By Koffi Kenneth Kouadio, Contributing Writer
Racism is an issue that minorities around the world have to deal with every day. It’s presented in their everyday lives, and sometimes as well as their jobs.
Despite having very lucrative salaries, the world of sports is filled with systematic inequality. Of this inequality, Brian Flores, recently fired Miami Dolphins’ coach, believes to be the victim.
From 2019 to 2021, Brian Flores was hired as the head coach of the Miami Dolphins, entering his seventeenth year in the NFL (National Football League). Before joining the Dolphins, Flores had already won four Super Bowls with the New England Patriots, the biggest football title to be earned by a team in the NFL.
However, those titles were won while Flores played a lesser role in the team. Being a head coach was his first challenge as the main leader of a team. After three seasons, he was fired, even though its contract was still ongoing and it confused everyone as the Dolphins had experienced more success than most people assumed they would have based on their talent level.
Flores filed a lawsuit that includes the NFL and three particular teams: The Dolphins, Giants, and Broncos. In the part against the Giants, he accused them of not having any intention of hiring him, even though they interviewed him.
The NFL’s Rooney Rule is a rule that requires NFL teams to interview minorities candidate for their open positions. He qualified this hiring process as a “sham” (ESPN) and felt as if it was a formality for them.
In ESPN NFL Live, a football talk show, former NFL player Marcus Spears addressed the issue.
“The fact that you have to have a rule to interview minority coaches is a problem,” he said. “It is to create this whole utopia that everybody is equal in the NFL, that everybody is getting equal opportunity.”
Spears emphasizes that the lack of representation in the NFL is the cause of this issue. According to his point of view, the systematic racism in the NFL has always been the cause of minority players and NFL workers getting disrespected.
In the past years, the NFL has seen multiple racial issues knocking on its door. One of those was the Kaepernick issue.
Collin Kaepernick was a quarterback for the San Francisco 49ers before getting banned by the NFL. Kaepernick was banned for protesting against police brutality done to black people by taking a knee during the national anthem.
Even though those two issues seem to not be related, they in fact are. The lack of equality and chances for minorities is blatant in the NFL.
According to NBC News, the paradox is that 71% of all NFL players are issued from minorities and 51% of all NFL players are African Americans.
Chances of making a difference in the NFL are not handed fairly, and the majority of those who are handed those chances are white.
If real change has to happen, it should come from the higher-ups to really make a difference. The simple existence of a rule “forcing” teams to interview minorities candidate shows that equality has not yet been reached.
Racism in sports is as blatant as it is in other parts of today’s world. Change is still necessary and it needs to not be in favor of minorities, but in favor of an equal slate for all. Representation matters, and it is the only way that change can be effective for everyone.
