Until he invited Marvin Lewis in to chitchat a few years ago, Bengals President Mike Brown said he’d never interviewed a black man for any position of authority with the Bengals.
Why did Brown suffer a sudden change of mind? He had to.
A few months before Brown’s unprecedented act with the Bengals, the NFL mandated that its clubs interview at least one minority candidate for head coaching jobs that open, or be penalized. The pro football league was persuaded, frightened even, to do something after it had been presented with a report on its unfair hiring history by a couple of lawyers who’d successfully litigated against discriminatory employment practices at such august American business institutions as Coca-Cola.
The lawyers even threatened action. They were Cyrus Mehri and his famous partner, if not infamous partner, Johnnie Cochran, who died Tuesday at 67.
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Cochran was, no doubt, most famous for his defense of such black celebrities as hip-hop mogul P. Diddy, rappers Snoop Dogg and Tupac, and, of course, O.J. Simpson. But Cochran’s most indelible mark as a defense attorney was left on the country’s most popular sports league and on the lives of a legion of men who simply yearned for opportunity.
Since the NFL adopted the rule of which Cochran was an architect, more of its franchises have hired men of color to offices of authority than ever before. Since Marvin Lewis became the third black head coach in the league, the Bears made Lovie Smith their first black head coach. After this year’s Super Bowl, the Cleveland Browns hired Romeo Crennel as their coach.
Indeed, of 15 head coaching vacancies since the NFL implemented its rule, black men were picked to fill four. When there were 11 head coaching vacancies in 1997, black men were picked to fill none.
The progress is due to the efforts of more than one person. But ultimately it is the byproduct of the work of Cochran and Mehri to piece the data and arguments together and, using Cochran’s considerable gravitas, force the NFL’s hand.