Marvin Lewis made it crystal clear he’s not a fan of tying draft position in the NFL to hiring minority coaches.
There’s a proposal to boost the draft position of teams who hire minority head coaches and executives. A team could move up six spots in the third round for hiring a minority coach. (RELATED: David Hookstead Is The True King In The North When It Comes To College Football)
According to @JimTrotter_NFL there is a #NFL proposal trying to incentivize hiring minority coaching & GM candidates by rewarding teams with improved draft slots. #Chargers HC Anthony Lynn told @ZachGelb, “Sometimes you can do the wrong thing while trying to do the right thing.” pic.twitter.com/EWGxJ0B005
— CBS Sports Radio (@CBSSportsRadio) May 16, 2020
In case you were wondering, the former Bengals coach isn’t impressed at all. He told the Baltimore Sun about the proposal, “It was offensive, definitely offensive. It was like having Jim Crow laws.”
Jim Crow laws were infamously used to oppress black Americans in the Deep South.
Yeah, that’s a mic drop moment for sure. There’s no other way to sum it up. I couldn’t agree more with Lewis when it comes to whether or not the proposal is offensive.
It’s wildly stupid to tie draft position to hiring minority coaches. As Tony Dungy pointed out, it’s going to create problems within the building and coaches will never know if they were hired for being great or because draft position mattered more.
All the way around, it’s offensive to minority coaches to think they need the league’s help to get hired and it’s just stupid overall.
Do you know what matters in the NFL? Winning. It’s really the only thing that matters. If a coach wins, he will hang around. If not, then he’ll be shown the exit.
The idea an NFL team would rather lose than hire a minority coach is so dumb that it honestly hurts my brain.
Props to Lewis for giving fans an unfiltered take on the situation. Something tells me he’s far from alone in his thought process.