nfl research proposal - wayne state (freshman year)

19
20 April 2016 African Americans in National Football League Executive & Managerial Work: A Review and Proposal Okpalefe Edevbie, Wayne State University

Upload: okpalefe-edevbie

Post on 09-Feb-2017

18 views

Category:

Documents


1 download

TRANSCRIPT

Page 1: NFL Research Proposal - Wayne State (Freshman Year)

20 April 2016

African Americans in National Football League Executive & Managerial Work:A Review and Proposal

Okpalefe Edevbie, Wayne State University

Page 2: NFL Research Proposal - Wayne State (Freshman Year)

Preface

My research will take a close look at minority workers in the National Football League

(NFL), and their standing within the community as players, coaches, and executives. Its purpose

is to reveal and shed light on any potential racial biases in the league, and how they might work

in favor or against certain races and ethnicities. Narratives about racial discrimination in sport

have played themselves out in the media and into the public spotlight. Such narratives have

grown awareness for the issue and have put pressure on high-ranking sport officials to make

changes. By better understanding possible racial tensions and discriminatory practices, the NFL

and other concerned or related parties can more effectively work towards achieving equality for

its minority members. And by continuing the conversation of institutionalized racism, the sport

management discourse community as a whole can find, propose, and enact solutions.

For the past couple decades (extending back into the early to mid-1900s), the United

States has made significant progress towards ending racially discriminatory practices - Brown

vs. Board of Education, the 60s Civil Rights Movement, and the Montgomery Bus Boycott are

just a few examples. As a country, we have taken a stand against racism and its unjust nature.

That being said, we are still far away from achieving an ideal level of equality. Institutionalized

racism in the workplace (and in this case, the NFL) is one area of concern. I am aiming to draw

out and bring light to this concern, and hopefully, provide a solution to the problem.

This paper will start with a literature review, analyzing the potential racial rifts in NFL

hiring practices. The paper will end with the proposal of a comprehensive research study, along

with a description of its methods, limitations, and implications.

Page 3: NFL Research Proposal - Wayne State (Freshman Year)

Literature Review

Introduction

The National Football League has an unfortunate history with racism and discrimination

towards black and minority1 workers, dating back to “1934 to 1946 [when] blacks were excluded

from the labor force,” (Lomax 1999, p. 165). The NFL made its first baby steps toward racial

equality in 1946 with the signing of Kenny Washington to the Los Angeles Rams, who ended the

12-year absence of black players (Britannica 2014).

Since then, we have seen some major triumphs for African American football figures.

Doug Williams became the first African American starting quarterback to win a Super Bowl in

1988 and Tony Dungy became the first African American head coach to win a Super Bowl in

2007.

It does not seem, however, that these accomplishments have truly changed the

landscape for minority players in the NFL. There are few African Americans and minorities in

executive positions in the NFL - including head coaches, coordinators, general managers,

presidents, and etc. After the firing of Lovie Smith in January 2016, only four African American

head coaches remained in the NFL2 - which equates to 12.5% of the entire league. However,

African Americans make up 68.7% of the NFL (Lapchick & Robinson 2015). To the average

person, this might seem disproportionate and out of whack.

While trying to find solutions and answers to this perplexing dilemma, I asked myself two

questions: Does the NFL perpetuate institutionalized racism? And if it is confirmed that it does,

how and in what ways?

Within any field of sport management - which is defined by Brenda G. Pitts and David K.

Stotlar in “Fundamentals of Sport Marketing” as “the study and practice of all people, activities,

1 With the primary focus of this literature review being on African Americans, the terms “black” and “minority” are often used interchangeably and in tandem. However, all minority groups were taken into consideration and thought of during the composition of this paper.2 Hue Jackson was subsequently hired by the Cleveland Browns, increasing the number back to five.

Page 4: NFL Research Proposal - Wayne State (Freshman Year)

businesses, or organizations involved in producing, facilitating, or organizing any sport-related

business or product,” (Pitts & Stotlar, p. 4) - it is important to evaluate hiring practices as a

potential area of discrimination and injustice.

Hiring Practices

Like any field of work, hiring/admissions practice protocol is an area of business that is

subject to scrutiny when it comes to the issue of racism and discrimination. The NFL (and any

other professional sports league for that matter) is no different. With sports, the act of hiring

personnel can be looked at in two parts. The first is through the traditional lens, or the average

American business recruitment/hiring process, which deals with the typical job interview (i.e. the

printed out resume, the discussion of goals and objectives, and etc.). In the area of sport

management, this involves executives and non-player professionals (i.e. coaches, general

managers). The second is through an arena unique to professional sports - the sports drafts and

free agency. A team drafting a certain player in a certain round is the equivalent of getting hired

- but it is a hiring practice in which the athlete has little to no say (outside of unique cases that

include athletes such as Eli Manning or John Elway3, the player has minimal leverage and

power in deciding which sports team/organization that they initially work for). The free agency

aspect is much more indicative and relatable to common hiring practices in the business world,

as the workers (players) have more of an equal say - they seek out employment, and based on

their credentials and background, the employer (sports team) will be willing to hire the worker for

a certain rate/salary/contract.

