Stephen A. Smith Says Kliff Kingsbury Is Latest Example Of NFL Coach Getting A Job That A Black Man Wouldn’t

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Stephen A. Smith has taken issue with Kliff Kingsbury being hired as the offensive coordinator of the Washington Commanders and has tied the story to Kingsbury’s race.

According to Stephen A. Smith, Kingsbury being hired by the Commanders — who recently signed former Dallas Cowboys defense coordinator Dan Quinn as their — “is the kind of stuff that doesn’t happen for Black folks.”

“I challenge anybody in football to tell me I’m wrong about this: this man is more known for his relationships with quarterbacks and that fly a– crib he had during the NFL Draft than he is for winning football games. That is a fact. It cannot be disputed,” Smith said on the Monday, February 5 episode of ESPN’s long-running morning debate show First Take.

“When we talk about diversity, we certainly saw Black coaches getting hired and all that other stuff, that’s not where I’m going. I’m saying from a historical perspective, we look at a guy like Kliff Kingsbury and you know what we see as Black folks? ‘Ah, see, this is is the kinda stuff that don’t happen for Black folks’.

Smith’s analysis of Kingsbury’s reputation also isn’t entirely accurate, as he’s probably best known for being the head coach at Texas Tech University during the years that Patrick Mahomes was there, where he helped develop him into a first-round pick.

After serving as the head coach of Texas Tech from 2013 to 2018 and the Arizona Cardinals from 2019 to 2022, the 44-year-old former NFL quarterback spent 2023 as a “Senior Offensive Analyst” for the University of Southern California Trojans football team.

The Washington Commanders are looking to begin a new era following the sale of the franchise from Dan Snyder to Josh Harris.  It certainly hasn’t been the best start, however, as the Commanders were the last team in the NFL to hire a head coach during this latest cycle.