At this point, the only person who should be more embarrassed than NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell is Jay-Z.
How could Jay-Z have joined an organization that’s supposed to advance social and racial justice, yet, the NFL doesn’t even practice it behind its own walls.
If the league doesn’t care about the black players that make its owners billions of dollars on the field, how in the world can those same people give a damn about all the black people in society that don’t contribute to their bank accounts?
Truth be told, they just don’t.
The NFL’s latest proposal — to incentivize minority head coach and general manager hires — is Exhibit A. The league is thinking about giving teams better draft positions if they hire minorities. Think of it as getting a coupon or free cookies as an incentive to do something you really don’t want to do.
Who’s advising these billionaires if it’s not Jay-Z?
It’s insulting.
It’s embarrassing.
Somehow, NFL executives think it’s fair to put capable black coaches in the unenviable position of appearing as though they’re not actually qualified, but have their jobs just because of the improved pick.
Lets face it: Jay-Z was bamboozled last August.
And for all the Jay-Z minions who will come to his defense and say you can’t make change if you’re not sitting at the table, just stop it. That was the war cry when many black people pushed back on Jay-Z for taking the NFL’s money despite the league’s history of treating black players horribly after their playing days were over.
The Jay-Z crowd should now ask themselves how can you supposedly be sitting “at the table” and the NFL continue to belittle and demean the same people who have made the league so popular and rich?
It can’t be justified.
Sure, the league wrote a big check, and had Goodell and Jay-Z pal around in front of the cameras. The goal? Make the NFL seem cool, hip and woke.
Please.
It was a ruse, a three-card monte game to distract black people from the NFL’s disgraceful handling of the Colin Kaepernick situation.
How could Jay-Z and that crowd expect any other results? Remember, this is the same league that had to put a rule in place to force owners to even interview black candidates for head coaching openings.
If you thought the original Rooney Rule was a disgrace, the NFL’s latest proposal to change it is worse. We might as well call it the Looney Rule. It’s crazy to think that despite playing football at such a high level, making up roughly 70 percent of the players in the league, that owners would have to be enticed to want black people in their organizations.
Clearly, the “N” in NFL stands for Nepotism. That’s how white coaches with lesser credentials and experience climb over deserving black coaches. The best example is Todd Haley, the former NFL head coach. He didn’t play football in college. He played golf. But, somehow, he got the head coaching job in Kansas City. It seems impossible that a black man could travel that same path.
But Todd was crowned because of his dad, Dick Haley — who was the director of player personnel with the Steelers and Jets.
Can you imagine if the NHL, which is roughly 97 percent white, had 97% of its coaches be black.
Would. Not. Happen.
The same goes in the NFL, which has just four minority head coaches and two black GMs.
The players can get this corrected real quick. It’s simple. All they have to do is refuse to either go to teams that draft them or sign free-agent contracts with teams that don’t give equal opportunities to black players after their playing days are over. That’s the only way you can force owners to do the right thing. You have to hurt them financially. Then it hurts.
And the notion that the NFL only cares about football and isn’t in the social issues business is totally false.
The NFL can do right and is powerful.
In 1991, the NFL took away the 1993 Super Bowl from the state of Arizona for not observing Martin Luther King Day as a holiday. Strange. That’s football? The people in that state voted against making it a paid holiday. Once they were informed by the league that the state would never get a Super Bowl without it, the people had a change of heart and voted for its passage.
And all those veterans that the NFL trots out for applause. Is that football?
The NFL received millions to be patriotic before games with giant flags and flyovers, until it was revealed by members of congress that the military paid for such patriotic displays. Shamed, the NFL returned more than $700,000. But the NFL can’t make money on the black man’s plight off the field. That’s why they aren’t interested.
Jay-Z was supposedly brought in to have a major role in the NFL’s “Inspire Change” initiative. The only change was in Jay-Z’s bank account. The NFL’s latest proposal is proof that it’s business as usual — even with Jay-Z at the table.
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