Debates have erupted across the sports world, particularly in the NFL, about why two-time Super Bowl champion Eric Bieniemy continuously gets passed over for head coaching jobs.
This past NFL season crystallized the angst and righteous indignation conveyed by Black NFL players, Black ex-players and Black sports analysts about a league that is 75 percent minority: Even though offensive coordinator Bieniemy’s Kansas City Chiefs won their second Super Bowl trophy in four years, he did not even get a single head coaching offer — again.
Meanwhile, the losing team in the Super Bowl LVII, the Philadelphia Eagles, saw two of their White coordinators get hired for head coaching jobs. This has been happening for the past five years since Bieniemy has been the coordinator for the Chiefs. Meanwhile, NFL owners continue to hire White head coaches who have been catastrophic disasters:
- Nathaniel Hackett was 4-11 with Denver;
- Kliff Kingsbury is 28-37-1 with Arizona;
- Adam Gase was 9-23 with the New York Jets;
- Joe Judge is 10-23 with the New York Giants.
No one has been more outspoken about the blatant racial disparity in head coaching jobs in the NFL than former player-turned-ESPN analyst Ryan Clark. He posted multiple thoughts and videos discussing the atrocious record of NFL owners’ who’ve exemplified chronic reluctance to hire Bieniemy — or any other Black candidate — to fill their head coaching vacancies:
Sounds good. Be a losing coordinator in the Super Bowl & be a head coach in 2 days. Congrats Gannon & Steichen
Go to 5 AFC Chips, 3 Super Bowls, win 2 rings & hope for a lateral move to prove yourself all over again.. Get sh*t on again Bienemy.
Not sure what dude did, but…
— Ryan Clark (@Realrclark25) February 14, 2023
The @Eagles lost both coordinators after losing the Super Bowl, yet Raheem Morris & Eric Bienemy didn’t land Head coaching jobs after a win. If showing up in the biggest moment is part of the criteria Morris & Bienemy did that. So my question is…
What now? “Make it make sense”. pic.twitter.com/cVDeVUpPS8
— Ryan Clark (@Realrclark25) February 14, 2023
The @Eagles lost both coordinators after losing the Super Bowl, yet Raheem Morris & Eric Bienemy didn’t land Head coaching jobs after a win. If showing up in the biggest moment is part of the criteria Morris & Bienemy did that. So my question is…
What now? “Make it make sense”. pic.twitter.com/cVDeVUpPS8
— Ryan Clark (@Realrclark25) February 14, 2023
ESPN asked KC Chiefs head coach Andy Reid about Bieniemy’s inability to get a chance to coach a team right after their Chiefs won the Super Bowl.
“I’m hoping he has an opportunity to go somewhere and do his thing where he can run the show and be Eric Bieniemy,” said Reid, who has been Bieniemy’s boss for 10 years.
Patrick Mahomes, who won both the NFL and Super Bowl MVPs with the KC Chiefs, said Bieniemy has earned a chance to be one of the 32 head coaches. “He’s done everything the right way,” Mahomes told Fox4KC. “He’s been a part of this offense and this team for so long, holds everybody accountable, is creative in making up plays for us, and I don’t know why he hasn’t been hired.”
ESPN’s Stephen A. Smith, who hosts “First Take,” suggested that Bieniemy may have to leave KC and get another offensive coordinator job to get the respect he deserves. Or, Smith also suggested, that Bieniemy stay in KC until Reid retires and become the heir apparent.
Below, Bieniemy tells the Las Vegas Review-Journal how he maintains a positive spirit despite being consistently and flagrantly passed over for head coaching jobs.
