Best of 2022 | The NFL’s Race Problem
A former head coach alleges that the league’s hiring practices are discriminatory. What will it take for them to change?
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Episode Notes
As we wrap up summer this week, we’re revisiting some of our favorite stories from this year. This episode originally aired on Feb. 7, 2022.
Until last month, Brian Flores was the head coach of the Miami Dolphins, and one of only three Black head coaches among the NFL’s 32 teams. That number has since dropped to one.
On Tuesday, Flores announced he was suing the NFL, alleging that the league’s hiring practices are racist. His suit comes almost 20 years after the creation of the Rooney Rule, which requires teams to interview ethnic-minority candidates for senior positions, and eight years after Colin Kaepernick was black-balled from the sport for kneeling during the national anthem—begging the question of how much has really changed in that time.
Guest: LZ Granderson, columnist for the Los Angeles Times and host of ABC News’ Life Out Loud With LZ Granderson.
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Podcast production by Mary Wilson, Danielle Hewitt, Elena Schwartz, and Carmel Delshad.