Normally an offensive coordinator who has won multiple Super Bowls rings would be fast-tracked to a head coaching job in the NFL.
But not if you’re a Black man like Eric Bieniemy, as another NFL coaching cycle ended without the Chiefs offensive coordinator hired as a head coach.
That became official this week when the Indianapolis Colts hired Eagles offensive coordinator Shane Steichen and the Arizona Cardinals hired Eagles defensive coordinator Jonathan Gannon as their coaches. Instead of being hired as a head coach, Bieniemy is considering a lateral move.
Bieniemy interviewed with the Washington Commanders on Thursday. Those talks went well, and according to ESPN, Bieniemy was hired by the Commanders on Friday to be their offensive coordinator. But Bieniemy shouldn’t have had to take another coordinator job to show he can be a head coach in the league.
Since 2018 when Bieniemy became the offensive coordinator of the Chiefs, their offense has led the NFL — or ranked second — in several key statistical categories. That includes this past season when Kansas City was first in points and total offense. During his five seasons as the Chiefs OC, Bieniemy helped quarterback Patrick Mahomes win two NFL MVPs, two Super Bowl MVPs and become a two-time All-Pro.
Many of the Chiefs players and coaches have credited Bieniemy for helping them win two Super Bowls over the last four seasons and playing in five consecutive AFC Championships. But that doesn’t appear to be enough for NFL owners to give Bieniemy a chance to prove himself as a head coach.
According to Chiefs backup QB Chad Henne, who just retired, Bienemy showed the players a clip of the Eagles game against the Jaguars from last October. During the highlighted play, Jaguars wide receiver Jamal Agnew faked like he was going in motion, but he stopped and reversed and found himself open for a touchdown. Kansas City twice used a similar play during Super Bowl LVII against Philadelphia and scored both times as they overcame a 10-point halftime deficit to win 38-35.
At this point, it is clear Bieniemy will likely never be a head coach in the NFL and that is an absolute disgrace. Clearly, the general managers and owners around the league do not want to hire Black men like Bieniemy.
Owners are OK if Black men are offensive and defensive coordinators, or position coaches. But a lot of them are not OK with a Black man being the public face of their franchise.
If owners were fine with it, Bieniemy would have been hired already. Just look at both Steichen and Gannon as they were each coordinators for the Eagles, the team that just lost the Super Bowl.
During each coaching cycle, people keep extending the goalpost when talking about everything Bieniemy needs to do before becoming a head coach in the NFL.
The biggest excuse people will use when talking about Bieniemy not becoming a head coach is that he is not the Chiefs’ primary play caller, as Chiefs coach Andy Reid calls a bulk of the plays. However, that didn’t stop NFL owners from hiring Reid disciples in the past.
For example, Doug Pederson and Matt Nagy, offensive coordinators with the Chiefs before Bieniemy, both received head coaching opportunities and they weren’t the primary play callers either. The Eagles hired Pederson in 2016 and Nagy became the Bears' coach in 2018. Pederson, who won a Super Bowl with the Eagles before being fired after the 2020 season, even got another opportunity when he became the Jaguars' coach last year.
What do Pederson and Nagy have in common? They’re both white coordinators who worked with Reid.
To add insult to injury, Joe Judge was hired as the Giants' coach in 2020 after never calling plays. He had been the special teams coordinator with the Patriots. After two seasons with Big Blue, Judge was fired after going 10-23 (.303).
Also, Matt Rhule, who had one year of NFL experience with the Giants in 2012 before becoming the Temple and Baylor coach, received a seven-year, $62 million contract from the Panthers in 2020. Rhule lasted two-and-a-half seasons before the Panthers fired him this year following a 1-4 start.
After Rhule was fired, defensive passing game coordinator and secondary coach Steve Wilks took over as the interim coach and led them to a 6-6 record the rest of the way. However, Carolina hired Frank Reich instead of making Wilks the permanent coach following the season.
Bienemy’s checkered past has been brought up as another reason owners haven’t given him keys to their franchise. As a running back coach at Colorado in 2001, police arrested Bieniemy on a DUI charge three months after he joined the football staff. He previously had his driver’s license suspended after numerous violations.
Bieniemy has also been linked to the recruiting scandal at CU where the program was alleged to have “used alcohol and sex to lure recruits,” according to ESPN in 2004.
Although owners certainly have their right to be concerned about Bieniemy’s past, he wouldn’t be the first coach to have a troubled history.
“I think there’s progress, and we’re pleased to see progress. But it’s never enough,” NFL commissioner Roger Goodell said last week about diversity in the league during his annual state of the league press conference before the Super Bowl. “We always look to sort of say, ‘How can we do better?’ ”
I don’t want to be the guy who always brings up the race card regarding coaching in the NFL, but Bieniemy has been interviewed 17 times, and he is still waiting to become an NFL head coach. Could it be that most owners don’t want to hire a Black coach? That NFL owners, who are all white except for Jacksonville Jaguars’ Shad Khan and the Buffalo Bills’ Kim Pegula, aren’t comfortable hiring someone who doesn’t look like them or doesn’t come from a similar background as them?
To paraphrase the great Jay-Z, with every step a Black man takes, society continues to have a stigma on you when you walk inside the door. So it doesn’t matter what Bieniemy has done recently because all people want to do is bring up what happened in his past.
Houston’s DeMeco Ryans was the only Black candidate to land one of the five openings during this coaching cycle and there are still only three Black coaches in the NFL for the fifth consecutive year. There are six minority coaches, including Dolphins coach Mike McDaniel, who has a Black father and identifies as biracial.
In a league in which nearly 60% of players are Black and 70% are minorities, it is a shame that Bieniemy keeps getting passed over, although, at least on paper, he checks all the boxes owners should want in a coach. Except for the fact that Bieniemy is a Black man.
