USA TodAY Sports
Fritz Pollard Alliance executive director Rod Graves did not complain about the search that resulted in the hiring of coach Urban Meyer and GM Trent Baalke. Graves definitely has a complaint about Meyer’s decision to hire Chris Doyle as the team’s director of sports performance.
“At a time when the NFL has failed to resolve its problem with racial hiring practices, it is simply unacceptable to welcome Chris Doyle into the ranks of NFL coaches,” Graves said in a statement released on Friday afternoon. “Doyle’s departure from the University of Iowa reflected a riddled mandate for black players to be misjudged and ill-treated. Your conduct must be as disqualifying for the NFL as it was for the University of Iowa. Urban Meyer’s statement, ‘I have known Chris for almost 20 years’, reflects the good old boy network that is precisely why there is such a disparity in job opportunities for black coaches. “
Meyer, who has had players and assistant coaches involved in off-field problems on several college football programs, recently defended the decision to hire Doyle, who left Iowa with a termination agreement. Meyer is about to learn that there is much more scrutiny at the professional level.