The Sad Golden Rule in the NFL: Only White Coaches are Allowed to Have Mulligans

I've said this for a good bit, and it's about time I call it out. Now, let me make one thing clear. Yes, I (and everyone else) heard the news that the Dallas Cowboys will keep Mike McCarthy for another year. However, he is not part of this problem. For better or worse, McCarthy does have a strong and accomplished record, and he has won a Super Bowl. Yes, most of that was thanks to Aaron Rodgers, but the record's there, mistakes or not.

I said that the Wild Card loss was a mulligan for McCarthy, and he wouldn't get another one thanks to the many mistakes he's made before. Regarding mulligans, I've said for a while that the excuses for bad coaching are very racially motivated and divided, because it definitely seems like it's only the White coaches who get "mulligans," if you will. Black coaches do not get these excuses. It's win something or else with Black coaches. Here's some recent proof:

This man is Todd Bowles, the current head coach of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. He actually had a head coaching job before; he was with the Jets for four seasons between 2015 and 2018. After Bruce Arians stepped down as Bucs coach, Bowles was promoted from defensive coordinator to the team's head coach in 2022. That year saw the Bucs win a terrible NFC South and get clobbered by the Dallas Cowboys, serving as one of Dak Prescott's two playoff wins, and the only one for the Cowboys under the aforementioned McCarthy. It was also the final game for Tom Brady, who retired for real after this, and 2023 saw Baker Mayfield as their new starter.

The division sputtered again, but the Bucs won it again. However, I would later hear that Bowles was under intense pressure to improve, with the team basically telling him to win a playoff game or he'll lose his job. My initial thought: "Wait...what?!" This is only Bowles' second year as HC in TB, yet the proverbial leash around him is getting tighter?! That is absolutely unfair. The Bucs made the playoffs both years under Bowles. They flat out suck, but they've made it. So why is Bowles being chastised and pressured instead of being congratulated for doing well with a struggling team? Oh, and the Bucs won that playoff game, big time.

When I learned about this, I simply said, "No team would do this to a White coach." Boy, is that true, and here is the biggest example:

This man is Steve Wilks. Prior to the 2018 season, the Arizona Cardinals hired Wilks as their HC after several years with Bruce Arians (there's that name again). The Cardinals were struggling for the last two seasons with Arians, hence the change. It was clear that the Cards were going to sink, and 2018 was disastrous: a 3-13 campaign. It was also clear that the Cards didn't really do much to improve things, they just gave Wilks this broken down team and told him to make something out of it. Wilks was fired after that one season. Never mind that one of his three wins was in Lambeau against the Packers (the very game that got McCarthy fired), that wasn't enough for them to give him one more year at least.

So who do they get to replace Wilks? None other than Kliff Kingsbury, who famously coached Patrick Mahomes in Texas Tech. Now, correct me if I'm wrong, but a good reason to keep a new hire is a big time improvement, right? You know how the Cards performed in 2019, which was Kingsbury's first season with them? 5-10-1. The tie came in Week 1 against a Detroit Lions team who finished 3-12-1. So the team who fired Steve Wilks because he "wasn't good" only improved by 2.5 games with Kingsbury. Yet that was enough for the Cards to keep Kingsbury, because a 2.5 game improvement = big time success to them.

Here's how the rest of Kingsbury's tenure went. 2020 saw the Cards off to a good start at 6-3, but they blew it late, finished 8-8, and missed the playoffs. In 2021, they started 7-0, the last team to lose a game, but they somehow finished second in the NFC West behind the Rams, stumbled into the playoffs, and got decimated by those same Rams. I'm serious, if a Black coach had those exact same results after three seasons, he'd be GONE! Don't believe me? The Dolphins fired Brian Flores that same year after three seasons, despite the fact that the Dolphins went from 1-7 to 9-8 in 2021. Yet what punishment did Kingsbury get for his incompetence? A contract extension. Five years, $5.5M/year. 2022 was the first year of his extension, and it saw the Cardinals only win four games. That's when the Cardinals decided to fire him: after they enabled his incompetence and gave him their money, they fired him after four seasons.

Of course, you can't blame Kingsbury for taking the money and running. After all, the Cardinals were stupid and racist enough to give it to him. What do you expect from a team in Arizona?

The reason why Josh McDaniels is my main photo is because he is a massive part of this racial double standard. I know he's out of a job now, but the fact is that he keeps getting them. He's had so many strikes against him as a HC, yet the Raiders were dumb enough to hire him after letting Rich Bisaccia go.

But yeah, this is a glaring problem in the NFL. Even the worst White coaches get so many excuses for their mistakes. Guys like Kingsbury, McDaniels, and Brandon Staley get way too much breathing room in spit of their massive mistakes, but Black coaches have to be good as soon as they get hired. There's no room for error when it comes to Black coaches. I still say it's partly why Mike Tomlin has never had a losing season in the 17 years that he's coached the Pittsburgh Steelers. It's mainly because he's that good of a coach; I put him at the top of the current head coaches in the league now--he's the only one I will list ahead of Andy Reid. 17 seasons, no losing records in any of them, two Super Bowl appearances, and a Super Bowl championship.

Tomlin clearly has to know that he faced (and still faces) a lot of pressure as HC. He knew how unfairly scrutinized Black coaches are, and he continues to deliver big time. Yet racist idiots still have the nerve to say that Tomlin's a lousy coach and should be fired. Unbelievable. Other than his talent and legendary record, it also helps that he's the Steelers coach. Pittsburgh keeps coaches. Tomlin is the third HC the team's had since 1969. So Pittsburgh would never place a proverbial leash on Tomlin, but I guarantee you, certain other teams would, and that's the sad part. Coaches need to be looked at and judged equally. You can't put immense standards on Black coaches and then make excuses for mistakes made by White ones. All 32 NFL teams need to treat coaches equally, I don't care if it's praise and acclaim, or criticism and scrutiny. Just be fair, that's all.