The NFL Shares Updates On Progress With DEI And Social Justice Initiatives

NFL league executives held a media session to provide an update on its commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion and social justice efforts.

NFL league executives held a media session to provide an update on its commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) and social justice efforts.

BET reports the session focused on the NFL’s collective goals, commitments, and progress on its DEI initiatives. The session also highlighted the key factors of the NFL’s Impact report, including that the league has committed more than $300 million to social justice efforts, including education, economic advancement, police-community relations, and criminal justice reform.

The NFL also highlighted its NFL Coach and Front Office Accelerator Program, the Assistant Coaching Program, and Women’s Career in Football Initiative, which the league says has increased the involvement of people of color and women in leadership positions throughout the league.

In a statement, Jonathan Beane, the NFL’s senior vice president and chief diversity & inclusion officer, said, “51% of the league at the clubs are women and people of color, and this is the first time that this has happened. We are the majority-minority at the clubs; that’s an all-time high. Also, for people of color, executive roles have jumped considerably from 13% in 2020 to 22% this year.” “For women in football operations, we’ve seen tremendous growth of percent and in 2020 percent in that same span. This is a total growth of 141 percent over the last four seasons.”

There are currently four Black head coaches (Mike Tomlin, Todd Bowles, DeMarco Ryans, and interim head coach Antonio Pierce) in the NFL. However, the number of Black and minority offensive and defensive coordinators is increasing, as well as the number of Black general managers, pointing to the Las Vegas Raiders, which currently sports an all-Black leadership group with Pierce as the head coach, team president Sandra Douglass Morgan, and general manager Champ Kelly.

“The number of [Black, Brown, and women] coaches continues to go up. In 2020, it was 35%, and in 2023, we’re at 43% with 14 of our defensive coordinators being people of color,” Beane added. “We have an all-time high in regards to general managers with nine. We have six people of color who are club presidents. We’re very proud of the tremendous growth over the last two and a half to three years.”

Additionally, the NFL has developed and cultivated partnerships with minority and LGBTQ organizations, including the National Minority Supplier Development Council, the National LGBTQ Chamber of Commerce, the Contract with Black America, the Women’s Business Enterprise National Council, and the US Black Chamber of Commerce. The NFL also secured more than $70 million in loans from minority banks to support diverse business owners and has teamed up with Pepsi to support Black-owned restaurants in NFL cities.

“We’re focused on working with the clubs to improve diversity up and down the ranks of the NFL in their organizations,” Beane said. “It’s really the humans-to-human connection and building relationships that hopefully are long-standing.”