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We mentioned on Thursday night the fact that the Broncos are expected to name the son of front-office chief Jim Goodman to the plum position of Southeast Region scout, in a move that is just the latest example of NFL nepotism.
In response to that story, we’ve been advised by a league source that the entire college scouting function in Buffalo has not a single minority employee.
We’re not accusing the Bills or anyone else of having a diversity issue in their front offices. But since college scouting is essentially the entry level for scouting jobs and given that more and more teams are giving minority candidates opportunities in scouting, it’s odd to us that any team would have seven college scouts, and not a single minority among them.
In fairness to the Bills, they do have a female who serves as the assistant director of college scouting. But she’s also the daughter of the owner.
And that’s really our point here. Despite the strides that have been made over the past several years in diversity, in some cases nepotism is still an even more powerful force.
May 16th, 2008 at 11:40 am
Have you ever seen a black person in Buffalo? Seriously.
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May 16th, 2008 at 11:40 am
i am not convinced that diversity or nepotism work at all.
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May 16th, 2008 at 11:43 am
No, it’s not. It’s actually oblong sideways racism.
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May 16th, 2008 at 11:43 am
26% of Americans are not Caucasian.
One out of seven is 14%, two of course being 28%.
Why would it be surprising that out of seven Bills scouts, none are minorities? It’s within two people of the American demographic.
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May 16th, 2008 at 11:49 am
I just got done a sports economics course, and one of the chapter dealt with the issue of discrimination. It made a few good points. The owners who discriminate are just hurting themselves.
If an owner discriminates against black coaches, he will be willing to pay less to a black candidate than he would an equally qualified white candidate. Which creates the opportunity for non discriminating owners to get black coaches at the same price as less qualified white coaches. Basically, the discriminating owners are giving up talent in order to gain utility according to their preferences.
If the owners are discriminating they are hurting themselves. If they aren’t discriminating then they are hiring the best coaches they see. The problem solves itself in todays league. This isn’t thirty years ago when no owners would have hired them. We’ve progressed to the point where discrimination hurts the discriminator and not the target.
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May 16th, 2008 at 11:50 am
Who cares! If Ralph Wilson wants his scouting dept to be run by playboy playmates…fine…its his team. He should be able to hire whoever he wants.
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May 16th, 2008 at 11:52 am
Hmm..MF needs to do his homework.
The Bills lost their national scout, Marc Ross to a promotion with the Giants last year. Additionally, their VP-Pro Personnel (John Guy) is an African American. Additionally, their DC and five other coaches are African American.
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May 16th, 2008 at 11:55 am
One other thing-Terry Wooden left last year as well for the NO.
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May 16th, 2008 at 11:55 am
Take from me i am college coach and have worked with a few NFL teams in scouting as a intern and this for the better part is all the NFL is in terms of the scouting positions it is all about who your father or grandfather was and not what you know in terms of being able to do the job there are so many coaches and scouts in football that are only there because of whom they are related to dont get me wrong there are a some that are very deserving of being in the positions they are in but the majority would not be in the league Jeremy Green was a great example a few years back his dad of course is Dennis Green now he hides behind blogs on ESPN like he is a expert. I feel something through possibly congress should be done about the hiring practices as well maybe since it is obviously only getting worse to try to get a position in the NFL with the Broncos situation proving it. I have been tryin to get into the league fulltime for over 10 yrs and i have come to the conclusion that if you arent from the right blood lines you can forget working in the NFL. Maybe Roger should look into this hiring practice of his leagues teams and I have actual emails from certain teams that threaten me to not send my resume in to them ever that I will never work for there team and i understand that may be there feelings and be the case but if a major corporation like Wal-Mart said that to a potential candidate they would be sued to no end so why i ask is the NFL any different when they break hiring practice laws all the time..
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May 16th, 2008 at 11:58 am
My thoughts exactly. I don’t know…but personally…it would offend me to think that the only reason I got a job was because of my skin color. Now…if the best person happens to be black, white, red, blue, green…..by all means, hire the guy/gal. But until we quit making race an issue…it’s going to continue being an issue.
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May 16th, 2008 at 12:04 pm
I think a much bigger problem is lawyers who want to tell a business who they can or can’t hire *cough cough*
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May 16th, 2008 at 12:06 pm
Don’t anyone buy the “white guilt” that’s for sale. It’s an attempt to weaken our cultural strength. Those in power always seek to divide people.
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May 16th, 2008 at 12:10 pm
icase81, Florio just said it was strange that there were seven white people for Buffalo scouting. He neither accused Buffalo of any wrongdoing, nor suggested that the team had to hire a minority (which includes more than African Americans).
And how do you know that those seven are better qualified for anything? I certainly would not be proud of Buffalo’s personnel and team results over the last decade, though the team is improving now.
I think it’s clear that based on the amount of African Americans that have been playing football — and the amount of African Americans and other minorities in management/coaching positions — that there is undoubtedly a race issue, though it’s handled much better in the NFL than college football.
