Seahawks coach Pete Carroll reportedly called out NFL owners during last week’s league’s meetings, saying that the hiring of minority coaching candidates won’t improve until owners accept that there are capable candidates different than themselves, according to ESPN’s Adam Schefter.
Carroll reportedly spoke for about 10 minutes during a meeting between the league’s coaches and general managers last Tuesday. In an impassioned speech, the Seattle coach said that policies geared at increasing the number of minority coaching candidates will not be enough until the owners fundamentally change their approach and mindset to the hiring process.
“He just went off,” an anonymous source told Schefter of Carroll’s comments. “He was saying, you can do anything but until owners get to know these candidates before the actual interviews and understand that they have to hire people who are different than them, it’s not going to really change.”
Schefter also reported that owners “weren’t happy” when they learned of Carroll’s speech.
The Seahawks coach’s comments came just a day after the NFL instituted a new policy, requiring that all 32 teams hire a minority offensive assistant coach for the 2022 season. Additionally, the league added women to the language of the Rooney Rule.
Alongside the two changes geared at increasing diversity at the NFL’s leadership levels, the 32 owners released a joint statement, voicing their support for an increase in diversity among ownership.
“The NFL member clubs support the important goal of increasing diversity among ownership,” the statement said. “Accordingly, when evaluating a prospective ownership group of a member club pursuant to League policies, the membership will regard it as a positive and meaningful factor if the group includes diverse individuals who would have a significant equity stake in and involvement with the club, including serving as the controlling owner of the club.”
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