NFL's Troy Vincent Says There's a 'Double Standard' for Black HCs Being Retained

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Scott Polacek will be featured in a column on January 11, 2022.

AP Photo/Seth Wenig

The league's executive vice president of football operations believes that there is a double standard after the Miami Dolphins fired Brian Flores.

According to Mark Maske of the Washington Post, Troy Vincent pointed to the firings of Tony Dungy, Jim Caldwell and Steve Wilks as examples of the lack of diversity among coaches.

There is a double standard. You discuss the appetite for what's acceptable. After a winning season, Willingham was fired from Notre Dame. The coach was let go after a winning season. We have seen this before. The coach was let go after a year. The things that happened today.

There is a double standard. I don't think we should be avoiding that. Some of the things that need to be fixed in the system include that. We want to hold everyone responsible for the fact that one can build a franchise and take bumps and bruises if others are not given the same latitude. At the collegiate level, we see it. We've seen that in history at the professional level.

In 2001 the Tampa Bay Buccaneers fired their head coach, Tony Dungy. He won a Super Bowl with the Indianapolis Colts after six seasons with the Buccaneers, and had a winning record in four of his six seasons.

The Detroit Lions made the playoffs in two of the four years that Caldwell was there, but he was fired after they went . Since 1999, they have only made the playoffs once.

After going 3-13 in his first season with the Arizona Cardinals, coach Steve Wilks was fired.

The only current Black head coaches are Mike Tomlin of the Pittsburgh Steelers and David Culley of the Houston Texans. When Flores took over, the Dolphins were considered one of the worst teams in the league, but they went on to win 10 games in 2020 and 8 in 2019.

They played their way back into playoff contention with seven straight wins after a 1-8 start to the season.

Flores' relationship with the general manager and quarterback had deteriorated, according to Jeff Darlington.

The league has made a strong push to attempt to improve its minority hiring practices with rule changes in recent years. If teams develop candidates of color who are eventually hired by other teams, they can receive draft picks.

During the last two weeks of the regular season, the NFL allowed teams to interview candidates.