On opening night of Super Bowl week in downtown Phoenix, a peculiar crowd of reporters ignored a gallery of star players centered inside the Footprint Center and instead migrated to the corner to surround one of the Chiefs’ assistant coaches.
For over an hour, Eric Bieniemy answered questions that tiptoed around or delved deeper into the same topic – a topic that, ironically, he hasn’t been able to provide a real answer to in half a decade.
Why can’t you get a head coaching job?
The elephant in the room is the face that was staring back at them. You don’t need me to tell you that the NFL has a race problem, and if you do, me saying it won’t change your mind.
Bieniemy didn’t ask to be the face of this storyline, but it traveled and stuck with him for half a decade.
Rather than leave it behind, he is now taking it with him to the nation’s capital.
Bieniemy, given up head coaching jobs in Indianapolis, New Orleans, Denver, Atlanta, Detroit, Los Angeles, Jacksonville, New York, Houston, the other New York, Carolina, Cleveland, the first New York again, Miami, Cincinnati and Tampa Bay, is headed for a lateral move to Washington DC.
To be honest, I believe it was more than just her skin color that led to this extended journey that still doesn’t have the ending Bieniemy desires. But it’s the NFL’s racial statistics that fuel this narrative, and that’s their problem.
They got themselves into this mess – a bind in which they don’t get the benefit of the doubt – and they deserve to stay there. A league whose playing roster is 70% black employs only three black head coaches.
It’s an embarrassing statistic, and if it means that every subsequent qualified black man who’s been passed over for a more senior position — or, uh, 15 of them — draws national skepticism, criticism and scorn, that’s on them, not you or me. And I’m not going to pity them.
Truth? There are valid questions about what type of head coach Bieniemy would be – as there are for most candidates. There has never been a clear enough explanation for just what his role in Kansas City entails. This is Andy Reid’s offense, Andy Reid’s plan, and Andy Reid’s playmaking. Well, we think so. These days, teams are looking for more than a “leader of men” in their next head coach. Of course, this didn’t matter much to his predecessors.
Truth? There is a healthy skepticism that many coaches might like to pilot Andy Reid into a Patrick Mahomes-led quarterback offense. Matt Nagy and Doug Pederson both had the chance to take the leap that Bieniemy would step into next, but it was never the apples-to-apples comparison that some want. Yes, they literally played the same position under Reid, but they ran offenses that put Alex Smith at quarterback, not Patrick Mahomes. When an owner is considering potential suitability, they should at some point think about the following: Well, our offense doesn’t have THAT quarterback.
However, all new head coaching hires require some form of leap of faith, and NFL owners have been more willing to trust men who look like them. This is what the numbers not only suggest but demonstrate.
It is therefore black men – the Eric Bieniemy – who must prove themselves a little more than their counterparts. Or much more than their counterparts.
While acknowledging the shortcomings of Bieniemy’s CV, the real problem is that most applicants are not required to check each box. The NFL’s racial problem is often seen too simplistically as holding minorities down. But often also, it is the absence of recovery.
They are not the subjects of these leaps of faith, but rather the ones who are jumped over and over again.
An offensive coordinator for a two-time Super Bowl champion who never hesitated to reach at least the AFC Championship Game can’t find a promotion, and believe me, he’s traveled the country to find one. His offenses have never been ranked lower than third in Football Outsiders’ overall DVOA rankings.
So Bieniemy must leave a job on the best team in football for the same job on a team that has made the playoffs once in the last seven seasons — all to prove what many owners would likely consider he already proved in Kansas City if he had a different skin color.
I don’t know if Bieniemy will be a good head coach. I know he has a reputation for not interviewing well – that he doesn’t always say the right thing. I also know there are worse paths to head coaching jobs.
But black men have to get through each hoop, not just the biggest ones or those with the best organizational fit. That’s essentially what Bieniemy gave himself by moving to the East Coast: the chance to overcome a few extra hurdles that only exist for people like him. This will be his attack on Washington, his plan and his strategy. And he won’t have Patrick Mahomes as his quarterback.
If he succeeds, so what? Do more hoops await you on the other side?
Part of the problem is the NFL’s unwillingness to admit the severity of the problem — the extent to which race plays a role in this job, in general manager jobs, even in jobs within its own organization. media empire.
This is what creates not only immediate skepticism, but also long-term distrust – because while there is ultimately a real, behind-closed-doors rationale for leaving Bieniemy out of the 32 club, there is no rationale for having just three black men in that club.
The NFL suffers the consequences of these numbers until they correct them.
We should applaud Bieniemy for trying a new path. He chooses ambition over the ring collection coming to KC. And the next time he’s interviewed for a head coaching job, those on the other side of the table should trust actions over words.
This is a sign that he is extremely confident in his own abilities.
And there is something to be said about that.
He’s doing what NFL owners won’t do: taking a leap of faith in Eric Bieniemy.
Sam McDowell is a columnist for The Star who has covered Kansas City sports for more than a decade. He has won national awards for his columns, reporting and corporate work. The Headliner Awards named him the 2024 National Sports Columnist of the Year.
