Did the Oakland Raiders violate the NFL’s affirmative action policy when they hired longtime coach and commentator Jon Gruden last week?
That’s what the league “will look into,” said NFL spokesman Brian McCarthy Thursday, as the league investigates whether Oakland violated what’s known as the “Rooney Rule,” which requires teams to interview at least one “minority” coaching candidate before filling the position.
On Wednesday, the Fritz Pollard Alliance, a nonprofit that promotes “diversity and equality of job opportunity in the coaching, front office and scouting staffs” in the NFL, asked the league to look into the matter.
Counsel Cyrus Mehri and N. Jeremi Duru expressed concern that raiders owner Mark Davis reached an agreement with Gruden before interviewing a minority candidate. – READ MORE
[give_form id=”79809″] [divider][/divider]The New Yorker is turning heads with a new cover that depicts Martin Luther King Jr. kneeling alongside NFL stars Colin Kaepernick and Michael Bennett.
“I asked myself, What would King be doing if he were around today?” artist Mark Ulriksen said of his latest work.
This week's cover, “In Creative Battle,” by Mark Ulriksen: https://t.co/oBdu9YjJgM pic.twitter.com/xFnbYsSzvK
— The New Yorker (@NewYorker) January 8, 2018
Ulriksen explained how conversations with his mother helped inspire the new cover:
“This is 49er country, and my mom and I have been going back and forth — she’s upset that players have brought politics into sports, but I say, How would you feel if you had to show up at work every day and salute a country that treats black people like second-class citizens? I’m glad that Colin Kaepernick and Michael Bennett are making it political. I’m sure that if King were around today, he’d be disappointed at the slow pace of progress: two steps forward, twenty steps back. Or ten yards back, as the metaphor may be.” – READ MORE
[divider][/divider]The NFL had a disastrous weekend when it came to ratings. Numbers have been down all season and it was more of the same for the wild-card games. The biggest surprise was that the best game (Panthers-Falcons) had the biggest decrease year over year. Yes, markets were a big factor, but that was a competitive and entertaining game. Here’s the breakdown:
Titans-Chiefs (14.7) was down 11 percent versus last year’s Raiders-Texans game.
Falcons-Rams (14.9) was down 10 percent versus last year’s Lions-Seahawks game.
Bills-Jaguars (17.2) was down 10 percent versus last year’s Dolphins-Steelers game.
Panthers-Saints (20.4) was down 21 percent versus last year’s Giants-Packers game. (READ MORE)
[divider][/divider]Much like 2016, NFL television viewership numbers went down again in 2017. Except this time, the viewership numbers dropped by a larger percentage than the previous year.
According to USA Today Sports, the average television audience size amongst the NFL’s broadcast partners — CBS, NBC, ESPN, NFL Network, and Fox — fell by 10 percent in 2017. That decline, follows an 8 percent drop from 2016.
As USA Today explains, “NFL broadcasts had an average minute audience of 14.9 million compared to 16.5 million in 2016. CBS, Fox, NBC and ESPN had a smaller audience than 2016.
“ESPN, which included its streaming audience, had the lowest drop among the four networks at a 7.7% decline. Fox had a 9.1% drop, NBC dipped 10.4% and CBS fell 11.2% compared to 2016.” – READ MORE
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