Carthon Hire a Notable Step for Diversity

The Tennessee Titans no longer are one of the few NFL teams that never have had a minority as head coach or general manager.

George Walker IV / Tennessean.com / USA Today Network

NASHVILLE – Ran Carthon is by all accounts a highly skilled NFL executive who, through years of hard work and smart decision making, has readied himself to take on the role of Tennessee Titans general manager.

He also happens to be a minority.

The first sentence is by far the most important.

But the significance of the second shouldn’t be ignored either, especially as it pertains to the history – overall and recent -- of both this franchise and the NFL as a whole.

Heading into this offseason, the Titans were one of just six NFL teams – along with Dallas, Jacksonville, the Los Angeles Rams, New England and New Orleans – who’d never hired a person of color as head coach or general manager, according to a 2021 USA Today survey. 

In addition, the Titans are one of six named defendants in a lawsuit filed last year against the NFL by former Miami Dolphins coach Brian Flores, one that accused the league of racial discrimination in the hiring and retention of minority coaches.

The original lawsuit last February specifically named the New York Giants, Miami Dolphins, Denver Broncos and Houston Texans as potential defendants. But the Titans – as well as the Arizona Cardinals – became additional named defendants in April, when former Titans defensive coordinator Ray Horton and former Arizona head coach Steve Wilks (currently Carolina’s interim head coach) joined the amended class-action lawsuit.

Horton alleged that the Titans gave him a “sham interview” for the team’s head-coaching position in 2016, saying the team had already decided to hire Mike Mularkey – and that Horton’s interview only served to comply with the NFL’s Rooney Rule rule regarding minority interviewing requirements.

Mularkey had said as much in comments he made to the “Steelers Realm” podcast in 2020, stating that “I sat there knowing I was the head coach in 2016, as they went through this fake hiring process knowing, knowing a lot of the coaches that they were interviewing, knowing how much they prepared to go through those interviews, knowing that everything they could do and they had no chance to get that job.”

The Titans denied those allegations at the time in a statement.

"Our 2016 head coach search was a thoughtful and competitive process fully in keeping with NFL guidelines and our own organizational values. We conducted detailed, in-person interviews with four talented individuals, two of whom were diverse candidates. No decision was made, and no decision was communicated, prior to the completion of all interviews."

There’s been no outcome on the lawsuit yet, but you can bet the league and its teams are aware of the potential ramifications.

One week after firing Jon Robinson last month, Titans controlling owner Amy Adams Strunk attended the NFL meetings in Dallas, where part of the agenda was a front-office accelerator event – a program designed for ownership representatives from all 32 clubs to engage with 32 diverse general manager prospects.

The league’s intent with the front-office accelerator was to “provide rising people of color and women front-office prospects with the opportunity to strengthen relationships with club ownership and executives.”

It appears Strunk cast a wide net among those at the accelerator, as five of the Titans’ eight reported finalists for the GM job – Carthon, along with Cleveland Browns vice president of player personnel Glenn Cook; Chicago Bears assistant general manager Ian Cunningham; Buffalo Bills senior director of pro personnel Malik Boyd; and Arizona Cardinals vice president of player personnel Quentin Harris – were minorities who participated in the event.

Carthon and Cunningham, along with Titans vice president of player personnel Ryan Cowden, reportedly advanced to second interviews.

In eventually hiring Carthon, the Titans made him the NFL’s eighth Black current general manager, a total that is five more than the number of Black coaches in the league: Wilks, Pittsburgh’s Mike Tomlin and Tampa Bay’s Todd Bowles.

The fact that Carthon, 41, has greatly impressed his peers as a talent evaluator, roster constructor and relationship builder over 15 front-office years in the NFL is what should be recognized as he readies for his new role as Titans general manager.

But the fact that the Titans made a clear, concerted effort to conduct a broad general manager search – and that the search produced a history-making hire for the franchise – deserves documentation as well.