[damaniac]

The networking thing is a great point, and I think shows some of the weakness in the "cream will rise to the top" theory. The NFL hires many retreads (Norv Turner, come on down!) over and over, not necessarily because they're any better than anyone else but because they're in, people know them, feel comfortable with them, etc. So you have to do things like this to break the cycle and get more black people into the upper circles. Then they too can be tired wornout retreads, passed from team to team without merit, like many white coaches. And then we will have overcome our race problem in NFL coaching.