LAS VEGAS — While another NFL season has ended, the work of the Fritz Pollard Alliance continues, though the challenge to combat racism and advocate for a level playing field in the National Football League has become more complex.
The Alliance was formed in 2003 to push the NFL to support the rise of Black quarterbacks and put African Americans in the pipeline to become head coaches and front office executives. During Super Bowl week, the Alliance hosted its 19th luncheon, the theme of which was the emergence of the Black quarterback. The panel was moderated by former NFL executive Michael Huyghue. The panelists were James “Shack” Harris, Doug Williams and NFL commissioner Roger Goodell.
In 1969, Harris became the first Black quarterback to start a regular season NFL game; in 1988, Williams famously became the first Black quarterback to lead his team to a Super Bowl victory and the first to be named Super Bowl MVP. Goodell, neither Black nor a quarterback, represented the NFL office, which over the years has supported many of the Alliance’s diversity initiatives.
For a younger generation, the idea that there ever was resistance to African Americans playing quarterback seems like science fiction, and without the benefit of history, who could blame them?
Ethan Miller/Getty Images
On Sunday, the world watched Kansas City’s Patrick Mahomes win his third Super Bowl title and his third Super Bowl MVP. Two days before the Super Bowl, Lamar Jackson, the Baltimore Ravens’ explosive quarterback, collected his second league MVP award and C.J. Stroud, the Houston Texans’ dynamic quarterback, was voted Offensive Rookie of the Year.
Last season, both Super Bowl quarterbacks were Black — Jalen Hurts of the Philadelphia Eagles and Mahomes. The first three players chosen in last year’s draft were African American quarterbacks and two African American quarterbacks are expected to be selected among the top three picks this year as well.
That chapter of the Black quarterback’s struggle is closed, not because of altruism but because NFL teams need the skill set the way they need wide receivers, running backs, linebackers and nearly every other position on the field.
“I believe that it’s in the best interest of the league to identify its best talent, whether it’s on the field or on the sideline or in the office,” said Rod Graves, executive director of the Fritz Pollard Alliance. “We are a better league if we’re giving opportunities to those that we feel like are the best at what they do.”
All true, but NFL teams have not been convinced that Black head coaches and African American executives are as essential for success as players. Graves understands the point.
“It’s different on the player’s side because at the end of the day, these owners want to win,” said Graves. “And so, it’s easy for them to make that calculation as far as players are concerned, but it’s not necessarily the same equation for executives and coaches. In order for that to change, we’ve got to change the culture under which we’re operating today.”
The Alliance faces the same challenges in football that many civil rights organizations face outside of sport: How to combat the conservative wave of resistance that seeks to roll back hard-won gains we thought were protected.
Last June 2023, the Supreme Court super majority all but ended race-based affirmative action in higher education in the Students for Fair Admissions case. The decision was, in some ways, a declaration of war on all Diversity, Equity and Inclusion initiatives and the departments designed to implement them.
In the lead-up to the Super Bowl, the Rooney Rule became a target of conservative backlash.
“There’s a whole anti-DEI movement. They are intimidating different sports leagues. They’re bullying sports leagues.”
– Cyrus Mehri
Last week, the America First Legal, a nonprofit founded by Stephen Miller, a former adviser to President Donald Trump, filed a federal civil rights complaint against the NFL. The complaint contends that the Rooney Rule is illegal because it violates Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act. That provision prohibits employment discrimination based on race, religion, national origin, color and sex, including gender, gender identity and sexual orientation.
In a recent interview with the Washington Post, New York University law professor Kenji Yoshino said that the Rooney Rule, because of the 2023 Supreme Court ruling, was vulnerable. Yoshino directs the Meltzer Center for Diversity, Inclusion, and Belonging. The center grades levels of risk by assigning colors: “green,” “yellow” and “red” with red being the riskiest. Yoshino told The Post that the Rooney rule “is squarely in the yellow zone,” because hiring managers are allowed to consider race and gender as part of the hiring criteria.
The Rooney Rule was established in 2003 and requires that NFL teams interview ethnic and racial minorities for head coaching and senior football operations positions before making a hire.
My problem with the well-meaning rule is that, over time, teams perfected workarounds that allowed them to use the rule for their benefit. It gave them cover to continue business as usual: They interviewed Black candidates in order to check a box, then with the box checked, they were able to hire whomever they wanted.
The conservatives are going after the rule because the rule benefits Africans Americans by attempting to level the playing field. “Attacks on the Rooney Rule are misguided,” Graves said. “The Rooney Rule is necessary and a constant reminder of the level playing field we are trying to achieve.”
The Alliance must not only continue to refine the Rooney Rule but protect it. This is a fight that the NFL and the Fritz Pollard Alliance must fight together.
“There’s a whole anti-DEI movement,” said Cyrus Mehri, who co-founded the Fritz Pollard alliance in 2003 with Johnnie Cochran. “They are intimidating different sports leagues. They’re bullying sports leagues.”
The work of the Alliance must continue to evolve and expand. The same racist resistance that stopped Black people from playing football and discouraged them from playing certain positions is now declaring war on programs designed to right wrongs of the past.
Black quarterbacks can now take care of themselves. The Fritz Pollard Alliance has steeper mountains to climb.
