By Mark Curnutte
The Cincinnati Enquirer

The Baltimore Ravens will play their first game today, at Paul Brown Stadium against the Bengals, since naming Ozzie Newsome the first black general manager in NFL history.

Newsome and his Ravens come to town just six days after his promotion and at a time when the NFL again is making a big issue of minority hiring on coaching staffs and in front offices.

The Bengals have four African-Americans on their 16-coach staff, which is roughly in line with the 27 percent league rate.

But the Bengals have never had a black head coach in their 35-year franchise history. Nor have they had a black offensive or defensive coordinator, the top two assistant coaching positions on a football staff. The Bengals never even have interviewed a candidate of color for one of their top three coaching jobs.

"We've talked about (black prospects for) those jobs (coordinators) and the head-coaching job, but it just didn't end up that way," Bengals president Mike Brown said. "I don't know that we interview very many people anyway."

In the Bengals' front office, where Brown and four members of his family hold the most powerful positions, there are even fewer African-Americans than on the coaching staff.

The Bengals staff directory lists 65 employees and team support positions. Two of the 65 are African-American.

"How do we stack up? Compared to what? Compared to the business norm? Probably, we look good," Brown said. "Compared to an ideal situation? Maybe we could do better. There is a conscious effort to do better in this league in that area."

On Oct. 31, NFL commissioner Paul Tagliabue announced the formation of a committee to address the NFL's minority-hiring practices. Pittsburgh Steelers owner Dan Rooney will chair the 10-person committee of team owners and executives, a panel that doesn't include any Bengals representatives.

Tagliabue's announcement came a little more than a week after prominent civil rights attorney Cyrus Mehri met with NFL officials in New York in an attempt to determine if the league is serious about hiring minority candidates as head coaches.

Of 32 NFL teams, there are just two minority head coaches - Indianapolis' Tony Dungy and the New York Jets' Herman Edwards - and 12 coordinators.

Mehri, working with attorney Johnnie Cochran, has backed off threats to sue the league in hopes of a positive resolution that it will hire more minorities as general managers, head coaches and coordinators.

Mehri is familiar with the Bengals.

"They are the poster child. Their decision-making process has excluded African-Americans from competing," he said. "The Bengals have never had an African-American in a position of real authority in their front office or on the team."

Mehri and Cochran are pushing a diverse candidate slate, which would penalize teams by taking away a draft pick if they failed to interview minority candidates for top organizational vacancies in the front office and on the coaching staff. Their plan also would reward an organization - such as the Ravens for promoting Newsome - that shows leadership in this area.

The pool of prospective black coaches and executives is well-stocked. Almost 70 percent of NFL players are African-American, which also is the case with the Bengals' roster.

Glass walls

The NFL, the United States' most popular sports league, is concerned about diversity throughout its member organizations.

But the Bengals buck the trend in their front office. The two African-American employees in the Bengals' front office are former running back Eric Ball and Jason Williams, who is one of four ticket-office employees.

Ball is the director of player relations, and he oversees players' off-field conduct and appearances.

"There are glass walls," Mehri said. "Eric Ball is in player relations, not player selection. He has no power."

Several NFL teams have African-Americans in their personnel/scouting departments. The Ravens, for example, have four blacks among the 12 members of their personnel department - including pro personnel director James Harris and director of player development Earnest Byner. They, along with Newsome, are all former NFL players.

The six members of the Bengals' player personnel department - headed by Pete Brown and Paul H. Brown, Mike Brown's brother and son - all are white.

The other two Brown family members in the administration are executive vice president Katie Blackburn, Mike Brown's daughter and heir apparent, and business development director Troy Blackburn, husband of Katie Blackburn.

"NFL teams all want to win, and the overriding thing in their mind when they go to hire somebody is, who is going to help them win. Regardless of anything else," Mike Brown said.

Bengals teams haven't won in a long time. They have a league-worst 54-133 composite record since Brown assumed control of the franchise in August 1991 from his late father, Paul Brown. The Bengals' 12-year playoff dry spell is twice as long as any other NFL team. They have had five consecutive seasons of double-digit losses and nine of the past 12.

Four titles, Green fired

The three coaches in the Bengals' 12-year futility streak all have been white. Dave Shula, like Dick LeBeau, had no previous NFL head-coaching experience. Bruce Coslet, now the offensive coordinator for the Dallas Cowboys, had been the Jets' head coach but had never had a winning record.

Dennis Green, an African-American who coached the Minnesota Vikings from 1992-2001, was fired after compiling a 97-62 record with four division titles.

"Dave Shula was unproven, and they've never even considered the likes of (former Los Angeles/Oakland Raiders coach) Art Shell or (Washington Redskins defensive coordinator) Marvin Lewis," Mehri said.

Black coaches are proven to win more than white coaches in the NFL, he said.

Dungy, in his first year with the Colts, led Tampa Bay to four playoff appearances in six years. Edwards, in his second year with the Jets and a former Dungy assistant with the Buccaneers, took New York to the playoffs in his rookie season as coach.

There have been three other African-American head coaches in the last 15 years - Shell, Green and Ray Rhodes (Green Bay Packers).

The five black coaches have averaged 1.1 more wins than the white coaches and led their teams to the playoffs 67 percent of the time, compared to 39 percent of the time for white coaches.

A look at current league statistics also speaks to the success of black coordinators. There are 11 black defensive coordinators in the NFL and five of those teams are ranked in the top 10 of league defenses. There is one black offensive coordinator, Maurice Carthon, of the Detroit Lions.

The league insists it has made progress.

In 1980, 14 black coaches were assistants, not one of them a coordinator.

In 1997, 103 black assistant coaches were working in the NFL. There are now 154 black assistant coaches, including the 12 coordinators - up from five coordinators in 1997.

Said Mehri: "We've been watching (Tagliabue) try to move the chains, but his playbook isn't getting it done.

"Cincinnati fans want the best hire, regardless of race, and the Bengals have ignored an entire talent pool."

E-mail mcurnutte@enquirer.com

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