The National Football League is Not Diverse, Equitable, or Inclusive

As the news broke about former Miami Dolphin's coach Ryan Flores filed a class action lawsuite againt the NFL regarding its discrimination practices, it spread across all media outlets making the national news. The National Football League being as big as it is, this news made a significant leap into the news of the day - news at the heart of the matter exposing the NFL's failure to be more diverse, equitable, and inclusive.

This news also came at the beginnings of Black History Month. Not ironic at all, but a concerted effort to bring attention to an issue in the NFL that was supposed to have been addressed years ago. There is a rule called the Rooney Rule in the league created to change the look of the leaders, the faces of the NFL, most of the team owners either ignored or evaded. Here is the league now being forced to address its lack of diversity, equity, and inclusion.

When we take a look at the National Basketball Association for example, we see how the NBA has been able to be a model citizen in regards to diversity, equity, and inclusion. Michael Jordan is Black man who owns a team, many of the coaches in the NBA are Black, and if we look at gender, there are women who are on staff or will become coaches in the NBA soon. This is what practicing DE&I looks like. Why can't the NFL learn from the NBA?

However, if we take a look back at what happened to Colin Kaepernick, the former quarterback of the San Francisco Forty Niners, we should not be surprised at all that the NFL is facing a lawsuit. The way he was treated, especially by owners, is a testament to how the leadership of the NFL has not taken seriously its problem when it comes to being especially equitable and inclusive. Colin Kapernick's voice and protest was stripped from him when they decided not to hire him and respect his right to protest.

There are number of Black and Brown men, leaders in the National Football league who are more than capable of being coaches. The NFL has put up a huge fence to prevent the league from being a leader in racial equity and diversity it could be. A global league now, imagine how much of a difference the NFL could make if this fence did not exist. Imagine all of the Black, brown, red, yellow young people who could imagine themselves being a part of the National Football League without any hurdles or fences to climb.

From a workforce perspective, diversity, equity, and inclusion is a serious effort in turning around cultural norms, expectations, who gets to lead, and whose ethnic background is welcomed into company spaces when once these things were not at all considered. Your average job website or forum possesses many jobs that are hoping to change the narrative of what company culture should look and feel like. These days, if your company is not striving to be diverse, equitable, or inclusive then you are the problem not the solution. The current path of the NFL has them as definitely a part of the problem, not the solution.

We will see what comes out of the lawsuit Ryan Flores filed against the NFL. The biggest opportunity the lawsuit has created is a true diverse, equitable, and inclusive National Football League that can be a leader in what this looks like in various ways. The NFL will only become a more healthier and productive place to work as studies have shown that a more diverse workplace is a more productive workplace. May the NFL be that way some day.