Tony Dungy Pushes Back On Media Race Narrative Around NFL Coaching Hires

Another NFL coaching cycle is winding down, and there has been a lot made of the fact that none of the head coaching vacancies have been filled by black coaches.

OutKick's "Don't @ Me with Dan Dakich" is out in the Bay Area for Super Bowl LV, and he sat down with one of the best to ever do it, Tony Dungy, and they touched on this topic.

Dakich said that while he knows the media likes to go with the "white owners won't hire black coaches" angle, he'd prefer to go much deeper.

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"I would like somebody to investigate why were there no great candidates. If there were great candidates, why didn't they get hired?" he asked. "If there were no great candidates, why aren't there great candidates?"

"I'm one, I don't believe there are guys sitting there saying, 'I want to win, but I don't want a black coach to win for me,'" Dungy said. "No, these guys want to win. A lot of them don't know how to win, they don't know what they're looking for, and there are some guys who are under the radar who are not the well-known candidates who are very, very good coaches."

Dungy pointed to a fitting example in Seahawks head coach Mike McDonald as someone who had sort of flown under the radar before Seattle GM John Schneider decided to give him a shot.

NFL coaching great Tony Dungy pushed back on media narratives that race is the biggest factor when hiring head coaches. (Photo by Kara Durrette/Getty Images)

However, he did note that Brian Flores and current Broncos defensive coordinator Vance Joseph were passed over, despite having track records that could make them viable candidates.

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"I don't know why (they weren't hired)," Dungy said. "I'm not going to say it's just because they were black. I know for a fact, myself, I was an assistant coach for 15 years, and I got passed over a couple times, came in second on interviews, and a lot of it was not my skin color but my demeanor, my personality. People didn't think you could win [as] a head coach the way I coach. That's up to them. 

"I think there are more factors than just race," he continued. "Is race a factor? I don't know, it might be. But I don't think that's the biggest factor."