Marshall Faulk comments on racial disparity in football | Pro Football Talk | NFL on NBC

Added: 2026-05-23

[00:00:00]Anyway, anyway, I'm digressing. Now, I don't even know that they make a paper anymore, but it was an electronic item from USA Today, Brent Schrotenboer, with some numbers and some quotes as it relates to the dramatic underrepresentation of minority coaches at the college level. And it's worse than it was in 2011.

[00:00:24]In 2026, I think it was 13 out of 135 or something like that, black coaches with that many programs. And we never talk about that. We always talk about the NFL level, but the college level is just as bad if not worse. But Marshall Faulk had some very strong statements. He's now the coach at Southern University. This is his first season. He was at Colorado last year with Deion Sanders. Football's the only sport that players struggle to come off the field and become a coach.

[00:00:53]They look at us like if you're successful at the game playing, then you won't be successful at the game in any other capacity.

[00:01:01]I I don't know I I don't know what the reason is for the underrepresentation of black coaches in a sport where 70% of the players are black. I don't I don't know. But it's not accidental.

[00:01:17]I I I mean, it's complicated. It's societal. There's all sorts of factors that go into it. But it isn't accidental and I don't think it's all just, oh well, former players can't coach cuz plenty of former players who are white end up coaching.

[00:01:32]Yeah, I I think it's just the way that that colleges have look they have the college level, but the same thing is true at the pro level. It's the way the people in charge look at their leaders. It's really a leadership issue.

[00:01:48]I think that's what it really comes down to. How do you view leadership? And what is What is the face literally? What is the face of leadership for you? And I think for a lot of people, the face of leadership is not black, unfortunately.

[00:02:02]It should be, but if you look across the board, there are many people that about meritocracy.

[00:02:07]There are many people who don't have a lot of experience, who haven't so uh quote-unquote paid their dues to get to the head job. Many have, many have not, but they are promoted, they are put in positions of authority, and the fact is uh black coaches are not given that grace, are not given the benefit of the doubt. It doesn't happen in college football, and we know it doesn't happen in pro football.

[00:02:37]Marshall Faulk is right. The number of players >> the decisions The people making the decisions are predominantly white, and there's a comfort factor, there's a familiarity that infects the process. As Faulk said, Matt Ryan can be a GM, why do other players have to kind of go through and jump through the hoops to be a GM? Well, Matt Ryan and the owner have a long-standing relationship, and the owner is desperate, and so let's go find someone who can turn this around, and it just so happened it was Matt Ryan, a guy that the owner had existing comfort with. So, these are issues that get ignored, especially in the current political climate. But James Outman, read all this stuff. Pay attention to this, and get off the NFL's back. The NFL is trying to make a bad situation better, and anyone out there that doesn't think it's a bad situation, I've gotten plenty of emails about it. It's amazing the stuff that people will say, not to your face, but but through you know, the magic of of a laptop. Hi, it's Mike Florio, thanks for watching PFT on YouTube. Hit subscribe for the latest news and analysis from Pro Football Talk.