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Which NFL team has never had a black coach?

Author

Emily Ross

Published Jan 24, 2026

Conversation. Incredibly, or perhaps not so incredibly, nearly half of the NFL teams have never had a black non-interim head coach: Bills, Patriots, Ravens, Titans, Jaguars, Cowboys, Commanders, Giants, Saints, Falcons, Panthers, Rams, Seahawks. There have been 20 non-interim black head coaches in the NFL.

How many black coaches has the NFL had?

There have been 500 head coaches in the NFL's history — 24 of them have been Black. That's 4.8%. In 2022, with the Steelers' Mike Tomlin and recently-named Texans head coach Lovie Smith, that percentage is 6.3%. Thirty percent of assistant NFL coaches are Black.

What NFL teams have a black head coach?

Smith and McDaniel will join longtime head Coach Mike Tomlin of the Pittsburgh Steelers as the only three Black head coaches in the 32-franchise NFL. About 70 percent of the players in the NFL are Black. Coach Tomlin has been the Steelers' head coach since 2007.

How many NFL teams have never had a black GM?

According to a study by USA Today, six NFL Teams have never hired a Black candidate (or any person of color) as their head coach or general manager on a full-time basis: the Atlanta Falcons, Dallas Cowboys, Jacksonville Jaguars, Los Angeles Rams, New England Patriot, New Orleans Saints, and Tennessee Titans.

Has Dallas Cowboys ever had a black coach?

The Cowboys have never had a Black coach and have not had a Black coordinator since defensive coordinator Brian Stewart (2007-08, under Wade Phillips).

21 related questions found

Have the NY Giants ever had a black head coach?

Jerry Reese was the Giants GM from 2007-2017, and won two Super Bowls as the franchise's first African-American GM. The Giants have yet to hire a black head coach.

How many black NFL executives are there?

The NFL has three Black general managers, and three current openings.

What percentage of the NFL is black?

But wow—about 70% of NFL players are black.

Who is the only black NFL owner?

'” The NFL's ownership ranks are overwhelmingly white. Of the league's 32 teams, the only minorities to have a controlling ownership stake are the Jacksonville Jaguars' Shad Khan and the Buffalo Bills' Kim Pegula, who co-owns the team with her husband, Terry.

Are there any black owners in the NFL?

None of the NFL's majority owners are Black. Historically, the league has shown a lack of commitment to diversity in head coaching hires so deep that a rule, the Rooney rule, was put in place, forcing teams to interview at least one minority candidate for head coaching vacancies.

Were any Black coaches hired in the NFL?

At the turn of the century, the modern era had seen just four Black head coaches; at the dawning of 2022, in the league's 102nd season, 13 franchises had never hired a Black non-interim head coach and 11 others had only installed one.

Who is the only black NFL coach?

Mike Tomlin

Tomlin has been the head coach of the Steelers for 15 seasons since 2007. He is the only Black head coach in the NFL at the time this list was published.

Why is there only one black coach in the NFL?

After Brian Flores' lawsuit accusing the NFL of racial discrimination, Fox sportscaster Nick Wright said that having only one Black head coach in the league is an intentional move by team owners.

Who was the 1st Black NFL player?

Kenny Washington Became the First Black NFL Player, But Why Isn't He a Household Name? The National Football League has been around for over 100 years.

Has a Black coach ever won the Super Bowl?

Tony Dungy made Black history by becoming the first African American NFL head coach to win the Super Bowl. He blazed a trail for the Black coaches that came after him and was a shining example of the potential for Black leadership in the NFL.

How many Black coaches are in the NFL 2021?

Culler was the Head Coach of the Houston Texans, while Flores commanded the Miami Dolphins. In 32 head coach positions, there's just one African American and two minority head coaches.

What is the blackest NFL team?

Black Leadership Vacuum

The Raiders also had the NFL's highest percentage of Black players (82.3 percent) in 2016, according to ProFootballLogic.

What is the whitest NFL team?

The Whitest Team in the NFL Isn't What You Would Expect (Or Maybe It Is) The Philadelphia Eagles — and by a huge margin. The team's roster consists of 25 white dudes. According to "Unofficial 2014 Player Census" compiled by the Best Tickets blog, the Texans are the only other team that has even 20.

What NFL team is owned by a black man?

The NFL's only minority owners are Shahid Khan of the Jacksonville Jaguars and Kim Pegula of the Buffalo Bills.

How much of the NFL is white?

Meanwhile, white players make up 24.9% of the NFL while comprising 60.1% of the population. Latino players represent just 0.4% of all NFL players but are 18.5% of the country's total. Asian players represent only 0.1% of all NFL players while accounting for 5.9% of the population.

Are there any Asians in the NFL?

One of the most popular Asian-born players in NFL history is Hines Ward. Born in Seoul to a Korean mother and African-American serviceman, Ward played 14 seasons for the Pittsburgh Steelers from 1998 to 2011 and previously coached in the NFL.

How many black vs white NFL players?

In 2020, 69.4% of National Football League players were of color, a decrease of 3.2% from 2016. The percentage of Black or African-American NFL players reached 57.5%, Whites 24.9%, Hispanics or Latinos 0.4%, Asians 0.1%, Pacific Islanders 1.6%, and American Indian 0.2%.

How many black coordinators are in the NFL?

For the 2021 season, seven of 33 offensive coordinators are minorities, all of them Black (the Dolphins had co-coordinators). Just four of the quarterbacks coaches, most often the position that gets promoted to coordinator, are minorities – again, all Black.

What percentage of NFL GMs are black?

At the end of the 2016 season, there were seven black general managers, but the Buffalo Bills fired Doug Whaley on April 30. African-Americans make up 16 percent of the general managers in the NFL, a league in which 70 percent of the players are black.

What's the NFL Rooney Rule?

Established in 2003, the Rooney Rule now stipulates that all 32 clubs must interview at least two women and/or persons of color when seeking to fill prominent positions in order to comply with the policy.