In February for Black History Month, USA TODAY Sports is publishing the series ’29 Black Stories in 29 Days.’ We examine the issues, challenges and opportunities Black athletes and sports officials continue to face after the nation’s reckoning on race following the murder of George Floyd in 2020. This is the fourth installment of the series.
This past week Darren Smith of KLKC radio in Kansas City, at Roger Goodell’s Super Bowl press conference, asked a simple question.
‘As of this press conference, the NFL Media newsroom still employs zero Black managers, zero Black copy editors, zero full-time Black employees on the news desk, and your only full-time Black employee, Larry Campbell, passed away over the weekend,’ Smith said. ‘How does knowing this sit well with you, and after two years of being asked this question, why has there not been any change or any hirings in that area?’
The question had been asked previously, the past several years, by former NFL Media employee Jim Trotter. His contract wasn’t renewed after those queries and in return Trotter filed a discrimination lawsuit against the league.
‘Well, I disagree completely that there hasn’t been any change,’ Goodell replied. ‘I’m happy to get your data and share it with our people and make sure that we get an answer for you. I don’t have all the data. I will tell you that (for) the first time, 51 percent of our employees across the league, across the network, across all of our media platforms, not including players, are either people of color or women.’
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Trotter responded in part on X: ‘The data is what it is: the NFL newsroom has zero Black managers, zero Black copy editors, and zero full-time Black employees on the news desk. Those are facts. Nothing he says changes that. Another fact, (Goodell) refuses to acknowledge: outside of the reporters in the NFL newsroom, there are ZERO full-time Black employees. In a league whose player population is majority Black. Let that marinate for a minute. I didn’t ask (Smith) to pose that question, but I thank him for challenging (Goodell) and seeking to have Goodell’s actions reflect his words.’
Now, this is where the story takes another turn.
On Friday, the National Association of Black Journalists blasted the NFL for its lack of diverse hiring practices in its media division, and requested a meeting with that division’s executives and Roger Goodell, the league’s commissioner.
‘The National Association of Black Journalists (NABJ) is disappointed with the lack of progress in the NFL’s media hiring practices,’ the organization said in a statement. ‘Just a few months short of a year since our initial outreach and call for change, the NFL continues to lack Black journalists and communicators in its news division.
‘In addition to NABJ, others have sought answers from NFL executives, but no documented progress in the organization’s media diversity efforts has been made available.
‘As we noted in our initial statement in May 2023, there have been no explanations given for how the NFL has allowed the practice of exclusion to operate over the years.
‘As a result, the NABJ media monitoring team is requesting an immediate meeting with NFL media executives and commissioner Roger Goodell to discuss what swift actions they will take to remedy the lack of diversity in its media department.’
‘As the NFL gears up for one of the most watched events in the world, it should not feel comfortable knowing that its news arm does not reflect the diversity of its players, audience and event participants. We are challenging the NFL to make a serious effort to address these inequities now,’ said NABJ President Ken Lemon and Vice Presidents Walter Smith Randolph and Kathy Chaney in a joint statement. ‘A failure to move quickly to resolve this matter reflects an insensitivity to the importance of having NFL stories told by diverse voices.’
An NFL spokesman did not immediately return a request for comment.
One of the things sometimes lost about Black History Month is that it isn’t just about documenting the tremendous successes of Black Americans or what we’ve overcome. It’s also acknowledging how the fight continues and that fight is brutal and hard and requires constant vigilance.
That’s why what the NABJ is doing is vital and important.
Will it work? The NFL will likely ignore what the NABJ has to say. How do I know this? Because the NFL has already ignored what the NABJ has had to say.
The NFL rarely does what’s right unless it’s absolutely forced to. Again, Trotter and others have been bringing up these concerns for years, and little to nothing has changed. Trotter is right. The NFL simply doesn’t care. If it did we wouldn’t still be talking about this.