The NFL has one Black head coach, it simply must do better

After Brian Flores and David Culley were fired following the end of the 2021 regular season, Jack Rathborn examines a long-standing issue in the league that urgently requires attention

David Culley’s dismissal by the Houston Texans has caused outrage around the league (Getty)

When the news trickled through on Thursday that the Houston Texans had fired David Culley there was a familiar outrage that rears its ugly head around this time every year.

With Culley discarded, days after Brian Flores was shockingly dismissed by the Miami Dolphins, the NFL was down to one Black head coach: the legendary Mike Tomlin of the Pittsburgh Steelers. In a league where approximately 70 percent of its players are Black, that is a problem.

It is even more painful when the criteria for ruthlessly dispatching these aforementioned coaches is evidently not applied to all coaches - see Matt Rhule and his 10-23 record with the Carolina Panthers compared to Flores’ 19-14 in that same spell.