The National Football League has posted multiple job listings on career websites in recent weeks seeking to fill a brand new “Head of Diversity and Inclusion” position.
Although the NFL has not publicly announced the initiative, listings have slowly been popping up on sites like Indeed, LinkedIn, and ZipRecruiter for a new position as “the League’s primary diversity and inclusion strategist,” who will also chair the NFL Diversity Council.
Not only will the new hire “oversee the NFL’s overarching diversity strategy” to “drive measurable change,” but he or she will also have the goal of “developing diverse talent pipelines including on-field personnel” at the club level.
This comes just weeks after the NFL backtracked on its ban on players protesting during the national anthem. The league’s new policy requiring all visible players to stand for the Star Spangled Banner before games was widely criticized, with some going as far as to call the policy downright “racist.”
One highly circulated Washington Post op-ed claimed the policy “clearly signals white control of black players’ bodies and rights to kneel in peaceful protest against police brutality and other racial issues during the national anthem.”
The NFL has also received considerable backlash over the past year for its supposed discrimination against women, from lawsuits regarding expectations placed on cheerleaders to comments deemed “sexist” from Carolina Panthers quarterback Cam Newton. This is not to mention the widespread criticism over the league’s employment of players accused of domestic abuse, which some say reveals the organization simply doesn’t “care” about sexual abuse victims and women in general.
The creation of a position designed to serve as the figurehead for “existing and future engagement efforts focused on strengthening the NFL’s commitment to diversity and inclusion” is likely a response to such accusations and meant to appease those who continue to deride the NFL as “racist,” “sexist,” and even “homophobic.”
Celine Ryan (@celinedryan) is a journalism student living on the central coast of California. She writes about politics, culture, and campus news.