A significant question in the sports world and in the NFL is if these hiring practice

protocols are influenced and altered by a candidate’s race. A point argued by Brian W. Collins

about the hiring of coaches in “Tackling Unconscious Bias in Hiring Practices: The Plight of the

3 After refusing to play for the teams that drafted them, both Eli Manning and John Elway were able to parlay their way onto different teams, by way of trade.

Page 5: NFL Research Proposal - Wayne State (Freshman Year)

Rooney Rule,” is that “The NFL's longstanding hiring practices and networking systems have

consistently allowed front-office decision makers to avoid interacting with qualified African

American candidates,” (Collins 2007, p.872). Like many fields of work, African Americans have

little history in executive and leadership roles in pro sports and in the NFL. Embedded within the

NFL’s history is a systemic issue for black managerial candidates. While African Americans

have tried to break into the executive industry, it is one primarily composed of caucasian and

non-minority members - who have historically hired and recruited caucasian and non-minority

members. As referred to as “‘old boy’ networks” by Collins, “these networks tend to reinforce

traditional power structures by limiting hiring practices and/ or business transactions to other

elites or acquaintances within the network,” (Collins 2007, p. 876). Essentially, this ‘old boy’

network has thrived due to the idea of “unconscious bias,” (Collins 2007) - meaning that

individuals tend to hire and associate themselves with individuals who are similar (in this case, it

is similarity based off appearance and race).

It is important to note that the National Football League has recognized the problem to

an extent, and has taken steps to help remedy the situation. In 2003, the league implemented

the Rooney Rule - a mandate that requires all NFL teams with head coaching vacancies to

interview at least one minority candidate for the position. While the Rooney Rule seems to come

from good intentions, Christopher I. Rider, James B. Wade, Anand Swaminathan, and Andreas

Schwab assess in their piece “Racial disparity in leadership: Performance-reward bias in

promotions of National Football League coaches,” that the rule is “a distraction from more

fundamental lower-level mechanisms that shape racial disparities in leadership,” (Rider, Wade,

Swaminathan & Schwab 2016, p. 7).

Rider and his team point out two issues - 1) Black/minority coaches are pigeonholed into

entry coaching positions that do not have great promotion prospects and 2) The typical white

candidate is much more likely to receive a promotion over any of his black peers. When

discussing the first issue, the authors noted that “black coaches are generally more likely than

Page 6: NFL Research Proposal - Wayne State (Freshman Year)

white coaches to begin their NFL coaching careers in positions with low prospects for upward

mobility (e.g., DL4, RB5) while white coaches more often begin their NFL careers in positions

with better prospects (e.g., DC6, OC7, QB8),” (Rider, Wade, Swaminathan & Schwab 2016, p.

27). This note seems to suggest that white coaches are immediately put on a better career

trajectory when they start out as coaches - a trajectory that can take them to an executive

position (i.e. head coach). Conversely, black coaches seem to face much worse job prospects,

and are more likely to remain at or very close to their starting level (as a position coach or

coordinator). This information leads the authors into their second issue, which is based around

the study’s central idea of performance-reward bias, or the favoring of one candidate over the

other despite two similar performances. The authors, using statistics from their models and

tables find that a “white coach’s promotion likelihood is [1.56 to 1.74] times higher than an

observationally-equivalent black coach’s likelihood,” (Rider, Wade, Swaminathan & Schwab

2016, p. 31-32). This equation seems to establish and confirm a systematic problem - not only

are white coaches being put into optimal position early in their careers, these same coaches are

being rewarded over black/minority coaches for essentially the same performance.

This trend seems particularly perplexing when evaluating the performance of white and

black coaches when it comes to their head coaching track records. In “Differences in the

Success of NFL coaches by Race, 1990-2002: Evidence of Last Hire, First Fire,” author Janice

Fanning Madden takes an in depth look at the performance of black head coaches vs. white

head coaches, and found data that suggests that black coaches outperform white coaches

when given the opportunity to become a head coach. As written by Madden, “between 1990 and

2002, African American coaches averaged 9.1 wins and White coaches averaged 8 wins …

[and] sixty-nine percent of teams coached by African American coaches made the playoff, but

4 Defensive Line Coach5 Running Backs Coach6 Defensive Coordinator 7 Offensive Coordinator8 Quarterbacks Coach

Page 7: NFL Research Proposal - Wayne State (Freshman Year)

only 40% of those with White coaches did,” (Madden 2004). These findings by Madden show

that black coaches have performed consistently better than their white counterparts in head

coaching roles (when they actually do have the opportunity to have them). While the stereotype

of “black head coaches are more successful than white head coaches” should be avoided, the

fact that black coaches have done very well in their limited head coaching opportunities should

be noted and highlighted. Combined with the results of “Racial disparity in leadership,” it is clear

that performance is not (or should not be) a negative factor working against African American

coaches.

