While the NFL has made a lot of strides over the years in making the playing field more fair for coaches of color, it seems the league has taken a step back in 2026. This frustration from many African American coaches was echoed by Patriots passing game coordinator/tight ends coach Thomas Brown, who won a Super Bowl in 2021 with the Los Angeles Rams as an assistant.
Because many head coaching jobs were open at the end of last season, Brown tried to interview for several of these jobs along with many other African American coaches. However, all of them were not chosen, and he expressed his frustration while talking with ESPN’s Mike Reiss.
“It’s a very complex conversation, something that has been a consistent dialogue almost every single year. To say it’s frustrating in some ways is probably an understatement,” he said. “I’ve constantly heard this mantra the last six years in the NFL that people hire the most qualified candidates, which I hope is true and accurate. But you’re also seeing almost every time that is never a Black coach. Which is frustrating. I’ve also heard the phrase ‘there’s not many candidates in the pipeline to choose from.’ I do take issue with that, because I’ve been around some high-level great communicators, great connectors of people, at every stop I’ve been.”
Brown has had over 15 years of coaching experience, starting his career in 2011 as the strength and conditioning coach at Georgia. He had bounced around several college programs before finding his way to the NFL, with the LA Rams being his first job in the league as a running backs coach and an assistant head coach. He had been the interim coach of the Chicago Bears, so he does have a lot of coaching experience.
NFL Only Has 3 African American Head Coaches Right Now
As for how many African American coaches there are in the NFL right now, there are only three heading into the 2026 season. They are Todd Bowles (Tampa Bay Buccaneers), DeMeco Ryans (Houston Texans) and Aaron Glenn (New York Jets).
Former NFL safety Darius Butler echoed Thomas Brown’s sentiment in a post on X in February:
The Arizona Cardinals, Atlanta Falcons, Buffalo Bills, Baltimore Ravens, Cleveland Browns, Las Vegas Raiders, Miami Dolphins, New York Giants, Pittsburgh Steelers and Tennessee Titans were the teams that had head coaching vacancies, but none of them hired an African American.
Robert Saleh, who is of Lebanese descent, is the only minority hire in the cycle, going to the Titans.
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