In his second year as the University of Maryland’s head football coach, Michael Locksley is hoping to promote the hire of more minority football coaches through his newly-created nonprofit National Coalition of Minority Football Coaches, reports The Hill.
“When I took the Maryland job last year and looked at the landscape of college
Michael Locksleyfootball, I thought to myself, ‘There’s something missing. I’m on the back nine of my career and the pathway to becoming a head coach is still as difficult as when I got into the business in 1992,’” Locksley told NFL.COM. “I wanted to create an organization that would be able to help prepare, promote and produce the next group of coaches coming up through the ranks at every level.”
Through his nonprofit, Locksley intends to identify, train and support coaches of color, ultimately creating a list of qualified candidates for potential NFL coaching positions.
“We want to use their experiences to help us formulate and produce the list of qualified candidates, so when people say there aren’t enough minorities to fill the positions that have come open over the years, we’re going to produce a list of qualified people that shows there are qualified people,” he said. “What’s needed is opportunities”
According to The Hill, the NFL has only three Black head coaches among its 32 teams and college’s 130 Football Bowl Subdivision teams have only 14 Black head coaches altogether.