The heavy presence of older white male executives - such as the white head coach or

general manager - in the National Football League has also caused a racial rift when it comes to

the hiring of league workers, or the professional athletes. In a study done by Mikaela J. Dufur

and Seth L. Feinberg called “Race and the NFL Draft: Views from the Auction Block,” the author

dives into the hiring conventions of the NFL combine and draft, discovering that there seems to

be a preferential treatment and handling of white candidates than that of their minority

counterparts after interviewing several players who attended the combine.

With white executives leading the way and running the show, “many of the minority

players [Dufur and Feinberg] spoke with had been subjected to more thorough investigations of

potential deviant behavior in their families and their backgrounds than their white peers

reported. Several minority workers described conversations in which their girlfriends were asked

about [possible domestic abuse] … [and] they were also quizzed in detail about relatives who

may have been jailed or involved with drug problems. None of the white players [Dufur and

Feinberg] interviewed reported the same experience,” (Dufur & Feinberg 2008, p. 61). The

information Dufur and Feinberg found suggests that minority and black players were judged and

evaluated on a different criteria than that of their white colleagues - possibly stemming from a

misunderstanding and ignorance to minority cultures.

Page 8: NFL Research Proposal - Wayne State (Freshman Year)

Conclusion and Proposal

This literature review sought to highlight some of the bigger racial disparities in the

National Football League (NFL) in relation to the institution’s hiring practices. Close study of the

league’s hiring practices reveal that there is likely a systematic problem when it comes to the

hiring and promotion of African American and minority candidates, as white candidates seemed

to be hired on a preferential standard and under a different set of criteria.

There have been many suggestions made and actions taken to alleviate the NFL’s race

issue (i.e. the Rooney Rule), but I’ll choose to focus on one partially inspired by Dufur and

Feinberg in “Race and the NFL Draft” for this conclusion. The authors make the claim that “the

NFL will continue to employ symbolic racism until the racial composition of those who own and

operate the professional football teams is diversified,” (Dufur & Feinberg 2008, p. 69). With this

in mind, I propose a qualitative research study and survey about underlying racism and

discrimination in the NFL. I hypothesize that this study will render certain results and come to

certain conclusions - results and conclusions that confirm that there is institutionalized racism in

the NFL. If this hypothesis is true, I suggest that the NFL take an important step towards

bettering race relations by investigating the possibility of a minority executive/administrator

developmental program, one in which minority candidates are put on a career path and guided

towards executive positions in the league.

Methodology

With all of this in mind, I propose a research survey and study that will seek to shed

more light on racism in the NFL and give power to NFL employees who have been marginalized

in their field of work.

The first part of the initiative will be a survey administered to every NFL player, coach,

management executive and league executive. The league’s top executives (such as

commissioner Roger Goodell) would ideally be the ones to oversee the project - as it should be

Page 9: NFL Research Proposal - Wayne State (Freshman Year)

hoped that the most important and high-ranking NFL officials have some concern of their league

potentially (and most probably) fostering racism and discrimination. The survey would offer a

range of questions (short-answer, true/false, etc.) asking NFL employees about their thoughts

on racism in the workplace, and more specifically, in the NFL. Questions would run along the

lines of “Do you believe there is proportional representation of minorities in NFL executive

positions (i.e. head coach, general manager)” and “If no, do you believe this holds the NFL back

from being as efficient as a workplace as it can be?” The questions are geared towards

unnerving and surfacing NFL employees’ attitudes about race. Overall, the survey would aim to

gain applicable information about racism in the NFL.

The second part of the initiative would be a research study, looking to piggyback off and

continue the work of the authors in this paper’s literature review. The study would entail the

further willingness of participation from NFL general managers, other front office executives,

and NFL team owners and would primarily focus on those who have a significant role in hiring a

team’s head and assistant coaches. A list of popular potential head coaching candidates would

be generated, based off the opinions of these executives and also NFL media personnel, who

are in constant contact with these executives. Once the list is generated, the coaches on the list

would be examined by race and performance. The next step would be to go back to these NFL

executives and ask why they believed these heading coaching candidates should be considered

for NFL head coaching vacancies, in an interview type style. Overall, the study would aim to find

the characteristics NFL executives look for in head coaching candidates (whether it is race,

performance, or etc.). To control for possibly untruthful or disingenuous responses, the

participants would not be told that the study would be used in an institutionalized racism case

study.

