After wide receivers Stedman Bailey, Tavon Austin, Chris Givens and Kenny Britt and tight end Jared Cook displayed the “Hands Up, Don’t shoot” pose during their pregame introduction before a home contest against the Oakland Raiders last year, a firestorm of controversy erupted.
The St. Louis Police Officers Association and other groups demanded an apology. Several radio stations that were affiliates on the Rams Radio Network wanted to drop the team’s games.
Some so-called fans still hold a grudge for the act of free speech and are quick to label African-American Rams players “thugs” when they incur late-hit or unsportsmanlike conduct penalties.
This is ironic, because the Rams, who shocked the defending NFC Champion Seattle Seahawks 34-31 in overtime on Sunday, are one of the NFL’s blackest teams – and this is in a league in which the majority of players are black.
On Sunday, nine of 11 Rams starters on one of the NFL’s best defenses were black. Maybe somewhat surprisingly, eight of 11 offensive starters are African-American. Two of the Rams’ white offensive starters, quarterback Nick Foles and center Tim Barnes, play what are statistically the whitest positions in the NFL.
According to the 2015 NFL Racial and Gender Report Card by The Institute for Diversity and Ethics in Sport (TIDES), 68.7 percent of NFL players are African-American. The number of white players decreased from 31 percent in 2013 to 28.6 percent in 2014.
Of 32 teams, five have black head coaches. Todd Bowles was the lone black coach hired after the 2014 season when the New York Jets chose him to replace Rex Ryan.
Bowles, who won his first game as Jets coach last Sunday, joins Marvin Lewis of the Cincinnati Bengals, Jim Caldwell of the Detroit Lions, Mike Tomlin of the Pittsburgh Steelers and Lovie Smith of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
There is one other head coach of color, Carolina’s Ron Rivera. The highest number of coaches of color in the NFL is eight in 2011.
Other highlights of the report include:
There are seven African-American general managers in 2015, the ninth consecutive year with at least five GMs who are people of color.
Seven out of the last 16 Super Bowl teams have had either an African-American head coach or general manager. The coaches were Tomlin (Steelers, twice) and Caldwell (Colts). The GMs were Jerry Reese (Giants, twice), Rod Graves (Cardinals) and Ozzie Newsome (Ravens).
NFL vice presidents of color increased from 11.5 percent in 2014 to 13.7 percent in 2015.
The percentage of women at the management level in the NFL increased from 29.6 percent in 2014 to an all-time high of 30.3 percent in 2015.
Senior administrative positions held by people of color jumped from 16.2 percent in 2014 to 19.3 percent in 2015.
The NFL also hired its first female referee, Sarah Thomas, who worked the Kansas City Chiefs at Houston Texans game.
Alvin A. Reid is a panelist on KETC channel 9’s most-popular show “Donnybrook,” and is also a radio commentator and author.