Honestly, for the nepotism issue, it doesn’t bother me too much because what father wouldn’t want to hook his son or daughter up with a gig if possible? It happens in more places than the NFL. It’s wrong, but oh well. The diversity issue is what ought to get looked at, and while people like icase81 would love to scream reverse discrimination, let’s worry about pure discrimination first.
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May 16th, 2008 at 12:12 pm
yeah… this is really not a good story. who cares? I think those that make a big deal about discrimination (when a lot of times that’s not necessarily the case) propell the whole “racism” attitudes in society.
For all you know the Bills may never have had a black applicant for the scouting position (and i HATE the Bills - but here we are being logical….)
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May 16th, 2008 at 12:18 pm
I know of no other business where nepotism is so widely accepted. Pure BS.
Kyle Shanahan is the best case of the good ol’ boy network. Nepotism by any other name…
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May 16th, 2008 at 12:22 pm
You know it’s the off season when…
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May 16th, 2008 at 12:23 pm
For someone who is a lawyer you would think you would have a better understanding of the law. Affirmative action is a government program (which has run its course) not a business program and is not required by law. Get a life.
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May 16th, 2008 at 12:34 pm
I never quite understood the entire issue with the forcing of teams to hire/interview minority candidates. Why should a person of a specific race be given a job based solely on his/her skin color? The awarding of a job should be based solely on the candidates qualifications. If the person is black, white, hispanic, asian, purple, green whatever… they should be given the job if they are the most qualified applicant. It seems that more and more (in the NFL especially) people are trying so hard to be politically correct that they forgo the fact that the most qualified candidate is the one that should he handed the position.
Accusing teams of discrimination by forcing them to pursue reverse discrimination is irresponsible at best. When will enough be enough? If the entire league were to hire all minority coaches/scouts/GM’s would it then loosen everyone’s tail feathers or would it merely open up another door for people to inject their opinion based solely on race.
And furthermore, where is the Hispanic and Asian faction being represented? Does the NFL have any Hispanic or Asian head coaches? Maybe we should look into that then because diversity is of the utmost importance. Not qualifications (not that anyone of those races can’t be qualified… I’m sure you understand my point).
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May 16th, 2008 at 12:43 pm
Who are we to tell any company whom they should hire… The fact of the matter is that by hiring someone based on specific diversity guidelines… It looks good on paper but what if that person is not scouting accordingly and hitting at a proportionate rate of success? Now if their recommendations don’t pan out someone else is hung out to dry? You wouldn’t fire that affirmative action candidate because that’s another can of worms… Diversity, in theory is commendable, in practice, the jury is still out on that??? I believe that although not listed as reverse discrimination, it exists and to me that is a sinister policy… Maybe the honorable U.S.Senator Allwet Spector, R-PA should look into this practice as well…?
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May 16th, 2008 at 12:49 pm
Apparently icase81 failed to read 90% of your post. America’s white population owns nearly all upper-management positions in this country because of this very reason. If business oppurtunities are passed down through nepotism then any chance of African Americans overcoming this unfortunate fact is destroyed. The reason sports managment is the same is because whites were allowed these jobs when the sport started, not because they were more qualified. It pains me to see that people are still inconsiderate (unknowingly racist) in our society today.
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May 16th, 2008 at 12:51 pm
Why must every group be composed of “one of each”? Political correctness is ruining this country. I don’t believe for one minute that if the Bills knew of a super scout in Bangladesh, they wouldn’t have him on the first donkey to Buffalo.
How can we accuse owners of greed and cheating to win, and then “imply” they are racists and hire lesser qualified staff because they are white? Race baiting liberals can’t have it both ways.It’s enough that we must suffer through liberal half truths in the run up to election.
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May 16th, 2008 at 1:00 pm
“it’s odd to us that any team would have seven college scouts, and not a single minority among them”
It’s not odd at all, and in fact, it might be odd (and a possible indicator of reverse discrimination) if Buffalo was the *only* team with no minority scouts. Simple probability: the U.S. is 75% Caucasian (2000 census), so picking one scout at random means a 75% chance they’re white. Two white scouts =0.75 * 0.75, or a 56% chance. For seven scouts, it boils down to a 13% chance (1 in 7) that they would all be white if chosen at random. So, we should expect about 4 teams in the league on average would have all white scouting staffs, all factors being equal and there being no discrimination.
Of course, I’m sure the NFL scouting candidate population doesn’t mirror the U.S. population, and all other factors are not equal. But even if it was 50/50 black/white, it still wouldn’t be that shocking to have an all-white staff and no discrimination on that team (around a 1% chance).
Who said math can’t be crazy good fun?
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May 16th, 2008 at 1:09 pm
we’re talking about diversity among scouts for the Bills?
who cares?
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May 16th, 2008 at 1:12 pm
The reason the Bills don’t have a african-american or any other race in our scouting dept is because there’s no openings in it…DUH! If and when there is an opening then I’m sure all races and genders will be considered if they are qualified. Enough with the political correctness BS.
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May 16th, 2008 at 1:20 pm
it’s not “reverse discrimination”… just discrimination. Having seven white people and 0 black isn’t a jarring stat. Now, say it was 20-0, or 15-1 white -black….Maybe an eyebrow would raise up. But not seven.
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