The survey portion would ideally be conducted sometime during the NFL offseason,

most likely during the beginning of training camp, when rosters have not been cut down on

players and there are more participants available (increasing the sample size). The survey could

Page 10: NFL Research Proposal - Wayne State (Freshman Year)

be administered at any given NFL facility or team headquarters. The research study portion

would ideally be conducted sometime during the NFL regular season, when possible head

coaching vacancies are being discussed and an assistant coach’s season performance can

start to be thoroughly analyzed.

Discussion

Though I believe this proposed research study and survey could play a significant role in

adding to the conversation of racism in the NFL, there are some limitations that should be

noted. The proposal requires and is predicated on full cooperation with the National Football

League, and in a professional league that is so inclusive, it is somewhat concerning as to

whether or not the league would allow the type of access necessary for the success of this

qualitative study. The study is also dependent on the truthful and unbiased response of several

hundred participants, which might be particularly difficult to achieve in the survey portion. NFL

players - black, white, Hispanic, Polynesian, and etc. - are asked and questioned on race in

their workplace very often. It is very possible that they have been pre-conditioned to give certain

responses and certain answers to certain types of questions. With the survey being so upfront

about race, it might sway a participant's answers one way or another (this, of course, could be

minimized by the careful wording and outlining of survey questions). Perhaps the biggest

limitation of the study (as it relates back to the first concern), is that the NFL’s participation and

cooperation would essentially mean that they agree that there is some type of problem of

institutionalized racism in their company. For an institution so heavily in the public eye, the NFL

may conclude that any type of participation would generate a bad public image for the league.

However, if the NFL does decide to fully engage in the proposal, I anticipate that the

results rendered will call for a more drastic initiative. Based off the studies outlined in the

literature review, I have no reason to believe that my proposal will conclude with different

results. It is more probable that not that there is significant institutionalized racism in the NFL. In

Page 11: NFL Research Proposal - Wayne State (Freshman Year)

an ideal scenario, the NFL would fully recognize this and decide to take a significant step

towards ending it.

I further propose a NFL executive developmental program, in which minority assistant

coaches could be put on a path to a NFL head coaching role. In this affirmative action program,

qualified minority coaches would have the opportunity to apply, and if accepted, they would

learn about the several ins and outs of NFL head coaching from former NFL head coaches9. In

this course-like setting, the former NFL head coaches (the instructors) would have an

opportunity to refer their top “pupils” to NFL teams searching for head coaches. Overall, the

program would give minority and black coaches more of a chance to showcase their aptitude for

being a NFL head coach. A similar program could even be started for minority candidates

looking to become NFL general managers, vice presidents, and etc.

The aforementioned qualitative study and survey and the executive development

program, again, will only work if the NFL chooses to face its problem with institutionalized

racism head-on. It is time to stop running around and avoiding this issue. It is time for change.

9 The NFL already helps conduct a “media bootcamp” in which players nearing the end of their playing careers are given the opportunity to learn skills necessary to be successful in sports media. The proposed executive developmental program is partially inspired by this.

Page 12: NFL Research Proposal - Wayne State (Freshman Year)

Works Cited

Collins, B. W. (2007). Tackling unconscious bias in hiring practices: The plight of the Rooney

rule. New York University Law Review, 82(3), 870–912. Retrieved from

http://www.nyulawreview.org/issues/volume-82-number-3/tackling-unconscious-bias-hiring-

practices-plight-rooney-rule#sthash.QJjwspkK.dpuf

Dufur, M. J., & Feinberg, S. L. (2008). Race and the NFL draft: Views from the auction block.

Qualitative Sociology, 32(1), 53–73. doi:10.1007/s11133-008-9119-8

The Editors of Encyclopædia Britannica (2014). Kenny Washington | American football player.

In Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved from http://www.britannica.com/biography/Kenny-

Washington

Lapchick, R., & Robinson, L. (2015, September). The 2015 Racial and Gender Report Card:

National Football League. Retrieved from

http://nebula.wsimg.com/91f862c7e055dd1842f9ceb52428ae2c?

AccessKeyId=DAC3A56D8FB782449D2A&disposition=0&alloworigin=1

Lomax, M. E. (1999). The African American experience in professional football. Journal of

Social History, 33(1), 163–178. doi:10.1353/jsh.1999.0017

Madden, J. F. (2004). Differences in the success of NFL coaches by race, 1990-2002: Evidence

of last hire, First fire. Journal of Sports Economics, 5(1), 6–19.

Pitts, B. G., & Stotlar, D. K. (2013). Fundamentals of sport marketing. United States: Fitness

Information Technology, Inc, U.S.

Rider, C. I., Wade, J., Swaminathan, A., & Schwab, A. (2016). Racial disparity in leadership:

Performance-reward bias in promotions of national football league coaches. SSRN

Electronic Journal. doi:10.2139/ssrn.2710398