NEW YORK (AP) - The NFL hierarchy is re-emphasizing its commitment to hiring more Black executives and head coaches. It’s just not necessarily committed to the outside plan to provide extra draft choices to teams that interview minority candidates and take them from teams that don’t. Cyrus Mehri, the attorney heading the group that proposed the plan, disagrees.

“Draft choices are the currency of the NFL,” he said. “That’s the way to improve the situation. Our plan will get the job done. Their plan has not gotten the job done. You need a creative solution to solve this problem.”

The issue was discussed for almost two hours at the league’s owners meeting which was held over a two-day period. The meeting continues Thursday. The main dissenter was Gene Upshaw, executive director of the NFL Players Association and one of the leaders in attempting to broaden the racial makeup of team leadership.
“It’s ridiculous. It would be a sham,” Upshaw said. The union must agree to any plan that adds draft picks, and Upshaw said it wouldn’t.

“People would simply go out and interview African-Americans and hire a White coach and get an extra draft pick,” said Upshaw, who is Black and has been helping the league identify potential minority candidates for coaching jobs.
“Everyone in the NFL knows what’s going on. They have to keep widening the available pool of candidates.”

Mehri said that while he was pleased with the tone of the meeting, he believed in his plan. There are currently two Black head coaches in the NFL: Tony Dungy of Indianapolis and Herman Edwards of the New York Jets (news).
Three is the most in any single season since Art Shell of the Raiders became the first Black coach of the modern era.

That could change next season. Dennis Green, who coached the Minnesota Vikings (news) from 1992 until he was fired after last season, is probably at the top of the list of prospective new coaches. So is Marvin Lewis, the defensive coordinator of the Washington Redskins (news), who was almost hired last February by Tampa Bay.
The league has been trying since Paul Tagliabue became commissioner in 1989 to promote minority hiring. It says its plan is working slowly. In 1980, there were 14 Black assistants in the NFL, none of them coordinators. By 1997, there were 103 Black assistants.
Now, 154 of the 547 assistants (28 percent) are Black. Twelve of those are coordinators, compared with five coordinators in 1997. The league believes that reflect progress, although it wants more.
“I’ve been involved in this issue my entire life,” Tagliabue said. “Before I was commissioner, I represented equal rights groups as a lawyer. But it’s hard. In this case, you have 32 jobs with hundreds of people seeking them. The gist of it is that we have to identify candidates for those jobs, and I think we’re doing that.”
Jeff Pash, the NFL’s in-house counsel, said promoting minorities in a single organization — as Mehri’s law firm has helped promote — is different than doing it in the NFL. He also doesn’t think the issue can be decided in the courts, as were some of Mehri’s other cases.

“In those cases, you’re dealing with a single entity,” said Pash, who had what both sides said was a productive meeting with Mehri last week. “In the NFL, you’re dealing with 32 separate teams, each with their own personalities and practices.”
Upshaw predicted that the problem will be resolved internally, the way players like Donovan McNabb (news), Michael Vick, Daunte Culpepper (news) and others have integrated the quarterback position.
“We spent years trying to get teams to draft and play Black quarterbacks,” Upshaw said. “Now everyone wants them.”