of Black quarterbacks has been low for years, but in 2019 things started to change with the reigning MVP being a Black quarterback in Patrick Mahomes, the highest-paid player in league history is a Black QB in Russell Wilson, the No. 1 overall draft pick is a Black signal-caller named Kyler Murray and the reigning MVP, QB Lamar Jackson, is also Black.
I will be analyzing the starting quarterbacks that Arizona has had since 2013 and compare them to the Cardinal’s NFC West rival, the Seahawks. For simplicity, I will be using only two ethnicity markers including W for white or caucasian and POC to denote a person of color, which for our analysis indicates anyone who doesn’t fall under the W category.
As a note, while many label Sam Bradford as White, he is a citizen of the Cherokee Nation and thus considered POC. As the charts below indicate, the Cardinals have had two starting quarterbacks who were POC with Kyler Murray entering his second season as a starter. That means the Cardinals have had a POC starting at quarterback in 28.6% of their last seven seasons. Two of the six players to start (33.3%) have been POC and 19 of 112 regular-season games (17.0%) have been started by a quarterback who is POC.
The Seahawks, however, are the most diverse with Russel Wilson starting since his rookie season in 2012. That means Seattle has 100% of starting quarterbacks who were POC.
General Managers: Cardinals Win by Default
Both the Cardinals and the Seahawks have had the same general managers since 2013 and both are white. The Cardinals have Steve Keim, and the Seahawks have John Schneider.
However, the Cardinals had a Black general manager in Rod Graves for 10 seasons prior to Keim. The Seahawks don’t have any POC as GM during the same time, so the Cardinals pull away with a victory on diversity here.
Head Coaches: Cardinals Win by Default
The last category is head coaches. The NFL’s 2020 Diversity and Inclusion Report shows POC are still not being hired at the same rates as caucasians for head coach, offensive coordinator, and defensive coordinator positions.
The Cardinals win this round by default. While they do have 14.3% of their head coaches since 2013 being POC, it was only one person Steve Wilks who was fired after just one season and replaced with Kliff Kingsbury, who many didn’t believe was qualified for the position.
As many know, the head coach for the Seahawks has been Pete Carroll who has held that position since 2010.
While there are many factors that could contribute to these statistics, the point that is crystal clear is both teams need to do better overall. For the Seahawks, they nailed having a POC QB at the helm since 2012, while the Cardinals had a little less than 30% of POC as a starting quarterback.
Both teams, however, seemed to have failed since 2013 to give a POC a chance at either a head coach or general manager position. While Arizona “won” the category of POC head coach, the Cardinals’ unwillingness to keep Steve Wilks on for longer than one season doesn’t sit well. It is noteworthy, though, that two of the Cardinals’ lead front office positions under Keim are Black men – director of player personnel Quentin Harris and pro scouting director Adrian Wilson.
People will make the argument for Carroll and his great track record winning games and a Super Bowl by saying don’t fix it if it isn’t broken. I am not disagreeing that Carroll is a highly skilled coach, my point is simply that it doesn’t seem like POC have had as many opportunities to be a head coach or general manager as white individuals. This isn’t an indictment, it is a piece to simply make you take a moment to think about it.
And while you are at it, take some time to think if you can name any women who have been given the opportunity to be general managers and head coaches in the NFL. I’ll wait in the comments.
