Skip Bayless Says White NFL Owners Not ‘Comfortable’ Hiring Black Head Coaches Because They’d ‘Need To Interact, Go To Dinner With The Wives’

Fox Sports host Skip Bayless said Thursday that White NFL owners don’t hire Black head coaches because they’re not comfortable with the need to “interact” socially, such as “dinner with the wives.”

Bayless went after NFL head coach hiring decisions on the latest Undisputed, summarizing the issue under the question, “why can’t hot Black assistant [coaches] get head coaching jobs when they are hot hot? When they should be right on schedule to get a job?”

Eric Bieniemy has been the Kansas City Chiefs offensive coordinator since 2018 and won two Super Bowls with the organization. He also helped transform quarterback Patrick Mahomes into one of the top quarterbacks in the NFL. Unfortunately for Bieniemy, he has failed in 15 attempts to secure a head coaching job.

Bayless brought up a Time article and a USA Today column, each of which dissected Bieniemy’s unsuccessful attempts to secure one of the 32 head coaching jobs in the NFL.

He said for 15 years “on national TV” he’s been making essentially the same point Nancy Armour did in her oped, which is titled “NFL owners don’t want Black and Brown men as their head coaches.”

“I have been dumbfounded by it,” he said. “It has been inexplicable to me, but then in the end, it’s really pretty explicable.”

Bayless cut right to the chase.

“I’m going to boil it down to: These older White owners just aren’t that comfortable with a Black head coach because they need to interact, they need to go to dinner with the wives or the significants, or whatever, and they’re just not that comfortable.”

He pointed out that Bieniemy’s situation is different than White candidates around the league who have been hired.

After the big day on Sunday, the Indianapolis Colts named Shane Steichen, the Super Bowl runner-up Eagles offensive coordinator, their head coach. The Arizona Cardinals hired Eagles defensive coordinator Jonathan Gannon as theirs.

Steichen and Gannon are both White, and only the newly-named Colts head coach had as much time as a coordinator as Bieniemy.

“When they do have an interview, it’s gonna be a quicker click with a young White hot candidate,” Bayless said. “It’s just culture; it’s just the way life is, and I don’t know how to defeat it because each of these guys is an independent owner in the umbrella of the NFL. And it’s hard to legislate, ‘you must hire a Black coach.'”

Bayless and co-host Shannon Sharpe explained that in 2007, the Pittsburgh Steelers owner, Art Rooney, hired current head coach Mike Tomlin when he only had one year of experience as a defensive coordinator for the Minnesota Vikings.

Following that hire, the NFL adopted “The Rooney Rule,” which requires teams to interview at least one minority candidate for a head coaching job.

“Every once in a while, it happens, but it’s just getting worse and worse,” Bayless said. “We just had another hiring cycle, and we got one Black head coach out of it. Out of the five that have been hired. It’s not right.”

Bayless and Sharpe agreed the NFL is “at least 70% Black.”

“What is going on here? Two plus two equals oblivion. It’s like, what are you… What’s the problem?” Bayless said.

Demeco Ryans is the Black head coach that the Houston Texans hired through the 2022-2023 hiring cycle.

Watch above via Fox Sports 1.