Associated Press Lauds Falcons Hiring Black Head Coach, But Uses Picture Of Wrong Black Coach

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On Thursday, the Atlanta Falcons hired former Los Angeles Rams defensive coordinator Raheem Morris as their new head coach. The Associated Press reported the story, and featured it prominently on its website.

Early in the story, the AP makes sure to let readers know that Morris is black, which is very important.

"Morris becomes the first non-interim Black coach in Falcons history and joins general manager Terry Fontenot, who also is Black, in leading a franchise that hasn’t had a winning season since 2017," the Associated Press wrote.

It's important to note that the AP made sure to inform readers about Morris' skin color before diving much into his ... you know ... actual credentials.

The Associated Press reported the story of the Atlanta Falcons hiring Raheem Morris, but made a critical error.

The Associated Press reported the story of the Atlanta Falcons hiring former Rams defensive coordinator Raheem Morris, but made a critical error. (Photo by Jayne Kamin-Oncea/Getty Images)

After giving his credentials, the story gets right back into his race. In fact, it even includes a quote from Richard Lapchick, founder of The Institute for Diversity and Ethics In Sport.

"This is a major milestone for the National Football League, which has been struggling to raise the percentage of head coaches of color, particularly Black head coaches,” he said.

Clearly, the Associated Press finds this part of the story to be very important. What it didn't consider too important, apparently, was actually getting a picture of Raheem Morris.

Instead, it used a picture of Carolina Panthers defensive coordinator Ejiro Evero.

In the photo, Evero is wearing his Carolina Panthers hat. Raheem Morris never worked for the Panthers. That probably should have been a clue for the AP that it had the wrong photo.

OutKick reached out to the Associated Press for comment.

"The wrong photo was used to illustrate a story about new Atlanta Falcons coach Raheem Morris. We replaced the photo with the correct photo as soon as we realized the mistake. We apologize," a spokesperson told OutKick.

The Associated Press eventually deleted the post.

However, we did not see a correction on its X account or on its site. The AP website specifically mentions that it is dedicated to correcting errors when it makes them:

"When we're wrong, we must say so as soon as possible. When we make a correction, we point it out both to subscriber editors (e.g. in Editor’s notes, metadata, advisories to TV newsrooms) and in ways that news consumers can see it (bottom-of-story corrections, correction notes on graphics, photo captions, etc.)," the site reads.

We look forward to that correction, Associated Press.

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Dan began his sports media career at ESPN, where he survived for nearly a decade. Once the Stockholm Syndrome cleared, he made his way to Outkick. He is secure enough in his masculinity to admit he is a cat-enthusiast with three cats, one of which is named “Brady” because his wife wishes she were married to Tom instead of him.