Padecky: Why the NFL needs an Al Davis-type to force it to change

The NFL said it will look into it, Brian Flores’ claim the league conducts discriminatory practices based on the color of someone’s skin.

Yes, the NFL will respond to that accusation the same way I respond when my wife tells me she heard some critters under our house and could I pretty-please-with-cheesecake-on-top go take a look?

So I crawl under the house. I see a pair of green eyes looking at me. They are not blinking. I hold my breath, like that’s going to help. I scramble backward like a crab with mobility issues.

“We’re good,” I’ll say. “No problem. Musta been some rustling of leaves.”

I don’t want to deal with the green eyes anymore the NFL wants to self-examine its policy toward people of color. Truth to tell, in one way the NFL is no different than the rest of us. It’s difficult for anyone to look in the mirror and admit the wrinkles aren’t the only imperfection.

Big difference: The NFL’s imperfection affects millions. The other big difference: Popularity buys insulation. If it ain’t broke, why fix it? The NFL has its own day of the week. Men in Green Bay will paint their chest green and yellow and then pound their bare chest in below zero weather. What other sport in America inspires such detachment from sanity? Of course the NFL sees this as a compliment. How unhappy or displeased can our fans be if they slobber in public?

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This is why the NFL needs someone like Al Davis to give the league a swift kick in the conscience, providing they still have one. The Raiders owner died a little over 10 years ago and the league needs to be reminded that it’s not only team uniforms that have color.

And if you thought the NFL hated Al back then. . .Al throwing so many lawsuits at them like an audience throwing eggs at a tone-deaf nightclub singer. . .Al pushing the American Football League so hard to acceptance that the NFL-AFL merger was forced to happen, the ensuing competition causing salaries to rise, irritating owners.

Al’s reputation as a man who would fight for $1.01 because it was more valuable than one dollar is well-deserved. However, his legacy and lasting value to the NFL is not scrumming for cash. It’s Davis’ connection to Tom Flores, Art Shell, Amy Trask and Eldridge Dickey.

In 1968 Tennessee State’s Dickey was drafted by the Raiders in the first round, becoming the first Black quarterback in the NFL drafted in the first round.

In 1979 Flores replaced John Madden as Raiders’ head coach, the first person of Mexican heritage to hold such a position.

In 1989 Davis made Shell the Raiders’ head coach, the first Black head coach in NFL history.

In 1997 Trask was named the Raiders’ CEO, the first woman CEO in NFL history.

Al Davis was colorblind, as clear in that vision as Tom Brady scanning a defense. Truth to tell both visions are so rare, we may never see the like of them again. Ask Colin Kaepernick.

Kaepernick took a knee to protest racial discrimination in 2016 and the NFL responded with slogans in the end zone and on the back of helmets. Ironically “End Racism” has gone no further than those two words.

Only one NFL team has a Black head coach. Only three teams have a Black quarterback coach. Only four teams employ a Black offensive coordinator. Only six of 32 teams employ a Black general manager. Shell said that last sentence is the fact most critical.

“That is the position most critical,” Shell said in an interview. “The general manager is the one who goes in front of ownership (to present a candidate).”

Therein lies the complexity. The NFL is like many businesses - people hire who they know, people who are

familiar to them. That reality became obvious to me when a general manager of a baseball team once asked me, “How many times have you gone out and had a dinner with a Black person? How many times have you gone to Black person’s house for dinner? Or a Black person comes to yours?”

In the summer of 2021, eight head coaching jobs were open in the NBA. Subsequently seven of them were filled by Blacks. Twelve Blacks hold NBA head coaching jobs.

The majority of the NBA has a slightly higher percentage of Black players than the NFL (70-58) but the point is clear - the push to equality need not resemble Sisyphus rolling that boulder uphill, only for it to keep rolling back.

In the late 1990s and early 2000s the NFL had three Black head coaches - Tony Dungy, Ray Rhodes and Denny Green. To this point that era that might be considered the heyday for Black head coaches. That’s 9% of all jobs! Hardly feels like a cause for celebration.

The NFL doesn’t want to read this, not with their signature event less than a week away. This is the time for Super Bowl success stories, penchant analysis, how someone escaped poverty, how Matthew Stafford is such a good guy and deserves everything he gets.

This not the desired build up to The Big Game. But it is what it deserves. Flores was deceived by the New York Giants, being told he was in consideration for the head job while the team already had made its decision.

With all the sincerity of a headmaster passing out final grades the NFL will claim they are addressing the problem, even during Super Bowl week. Their eyes have been opened, their conscience made aware, their sensitivity finely tuned. So they’ll claim.

Yes, when elephants play blackjack.

For clarification and guidance we should look to Al Campanis, the ex-Dodger general manager who stuck his foot, his reputation and career in his mouth in 1987. On national television Campanis was asked why so few Black players ever became managers.

“I truly believe,” began Campanis, “they may not have some of the necessities to be, let’s say, a field manager or perhaps a general manager.”

Now 35 years later it’s time to slightly amend Campanis’ assessment of competency.

I truly believe that they may not have some of necessities to be, let’s say, owners of a pro football team.

To comment write to bobpadecky@gmail.com.