NEW YORK — Threatened with a lawsuit over its lack of black head coaches, the NFL is considering meeting with two lawyers seeking increases in minority hiring, The New York Times reported Sunday.

        The newspaper said the NFL received a letter late Thursday from Johnnie Cochran Jr. and Cyrus Mehri, the two lawyers who released a report on the issue Monday.

        “The letter was addressed to the commissioner (Paul Tagliabue), but he was out of town,” an NFL official told The Times on condition of anonymity.

        “It is being reviewed. We will respond sometime next week, and it is possible that if the commissioner does not meet with them he will appoint someone in the league office to do so.”

        Using statistics from the past 15 years, the report said black coaches had been more successful than their white counterparts, but that they weren't hired commensurate with that success.

        “Black coaches are being held to a higher standard,” Cochran said. “Now is the time for the NFL to step up and make a change.”

        There currently are two black head coaches in the NFL: Tony Dungy of Indianapolis and Herman Edwards of the New York Jets.

        Since Art Shell became the first black head coach of the modern era with the Raiders in 1989, there have been five: Dungy, Edwards, Shell, Dennis Green and Ray Rhodes. Terry Robiskie was an interim coach with Washington for three games in 2000. There have never been more than three black head coaches in a season.

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