Chris Bosh Says He “Can’t Support” NFL Over Lack Of Black Coaches

February 03, 2022

Chris Bosh has spoken out about the lack of Black coaches in the NFL. In his newsletter titled The Last Chip, Bosh shared his opinion on the NFL’s hiring practices and announced he cannot continue to support the league.

“A lot has changed over the past year—but there’s one thing that sure as hell hasn’t,” he wrote in the opening line. “And as frustrated as I was about it twelve months ago, I’m downright mad now.” In 2021, he wrote a newsletter airing similar grievances with the headline: “This Super Bowl Has it All—Except a Black Head Coach,” referring to last year’s matchup between the Kansas City Chiefs and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

In this recent edition of The Last Chip, sent out Monday (Jan. 31), Bosh wrote, “I’m talking about football’s head coach problem. Specifically, its lack of Black ones. If we’re talking about equal opportunity or diversity or any other word you’d use, it doesn’t exist in the NFL unless you’re an athlete risking your life on the field.”

In the newsletter, Bosh emphatically stated he could not continue to watch football until the NFL resolves the ongoing issue. He noted the NFL has fewer Black coaches now than when its most recent regular season began, with there currently being only one in the entire league despite more than half of its players being Black. Bosh specifically referenced Brian Flores losing his coaching job with the Miami Dolphins on Jan. 10.

“Over the last few weeks, I’ve watched the discrimination behind that disparity play out in real time. I’m happy anytime anyone gets a job, but it sure seems like the white guys are having an easier time becoming head coaches and general managers nowadays, while Black coaches are held to an entirely different standard,” wrote the former NBA player.

He continued, “Now, we can argue all day about the merits of a specific team or coach, or about whether a record just over .500 is worth celebrating. That’s fine. But here’s a question: when you see a guy like Flores—who led his team to its first consecutive winning seasons in nearly two decades—get shown the door that swiftly, do you wonder if his performance isn’t the only factor? Do you wonder how the Dolphins’ owners could cut Flores because they didn’t “think we were really working well as an organization,” while praising their General Manager, who’s just as—if not more—responsible for the roster?”

The day after Bosh’s newsletter was published, Flores announced a lawsuit against the NFL for discriminatory hiring practices.

“I understand the risk. Look, I love coaching football. And I still want to coach,” Flores said to CNN. “But this is bigger than coaching, this is bigger than me. The numbers speak for themselves as far as the hiring, firing and lack of opportunities for minorities and Black coaches and executives in the National Football League. We need things to change.”

Flores names three teams in the lawsuit—the Dolphins, the Broncos, and the Giants—regarding his interview processes with Denver and New York, as well his firing last month by Miami.

“I’ve always loved football for a hundred different reasons—not least of which is the way it highlights perseverance. I love to see athletes give their minds, bodies, and souls on any field. But I can’t support a league where bias is as deeply ingrained as hard work—so deeply that no one seems to care,” Bosh wrote.  “When you’re a multibillion dollar professional sports organization, your bias plays out in plain sight for a nationwide audience, week after week. And there’s no incentive to change your ways unless money is on the line. So until someone makes enough noise for the NFL to consider meaningful change, I cannot keep spending my weekends supporting the league.”

Read the full newsletter here.

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