KANSAS CITY, Mo. Writing this column has been considered and dismissed a half-dozen times in the last few weeks. Thought about because Chiefs assistant Eric Bieniemy has a better resume than many whove been hired as NFL head coaches over the years. Dismissed because, surely, the topic would have a short shelf-life.
Surely, the next man up on footballs most productive coaching tree would get a job after interviewing with nearly a quarter of the league in the last year.
Surely, the offensive coordinator of the NFLs most productive offense over the last two years would be hired away.
Surely, a man with a nine-year playing career, 12 years as an NFL assistant, and the consensus respect of his players would be a hell of a hire.
Instead, Bieniemy waits, left deflecting questions about why he keeps being passed over when asked at his weekly press conference as the Chiefs prepare for a divisional round playoff game against the Houston Texans at Arrowhead Stadium on Sunday.
Im gonna put this out there, Bieniemy said. Its time to play against the Houston Texans. You guys know me, all right? My focus is on the Houston Texans. One thing I want our guys to realize: we dont want to go backward to have to go forward.
Bieniemy is the unwitting protagonist in one of the NFLs hottest debates this week. Over the last year he has interviewed with seven teams and been passed over for (deep breath) a quarterbacks coach, a special teams coach, a college head coach, a fired college head coach, and two fired NFL head coaches. Objectively, all but the two recycled NFL coaches (Ron Rivera and Bruce Arians) had less experience than Bieniemy.
The Browns job remains open, and Bieniemy remains a candidate. But that franchise cast a wide net, and various reports have not tabbed Bieniemy as a favorite even though his combination of offensive prowess and success managing personalities would seem to make him a near-perfect candidate.
This is endlessly complicated. There will always be more people qualified to be head coaches than available jobs, and any of the above specific hires can be reasonably explained. But when examined more broadly those explanations become more difficult.
This is a topic in football circles, even among people who work for teams still in the playoffs. Background conversations with three people in the industry this week each turned to two explanations.
First, with quarterbacks more important than ever teams are putting more emphasis on those with a history of working closely with quarterbacks. Bieniemy coaches the Chiefs quarterbacks his is the voice in Mahomes helmet speaker, not Reids but his background is with running backs.
Second, Bieniemy is black. The league employs just three black head coaches, the same number as in 2003, when the so-called Rooney Rule was adopted requiring teams to interview at least one minority candidate.
Whenever race is brought up, productive conversation often ends. Outright racism is not required to curb minority hires. Institutional guardrails exist, including that the league was slow to accept black quarterbacks. Whatever the specific explanations, a league with about 70% black players includes fewer than 10% black head coaches.
Bieniemy was asked if he believes the Rooney Rule is working.
I had the opportunity to interview, OK? he said. That should say it all. It was a great conversation. Now its onto the game.
