Look around U.S. Bank Stadium, and you see slogans. "End racism.'' "It takes all of us.'' They're painted on the back line of the end zones and stenciled into the padding of some players' helmets.
Look hard, Vikings, at the greatly undervalued market of Black leaders
Zygi and Mark Wilf know how to take advantage of undervalued assets. Some of the many Black men in the NFL waiting for an opportunity deserve a long look for their next general manager and head coach.
January 11, 2022 at 12:37PM
As owners of the Vikings, the Wilfs have walked the walk on social justice, contributing time and money and casting themselves as anti-racists.
Monday morning, the Vikings fired coach Mike Zimmer and General Manager Rick Spielman. Zygi Wilf, his brother Mark and their fellow team owners will hire their replacements.
It's time for the Wilfs to prove they care about more than slogans and symbols. They have an opportunity to take advantage of the NFL's inherent racism and hire an underappreciated coaching candidate.
When Oakland A's General Manager Billy Beane popularized modern sports analytics, he did so by taking advantage of undervalued metrics. For him, at that time, the answer was on-base percentage.
In the NFL, the most undervalued assets are Black head coaches.
As of early Monday morning, after the firing of Dolphins coach Brian Flores, the NFL could claim only two black NFL head coaches: Pittsburgh's Mike Tomlin and Houston's David Culley, and Culley was considered a stopgap who might be fired.
About 70% of NFL players are Black. At the moment, 6% of the NFL's head coaches are Black.
Tomlin was a fringe candidate when he interviewed with the Steelers following the 2006 season. He had worked as an NFL coordinator for one season, with the Vikings. He blew away the Steelers' brass during the interview process. He's still there, having won a Super Bowl, and turned in one of his best coaching performances this season in getting a limited, battered team to nine victories.
Tomlin's success has not improved the lot of Black NFL coaches. Look at the way they've been treated of late.
Flores was fired a day after beating Bill Belichick and the Patriots to finish 9-8. He won eight of his last nine games. He finished 10-6 in 2020. He was breaking in a young quarterback in Tua Tagovailoa and appeared to be building an annual contender.
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To the Dolphins, Flores was somehow a problem. To the rest of the league, he might be the best coach available.
When was the last time a white coach with a résumé like Flores got fired (without, like Jon Gruden, having bigoted e-mails revealed)?
The Vikings should consider Flores, who could be exceptional if paired with the right offensive coordinator and offensive talent.
The Vikings should also consider Jim Caldwell, who went 36-28 for a Lions franchise that was putrid before and after his tenure.
They should consider former Vikings coach Leslie Frazier, a man they already once hired and fired who is now the defensive coordinator for one of the NFL's best teams, the Buffalo Bills. Frazier — one of two Black head coaches for the Vikings, along with Dennis Green — went 21-32-1 here in parts of four seasons but his résumé boasts that he got Christian Ponder to the playoffs. No other NFL coach in history can make that claim.
There is another old friend the Vikings could consider: Former running backs coach Eric Bieniemy. He coached Adrian Peterson in Minnesota and has been Andy Reid's top offensive assistant as Kansas City has become a league power.
Other names for the Vikings to consider: Tampa Bay coordinators Byron Leftwich and Todd Bowles, Patriots linebackers coach Jerod Mayo and Giants defensive coordinator Patrick Graham, among many others.
This is an impressive list.
Now consider that one of the first names to emerge in Jacksonville's coaching search was failed Texans coach Bill O'Brien, who might be one of the least attractive candidates imaginable, and that the Jaguars actually hired walking embarrassment Urban Meyer to coach grown men, one of the most obvious miscalculations in league history.
The search for a new general manager and coach will test the Wilfs. They are accustomed to relying on Spielman. They should treat this as an opportunity to think independently and seek fresh expertise.
There is no guarantee the Wilfs' hires will pan out. Predicting the future is difficult under any circumstances, and envisioning how a new general manager and coach will guide a franchise is more faith-based than data-driven.
This much is clear: If they hire a Black general manager and head coach, they will be taking advantage of the NFL's systemic racism, and mining an underappreciated market.
Mike Conley was in Minneapolis, where he sounded the Gjallarhorn at the Vikings game, on Sunday during the robbery.
