[BadBoyBenny]

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I think the problem in the NFL is that there really aren't a whole lot of black assistants to hire as head coaches right now.

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Which speaks to the overall problem that racist practices aren't restricted to just the highest profile jobs.

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I guess I agree - when you look at the black guys who do make it to assistant positions, they seem to get hired (Romeo, Lovie, and Tomlin just recently). So it's getting their foot into the door and actually getting the chance to prove themselves as assistants.

Or perhaps only the best black talent gets hired to be assistants? Who knows what's going on.

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Maybe it's that a lot of assistants are lifers and that until 10-15 years ago there really was a color barrier. It takes time to even things out statistically. There aren't many minorities in Dick Lebeau's age bracket who are coordinators in the NFL but my guess is that if you look at under 40 assistants things are starting to resemble the distribution of people who go into coaching. Rex Ryan has plenty of competition from the Mike Tomlins of the world. The Rooney rule may be a part of that, or it may just be a natural righting of things as money has poured in and performance has become such a bug business. It's not like the demographic shift could happen over night. It takes at least a generation, even with help.